Peace Now's Oppenheimer criticizes Labor Party for adopting position that isn't stronger on the two-state solution (Haaretz, 2/8/20160)

 Peace Now criticizes anti-NGO bill that passes first reading in the Knesset (AFP, 2/9/2016)

As always, I started today with coffee and the news including APN'S News Nosh. This morning, the News Nosh shared a surreal Knesset debate about a bill that would make it possible to dismiss Arab MKs with a simple vote. MK Nissan Slomiansky of Habayit Hayehudi actually said "I wanted to hold a principled discussion" about it.

A principled discussion about such a bill!

Much of what I read in News Nosh is infuriating, but it would be far worse to be uninformed. I - and you - need to know what is going on and we need to know about the good news and the good work being done by so many on both sides of the conflict. News Nosh enables us to do that.

APN offers a unique and necessary daily news aggregator from the Hebrew press, for free! You can surf the web for Israeli news sites, struggle with Hebrew and pop-up ads, or you can let APN do the work for you. All you need to do is sign up.

Thank you,
Geoffrey Lewis
Board member, Americans for Peace Now

Update: this action, now closed, ran in February 2016. 

There are bills pending in both the House and Senate that seek to reverse almost 5 decades of U.S. policy with respect to Israeli settlements.

Contact your House member tell her/him: pro-settlements is NOT pro-Israel!

All three of these bills – H. Res. 567, S. Res. 346, and S. 2474 – purport to be about countering BDS against Israel. In reality, all three are really about erasing the distinction between Israel and the occupied territories and legislate U.S. protection and support for Israeli settlements.

Your Senators need to hear from you today! Tell them: Conflating Israel with settlements is reckless and dangerous, for both the U.S. and Israel.

These bills did not emerge from a vacuum. They are part of a broader effort – supported by AIPAC and other groups – to exploit legitimate concerns about growing grassroots support for the BDS movement in order to change U.S. policy on settlements.

For more info on H. Res. 567 and S. Res. 346, see here and here.
For more info on S. 2474, see here.

Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions. 

This week, Alpher discusses Labor party leader Isaac “Bougie” Herzog's partial measure for the Palestinian issue and whether it is any more feasible than the two-state solution; is it better than nothing; if a possible Hamas initiative to start another Gaza war is a possibility; and where he envisages regional conflict escalation and how relevant this is for Israel and the US.