There's a lot of noise right now about the Iran nuclear deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and some Jewish community organizations have declared war on the deal. They and their allies – including members of the right-wing Evangelical movement and point-scoring political partisans – are bombarding members of Congress, the public and the media with a barrage of anti-deal talking points and sound bites.
 
I fear that lost in this din are key facts that members of Congress – who will soon have the responsibility to vote whether to approve the deal – as well as the public at large, need to know.

Last week’s arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma burned to death a Palestinian baby and severely injured his parents and his brother. It also re-introduced to the term “Price Tag,” the violent attacks by settlers – mainly against Palestinians, and sometimes against Israelis – that range in severity between vandalism and murder.

The attack again demonstrated the misperceptions among Israelis and Americans about the nature of the violence perpetrated by extremist settlers. Contrary to what many would like to believe, these acts of violence – including murderous attacks such as last week’s – are typically not carried out by lone psychopaths or even by a handful of lunatics.

Listen to the August 6th Briefing Call with:

Hagit Ofran
Peace Now Settlement Watch Director

Hagit discussed the latest developments in regard to Israeli settler extremists, settlements in the West Bank and Israeli government settlement construction policy, as well as Peace Now’s recent rally against Jewish terrorism and incitement, other recent successful Peace Now activities.

Listing to a recording: Hagit Ofran briefing 6 Aug 2015

This week, Alpher discusses why Israel’s unilateral withdrawal of settlements and troops from the Gaza Strip ten years ago didn’t produce additional withdrawals from the West Bank as well and generate some sort of positive momentum toward resolution of the conflict; if Sharon and Olmert had different approaches to the idea of independent withdrawal; the settler movement’s response to the Gaza withdrawal; how Sharon envisioned the settlement project, and what made him adopt the extreme measure of unilateral withdrawal; Labor leader Isaac Herzog on the withdrawal and negotiating a West Bank withdrawal; and a cost-benefit analysis of a possible IDF withdrawal on the West Bank.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) is outraged by the murderous arson attack in the West Bank, perpetrated by Jewish terrorists, who today killed a Palestinian baby and critically injured his 4-year-old brother and his parents.

APN's President and CEO Debra DeLee said: "Outrage in the face of this monstrous attack should be translated into action: Action by Israel's law-enforcement authorities to find and punish the killers, action by Israeli political leaders and opinion leaders – particularly among the nationalistic right – to stop inciting actions and hate-speech, and action by the Israeli government to fight the environment of lawlessness that Jewish settlers have spawned in the West Bank. This environment, unfortunately, is nourished by Israeli government settlement policies, which reward settler lawlessness, as we have seen this week in the settlement of Beit-El. When building settlements on privately owned Palestinian land and violently clashing with Israeli security officers is immediately rewarded by Prime Minster Netanyahu, who vowed to build 300 new homes there, the message to the settlers is clear: In the wild West Bank, lawlessness pays!"