This week, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin publicly lamented the challenge facing the new Palestinian city of Rawabi, whose existence he called a “clear Israeli and Zionist interest.” Rawabi is now ready for its first residents – except that there is no running water. This problem has continued for months, and President Rivlin drew attention to a Haaretz editorial identifying its source: the zero-sum game that Israeli settlers and politicians play with the lives of Palestinians.

APN Chair Jim Klutznick recently brought you the story of Rawabi and how it can benefit Israel – his words are more timely and urgent than ever.

L'Shalom,
Debra DeLee
President and CEO
Americans for Peace Now

By Tim Mathew

Introduction

For many individuals, the practice of and faith in a religion gives meaning to life. The majority of people worldwide do identify with a religion, evidenced by a 2010 study conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, which found that approximately 84% of the world identifies with a religious group. 1 Religion helps its followers interpret events that occur in their daily lives, and is the lens through which they see the world. Yet, this very essential factor of religious belief that leads to an individual’s perspective is sometimes overlooked and can be seen as something that should be kept private – something that is untouchable, unspeakable, controversial – the third rail.

Introducing our first editorial cartoon!  

Starting this week, APN will be running these cartoons about every other week.

Cartoons have been a hot topic recently because of their power to incite and provoke. We will never be gratuitous with this form of expression—but we do plan to use this medium to incite action and to provoke thought. As we all know, a picture is worth a thousand words. This is our aim: to make people think and to act for peace.

We hope you like them and we hope you like the first one, aptly named: “Messiah complex.”   

On February 17, 2015, APN hosted Amir Tibon, the diplomatic correspondent of Israel's news site Walla for a briefing call on Israel's upcoming elections. A month before the elections, Tibon gave an eye-opening review of Israel's electoral arena, spoke about the way in which Prime Minister Netanyahu's push to speak to Congress about Iran is playing in Israel, and about the way in which various issues are playing in the campaign. He also reviewed various post-election scenarios, and predicted that Benjamin Netanyahu, if he's called on to form the next government, would strive to form a national unity government with the Zionist Camp's Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni.

Translation by Elise Shazar.

I would like to talk this morning about dreams that Israel should forget about as quickly as possible. I will start with the most important thing, that which is, in my opinion, a matter of life and death for Israel: if two states don't come into existence now and fast, there will be one state. If one state comes into existence, it will be an Arab one from the sea to the Jordan River. If an Arab state is established, I do not envy our children and grandchildren.

I said an Arab state from the sea to the Jordan River, I did not say a bi-national state.