Attacks Reflect Zig-Zag Line of Settlement Enterprise

It is tempting to impute retroactive intentionality to yesterday's events. As Gershom Gorenberg felicitously puts it, we mistakenly assume "that if things turned out a certain way, someone planned it that way." Looking back now, it may seem a foregone conclusion that Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank (and in Golan, too) was from the beginning an evil design, intended to encroach on Palestinian rights rather than to solve immediate problems. But the effort to draw a straight line of intentionality from then to now obscures more than it clarifies.

The Brookings Institution (2012)
Natan B. Sachs (Fellow, Foreign Policy, Saban Center for Middle East Policy) discusses the recent increase in settler violence, why it should be termed Terrorism, and its effect on the peace process. (11:36) Watch >

Gad Lior and Yuval Karni / Yedioth Ahronoth (August 2012)
Examination of the financial bonus that settlements enjoy compared to areas inside of the Green Line. Read More >

Zogby Research Services / The Arab American Institute (August 2012)
Finds that a plurality of Americans (40%) believe U.S. policy should steer a "middle course" between Israelis and Palestinians. Also finds strong bipartisan support for the idea that Israelis and Palestinians are "equal people entitled to equal rights," with 43% supporting a two-state solution, a shared Jerusalem, the evacuation of most settlements, and a Palestinian right of return to the new Palestinian state. Only 14% oppose such a plan. Read More >

Instead of tax hikes - stop indulging the settlements

The Calcalist / Israel News Today (2012)
Summary of a major report on government spending on settlements. Among other notable conclusions, the report shows that spending on settlements increased by 38% under the Netanyahu government (from 2010 to 2011) and totaled NIS 27 billion from 1992 to 2011. Read More >

The Levy Report has generated an astonishing number of responses.  Having trouble keeping abreast of all the important details? APN is your one-stop resource for information and analysis.

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Washington, DC - Americans for Peace Now (APN) today joined its Israeli sister organization, Peace Now (Shalom Achshav) in calling on the government of Israel to repudiate the findings of the commission it appointed to address the problem of illegal outposts in the West Bank. APN calls on other US Jewish groups that support the two-state solution to raise their voices in opposition to this report.

A former IDF medical officer and a Palestinian from a refugee camp are seeing the conflict in a whole new way this summer.

WASHINGTON -- When Waleed Issa walked into the Americans for Peace Now (APN) Washington, DC office on the first day of his summer internship in June, the 25-year-old Palestinian from the Dheisheh refugee camp south of Bethlehem was startled by what he saw.

CHICAGO (JTA) -- When a family member behaves self-destructively, what do you do? Do you become an apologist, an enabler, or do you call him out? Do you blame everyone else but him, or do you intervene? Do you sit back and just hope things will improve on their own, or do you take urgent action?