APN's daily news review from Israel - Sunday February 21, 2021

Quote of the day:

"The proposal talks about 'redeeming the land,' as if we were living under the Ottoman Empire...This is a decision aimed solely at harming a future Israeli-Palestinians settlement. If there were a responsible adult in the region, they would have prevented it. But right now, no such person can be found."*
--In an Op-Ed in 'Israel Hayom,' Yossi Beilin slams the Jewish National Fund (JNF/KKL) plan to invest $11.6 million toward the purchase of lands in the West Bank. The JNF stipulates that only Jews can buy, mortgage or lease JNF-owned land.*

You Must Be Kidding: 
In a survey of 1,100 teens aged 16-18 who constitute a representative sample of Israel’s different “tribes” – secular, religious Zionist, ultra-Orthodox and Arab, Arabs are the group most feared and hated by Jews of all kinds. This view was expressed by 24%, 42% and 66%, respectively of secular, religious Zionist and ultra-Orthodox teens. Fully 49% of religious Zionists and 23% of secular Jews favored stripping Arabs of the right to vote.**

APN's daily news review from Israel - Thursday February 18, 2021

You Must Be Kidding: 
Israel gives Palestinians permits to work in Israel, but won't give them vaccines.**

APN's daily news review from Israel - Wednesday February 17, 2021

Word of the day:

"Occupation."
--Now erased from the entry regarding the Palesitnian Territories by Hebrew Wikipedia community of volunteer editors on Hebrew Wikipedia, who replaced it with Israel’s “rule” or “control."** 

APN's daily news review from Israel - Tuesday February 16, 2021

Quote of the day:

"The Jewish National Fund’s decision this week to officially work to expand settlements and continue planting forests as part of a policy of seizing land in the West Bank is yet another milestone in the growing gap between the two communities. While Netanyahu’s governments have actively advanced this approach, along with the settlement enterprise and the occupation as a whole, Diaspora Jewry long ago distanced itself from the legendary blue JNF collection boxes."
--Haaretz+ political affairs correspondent, Noa Landau, writes that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has long followed the dictates of the ultra-Orthodox and right-wing religious Zionist communities, rather than reaching out to American Jews, whose views are liberal and pro-peace and whose support he needs.*

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.

APN's daily news review from Israel - Monday February 15, 2021

Quote of the day:

"Anyone who thinks that a Palestinian inhabitant of the occupied territories cares much whether he is uprooted by extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir or the Jewish National Fund, pride and joy of the Zionist vision, would be wrong. The Iraqi poet Muthaffar al-Nawab wrote: 'The sheep cares not for the shape of the blade in the slaughterhouse.'"
--Haaretz commentator Odeh Bisharat writes about the cynicism of the Jewish National Fund (JNF/KKL), which asks Jews in the Diaspora to fund forestation of the Negev, and meanwhile, expells Arabs from their land.*

Breaking News:
Israel Struck Near Damascus, Syria Says, Killing Six, as Israel Air Force Begins 'Surprise Exercise'
Missiles were fired from Golan Heights and Galilee, Syrian army statement says, not mentioning casualties. (Haaretz, Ynet and Maariv and VIDEO) 

APN's daily news review from Israel - Sunday February 14, 2021

Quote of the day:

"We will not stand silently by as the Jewish National Fund, an agency that was created to build the State of Israel, serves as a tool to destroy the prospects of building a Palestinian state, thus denying Palestinian self-determination and undermining Israel's future as a democracy."
—Americans for Peace Now President and CEO Hadar Susskind says after the Jewish National Fund put up plan to purchase land in the West Bank for to expand Israeli settlements.*