How many times in the past few days have you wished someone a happy new year and were told “well, it can’t get worse than 2020”?

While it’s hard to argue with this truism, my take on our transition from 2020 to 2021 is less about just putting 2020 behind us and more about what we can do together in 2021.

I am looking forward to the new year on the merits of its own promise, regardless of the scorched earth that 2020 is leaving behind.

I’ll tell you what I mean by that.

First, in less than three weeks, we will have in the White House a President who is committed to a responsible, level-headed foreign policy, who will not deposit the Israel-Palestine file into the hands of his ignorant, smug son-in-law and his former bankruptcy lawyer, a messianic zealot, who thinks progressive Jews like you and me are “worse than kapos.” Yes, Trump’s ambassador to Israel David Friedman actually said that – among the other vile, incendiary things he said and did.

APN's daily news review from Israel - Monday December 28, 2020

You Must Be Kidding: 
 “We didn’t know they were Jews.”
— Said by one of the four Israeli police officers who were questioned as suspects after the car they were chasing in the West Bank flipped and a Jewish Israeli settler teen who was inside was killed. The other settlers who were in the car, all of whom were reportedly throwing stones at passing Palestinian cars, claimed the police detectives crashed into them deliberately from behind.*

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 - Sunday December 27, 2020

You Must Be Kidding: 
Pro-settler religious people protesting against the death of Ahuvia Sandak, a settler teen who died in a car chase with police after being suspected of throwing stones at Palestinians, threw stones at police and attacked the car of a Palestinian family in Jerusalem.**
A young religious nationalist couple that participated in the protest put their baby in front of a crowd dispersal vehicle. Women police officers took the baby away until the mother came.**

In a recent letter they sent on behalf of Americans for Peace Now, Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody included the story about Mandy’s experience following a concert he gave to benefit APN. The above video was of Mandy telling it, with his recognizable flair, at a 2012 Peace Now conference in Israel.

Join Mandy and Kathryn in supporting Americans for Peace Now with a tax-deductible donation.

Go HERE to read their letter. You will find reflections about past visits to Israel and the West Bank, and a compelling account of why they are so committed and passionate about supporting Americans for Peace Now.

APN's daily news review from Israel - Thursday December 24, 2020

Quote of the day:

“Everyone is liberal in his/her own eyes. "
-Dr. Gali Sambira, director at Living Together organization, said following the results of a poll that found that among secular Israelis, 53% are willing to live alongside ultra-Orthodox, but 69% said they would prefer Arab neighbors over them. Among religious Israelis, 96% said they would have no problem living alongside ultra-Orthodox neighbors, and only 32% would not object to living next to Arabs. Among ultra-Orthodox Israelis, only 12% reported that they would have no objections to living alongside Arabs.*

At this time of the year, we all look for light and cherish it.

This year, as we struggle with a deadly pandemic and with so much darkness around us, it is incumbent upon us, more than ever, to share the light and spread it.

As I was adding candles to my hanukiah last week, I listened to an interview on Americans for Peace Now’s podcast with Vera Baboun, the former mayor of Bethlehem.

She spoke about the sadness of celebrating Christmas in the midst of a socially distancing pandemic, under occupation, with no tourists at Manger Square and with hardly any freedom of movement for her fellow Palestinians.

Vera is a peace activist, a staunch supporter of peace with Israel. On her PeaceCast conversation, albeit somber, Vera did not forget to share the light of hope for peace from Bethlehem. We must extend our arms toward each other, not simply reach out our hands, she said, “in order to bring a peace that we both deserve, Israelis and Palestinians.”

I am joining Vera in wishing peace to her Palestinian compatriots and to her Israeli neighbors, and in wishing our Christian friends a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy new year.

In this coming year, may the Almighty lift up His face unto us, and give us peace.

Salam - Shalom - Peace,

Rabbi Shira

Shira Stutman is Senior Rabbi at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington DC.

APN's daily news review from Israel - Wednesday December 23, 2020

You Must Be Kidding: 
“The Knesset is the legislative branch and it also has the authority of the Constituent Assembly. The High Court draws its authority from the power of the Knesset, and not vice versa.”
—Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin (Likud) sparked a storm with a letter he wrote to the High Court ahead of its first hearing over whether the controversial Nation-State of the Jewish People Law is unconstitutional.*

WEBINAR COMING UP - Monday, December 28, 12 Noon (ET)

An Israel-Palestine Policy for the Biden Administration
with Dr. Tamara Cofman Wittes

REGISTER TO ATTEND

Recordings from APN's Webinar Series on the Transition from the Trump to Biden Administrations

Europe, Biden, and Israel-Palestine
with Dr. Anders Persson 
(Dec. 22, 2020)

Dr. Hanan Ashrawi - Palestinian Perspective on Trump to Biden Transition
(Dec. 9, 2020)

West Bank Settlements Between Trump and Biden 
with Peace Now's Hagit Ofran
(Dec. 7, 2020)

Israel and the Biden Administration
with Israel Security Expert Yossi Alpher
(Nov. 24, 2020)

Joe Biden and Palestinian Politics 
with Khaled Elgindy, Director of the Program on Palestine and Palestinian-Israeli Affairs at the Middle East Institute
(Nov., 20, 2020) 

Middle East Policy Under the Biden Administration and a New Congress
with Mira Resnick and Ilan Goldenberg 
(Nov. 6, 2020)

APN's daily news review from Israel - Tuesday December 22, 2020

You Must Be Kidding:
“In the center of the State of Israel.”
—Settler leader Yossi Dagan described the place where the Esther Horgen, an Israeli mother of six, was murdered Sunday night while out on a run near her settlement. Reporter Amira Hass writes that Esther Horgen was murdered in a West Bank enclave created by Israel’s separation barrier, where seven Palestinian villages have been penned inside, cut off from neighboring villages and the rest of their land, and the residents need an Israeli permit to live in their own homes and cannot leave at night because Israel won't allow it.*

Quote of the day:

“If the murderer is Palestinian, is there a connection between his deed and the cumulative cruelty of Israeli policy, which has stabbed and wounded him every day since he was born? If so, it’s a cruelty that millions of Palestinian experience personally from the cradle to the grave, one that stokes wrath and disgust in every one of them. But only very few of them vent their anger and hatred on an older woman running in the forest.”
— Amira Hass writes in an Op-Ed in today’s Haaretz.*