The resumption of security and civilian cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and the government of Israel is good news for Israel, the Palestinians, and all stakeholders in the conflict.

Tuesday November 17, 2020
- Quote of the day:

“Appointing Effi Eitam as Chair of Yad Vashem would turn an internationally respected institution devoted to the documentation of crimes against humanity and the pursuit of human rights into a mockery and a disgrace.”
—From a petition signed by 160 Holocaust historians and researchers and survivors from around the world against the appointment of Effi Eitam, who has called to deport the majority of the Palestinians from the West Bank and to exclude Arab Israelis from the political system. Eitam was also accused by his soldiers of giving them the order to beat a Palestinian to death.*

You Must Be Kidding: 
“He is a worthy man."
— Higher Education Minister Zeev Elkin (Likud) said of Effi Eitam, on the proposal that the far right-wing former politician head the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial and research institution.*

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.

Following media reports that outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo intends to visit an Israeli settlement on an upcoming trip to the region this week, APN urges Sec. Pompeo to cancel this detrimental gesture.

The seventy-day transition period to a new administration is not the time to break with decades of bipartisan American policy and set diplomatically consequential precedents. An official visit by a US secretary of State to a West Bank settlement – the first ever – is damaging in several ways.

APN's daily news review from Israel - Sunday November 15, 2020

Quote of the day:

“How is it that you always think the judges we propose aren’t as good, and that the judges you suggest are all wonderful? What do the conservative judges we propose eat that makes them not as good?”
--Transportation Minister Miri Regev (Likud) reportedly said to High Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut in discussions over promotion of a conservative judge to the District Court, whom Regev said takes a hare line against Bedouin Israelis. Hayut reportedly rejected Regev's allegations, saying judges are promoted based on merit.*

1. Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. FY21 SFOPS – Senate
3. Hearings & Markups
4. On the Record

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. 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 - Thursday November 12, 2020 

Quote of the day:

"Gantz feared that his voters would punish him for joining hands with the [mostly Arab] Joint List. So he gave up an historic opportunity to replace Netanyahu, and no less importantly, to write a new chapter in the State of Israel's relations with its Arab citizens. The absurdity is that most Kahol-Lavan voters were actually in favor of this move."
--New Israel Fund Director, Mickey Gitzin, writes about how Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is now connecting with Arab MK Mansour Abbas of the Islamic Movement's Ra'am party, a party he in the past referred to as 'terror-supporting,' and how Gantz didn't dare do so as not to appear 'too leftist.'*

APN's daily news review from Israel - Wednesday November 11, 2020

Quote of the day:

“Biden was careful to be moderate in his approach, behavior and rhetoric, but not in his values. He didn’t sell out his camp’s principles, kowtow to the rival side or make believe he was essentially a Republican.”
—Shai Agmon writes that the Israeli center-left (Labor party and Kahol-Lavan) should learn from US President-elect Joe Biden not to ingratiate itself on right-wingers and not to give up on or flee from left-wing ideology: peace vs. settlements and matters of religion and state.*

You Must Be Kidding:
"Winking to the settlers? Kahol-Lavan works to legalize 1,700 homes in Judea and Samaria"
--Headline in Yedioth newspaper, which revealed that Defense Minister Benny Gantz, leader of the center-left Kahol-Lavan party, which seeks peace with the Palestinians, is working to legalize settlement homes built without Israeli government approval in the West Bank.**

"(Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership have) unfortunately not yet understood that the time has come to put away the excuses, return to the negotiating table, coordinate security and work together to create solutions...(they must) abandon policy illusions and act for another better reality for both peoples."
--At the Knesset, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, the leader of the center-left Kahol-Lavan party, accused the Palestinians of not acting for peace.**

APN's daily news review from Israel - Tuesday November 10, 2020

Quotes of the day:
“With regard to Israeli activity beyond the Green Line, there may be an uncomfortable atmosphere for Israel. The only time Biden, then chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke harshly in conversation with me was when a new settlement was established. It is also clear that the issue of Israeli sovereignty in the territories will be frozen for the next four years…”
—Former Likud member of Knesset and Israeli former ambassador to the US, Zalman Shoval, writes in Maariv today that Israel must rehabilitate bilateral support for Israel in Congress to benefit its long-term goals.*

“The enslavement was so absolute that the moment came when the state established from the ashes of the Holocaust became a state in the shadow of a man who thinks that there are good people among the Nazis, as well. In the state of Trump-Israel, a cynical prime minister imitates an inciting and divisive American president. In the state of Trump-Israel, anyone who protests against government policy is considered anti-Zionist at best or is simply anti-Semitic. In the state of Trump-Israel, free media is the enemy of the people.”
—Yedioth journalist Tzipi Shmilovich writes that the Israeli government and its leader emulated the US President and will pay for it both in the US and in Israel in the future.**

Breaking News:
Saeb Erekat, Top Palestinian Peace Negotiator, Dies at 65 After Contracting COVID
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared three days of mourning. Tributes for Erekat poured in from right-wing and left-wing Israeli politicians and from around the world. Former Likud minister and Kadimah chairwoman, Tzipi Livni, expressed grief over Erekat’s death, writing on Twitter: “I’m saddened by the death of @ErakatSaeb. Saeb dedicated his life to his people. Reaching Peace is my destiny he used to say. Being sick, he texted me: “I’m not finished with what I was born to do”. My deepest condolences to the Palestinians and his family. He will be missed.” Peace Now called his death “a sad day for all supporters of peace in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Erekat, the 'man of peace,' was part of every process between Israel and the PA and fought to build real trust between Israelis and Palestinians until his last day.”

Americans for Peace Now (APN) sends its deepest sympathy to the Erekat family and to the Palestinian people as they mourn the death of Dr. Saeb Erekat, the Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the PLO, and the former chief Palestinian negotiator in peace talks with Israel.

A proud Palestinian patriot, Erekat was one of the leading voices in support of a diplomatically negotiated peace agreement with Israel. He often noted that no other Palestinian diplomat had spent more hours negotiating the terms of Israeli-Palestinian political relations and the terms of a future Israeli-Palestinian two-state peace accord.