Dr. Marwan Muasher, currently the Amman-based Vice President for Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was Jordan's foreign minister, deputy prime minister, information minister, Jordan's ambassador to the United States and its first ambassador to Israel. He was deeply involved in the peace process, and helped compose the Arab Peace Initiative.

We met him in Amman as part of Americans for Peace Now's study tour to the region.

This episode is an edited version of our conversation with him. Due to technical difficulties, questions asked by members of our group could not be recorded. Some of Dr. Muasher's comments are in reply to questions that are not in this recording, which sometimes makes his remarks a bit difficult to follow.

Dr. Muasher, recorded on November 5th 2019, refers to meetings that our group was to have the next day (in his words "tomorrow") with Jordanian government officials.

Listen to the full episode

Today, thirteen organizations – the coalition members of The Progressive Israel Network (PIN), the Israel Policy Forum, the National Council of Jewish Women, and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association – sent a letter to the heads of Israel’s political parties calling on them to refuse any kind of unilateral annexation of the West Bank or parts of it.

Letter to Israeli Political Leadership Opposing Annexation

As heads of American Jewish organizations who care deeply about the State of Israel and are committed to safeguarding its future as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people, we implore you to consider the costs of any unilateral annexations in the West Bank, and ask that you refuse to support annexation as a policy guideline for any government that your party may join.

APN's daily news review from Israel
Tuesday November 5, 2019
 

Quote of the day:
"How tense is the business here right now? It's hanging by the thread. But neither side wants to go down that slope, and (both) make efforts so it doesn't happen. We want to end incidents while maintaining the upper hand. They, on the other hand, try to avoid incidents from happening and we try not to give them reasons."
—Lt. Col. Yoav Schneider commander of Battalion 82 explains why Israel bombs Hamas military lookout posts when they are empty and why soldiers don't shoot more Palestinians on the border fence.*

from APN activist Barbara Green

Genesis (Bereshit) is filled with episodes which raise profound questions. Yesterday’s parsha told the story of Noah and the near-destruction of the world, followed by the tale of the Tower of Babel. If I chose to write about Noah I would title it, “Missed Opportunities” and I would start by describing my favorite New Yorker cartoon which shows two dinosaurs sitting atop a small rock, the waters rising all around them. In the far distance a large wooden ship sails away. One of the dinosaurs says to the other, “Oh crap, was that today?” A major missed opportunity, no? (No wonder dinosaurs went extinct.)

Or – I could write about the current electoral impasse in Israel and describe it the same way. Is the system so broken a clean, decisive election is impossible? Does the rightward tilt of the Israeli Jewish public make an alliance with the combined Arab parties an impossibility? Whatever the cause, the Palestinian issue wasn’t raised in the two recent campaigns – and isn’t likely to be dealt with in the foreseeable future. Another monstrous missed opportunity…….

This episode features the panel discussion that Americans for Peace Now sponsored at the J Street National conference in Washington DC on October 27th, 2019.

Included are the full presentations of the three panelists -- former Palestinian ambassador to Washington Maen Areikat, Peace Now's director Shaqued Morag, and Yesh Din director Lior Amihai -- as well as the introduction by Debra Shushan, APN’s policy and government relations director.

Listen to the full episode

On Saturday, November 2, in Tel Aviv, an estimated 100,000 gathered to commemorate the 24th year of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Peace Now displayed a banner "We demand a government of peace. Now!" in encouragement of Keynote speaker Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue-White Party. and had the largest booth from which it distributed signs and merchandise.

Go HERE for pictures

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.