Today marks 34 years to the murder of Emil Grunzweig, one of the movement's leaders, at an anti-war rally in Jerusalem.

Grunzweig, a scholar, a teacher and a leading peace activist, was at the front row (fourth from the left) of young Israelis who marched toward the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on February 10, 1983, demanding that the findings of a state commission of inquiry regarding the government's conduct during the 1982 Lebanon War be implemented.

The murdered was Yona Avrushmi, a young Jerusalemite who later confessed to being brainwashed by extremist right-wing propaganda. He threw a hand grenade into the crowd of pro-peace demonstrators, killing Grunzweig and injuring nine others.

Avrushmi was released from prison in 2011 after serving 27 years of a life sentence.

On February 9. 2017, APN held a briefing call with strategic affairs expert Yossi Alpher in preparation for the Netanyahu-Trump meeting on February 14.

Yossi Alpher, an independent security analyst, is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with Israel’s Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. He is the author of Hard Questions Tough Answers, APN’s weekly analysis of Israeli and Middle Eastern strategic affairs.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) is deeply concerned about the detention and questioning of the New Israel Fund's vice president, Jennifer Gorovitz, at Ben Gurion Airport yesterday upon arrival in Israel. Gorovitz, who flew into Israel to participate in NIF's Board meeting, was detained for ninety minutes and questioned three times during that period about NIF's activities, including its funding of Israeli non-profit organizations.

Today, according to Israeli media reports, the interim director general of Israel's Population and Immigration Authority, Amnon Shmueli, said that the questioning was "routine," apologized if the questioning caused Ms. Gorovitz anguish, and said that there was no intention to insult her. 

 As of April 1, 2017, the up-to-date version of this table is found here

At the end of 2016 new legislation was introduced in both the House and Senate entitled, the “Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2016” (S.10 & HR 6421).  Given the title of this legislation, the public could be forgiven for assuming this must be a response to rising anti-Semitism in the U.S. linked to emboldened Nazis, white supremacists, and supporters of the “alt-Right.” Sadly, the public would be wrong. This Orwellian-entitled legislation in fact has zero to do with raising awareness about or combating actual anti-Semitism. Rather, it is an effort to trying to police criticism of Israel on U.S. campuses by exploiting claims of “anti-Semitism” – all in order to delegitimize and quash criticism of and activism related to Israel (with the main but not sole focus being the BDS movement on campuses).

The more Netanyahu hitches his wagon to the White House, the more he and Trump resemble each other, the more American Jews will actively resist both.

Israel’s newly adopted, patently unconstitutional “Regularization Law” further distances most American Jews from the government of Israel and the State of Israel. 

It does so by further underscoring the similarities between Israel’s leadership and U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign of constitutionally controversial executive orders. It thus further deepens the sense of dissonance in the minds of American Jews regarding the U.S.-Israel relationship.