For the sixth in a series of ads from APN, this week's message is from Tzipi Livni.

From her origins in a prominent right-wing Zionist family, Livni has become one of the most prominent political figures advocating for a two-state solution.

She is widely considered one of the most the most powerful women in Israeli politics, and has served in eight different cabinet positions throughout her career, setting the record for most government roles ever held by an Israeli woman. In 2011, she was named one of "150 Women Who Shake the World" by Newsweek and The Daily Beast, and for three years, Forbes magazine placed her on its "List of 100 Most Powerful Women."

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On Thursday, August 4th, from 10-11:30am, APN is hosting a roundtable briefing with Israeli journalist Orly Halpern, editor of APN’s News Nosh

In a presentation titled "Is Netanyahu following in the footsteps of Erdogan and Putin?," Orly will address how the expanding hegemony of Israel’s right-wing is silencing dissent and seizing the public space.

Please join us from 10 to 11:30am at the Americans for Peace Now office at 2100 M Street NW, Suite 619. We look forward to seeing you.

As space is limited, please let us know as soon as you can whether you would like to attend by emailing asuskin@peacenow.org.

ORLY HALPERN is an independent freelance journalist based in Jerusalem who writes News Nosh, a daily summary of the news from Israel. News Nosh is a free service offered by Americans for Peace Now. To receive it daily in your inbox, click here.

 News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:

This morning the Army Radio reported that the committee established by the government to find a solution of the illegal outposts issue recently submitted a legal opinion to the Attorney General according to which it is possible to use the absentees’ property in the case of the illegal outpost of Amona. The committee’s idea is to take private Palestinian lands in the nearby plot to where Amona is today, whose owners do not live in the West Bank, and lease them to the settlers of Amona through a lease that will be renewed every three years. This way, the settlers of the illegal outpost, which must be evacuated by the end of December due to a High Court ruling, will be able to live close by to where the outpost is located today. AG Avichai Mendelblit will soon announce whether he intends to accept or reject the legal opinion.
 
Peace Now: "Accepting the legal opinion of the committee and thereby violating private property rights in the Occupied Territories will constitute the crossing of a red line. The acceptance of the legal opinion would have dire consequences on a future peace agreement as it could lead to the establishment of dozens of new settlements and to the multiplying of the land taken up by settlements in the West Bank. The Israeli government cannot justify the stealing of private lands of absentees only to please the demands of settlers who themselves stole private lands against the law."

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.

This week, Alpher discusses whether the Palestinian leadership's request to the Arab League to support its initiative to sue the British government is serious; whether minister for social equality Gila Gamliel's declaration that she is promoting a project to demand the restitution of property left behind in Arab countries by Jews who fled in the 1950s is an equally fruitless attempt to reverse the course of history; and why Netanyahu last week “apologized” to the Israeli Arab community and called upon it to “participate in Israeli society, en masse.”

[Originally posted on June 25, 2009, on an earlier version of the APN website)

On May 23, 2005, the Washington Post ran a an incisive op-ed by former State Department negotiator and Middle East advisor Aaron Miller, entitled “Israel’s Lawyer,” in which Aaron argued “For far too long, many American officials involved in Arab-Israeli peacemaking, myself included, have acted as Israel’s attorney…” I was reminded of that article when I read today’s piece by Elliott Abrams in the Wall Street Journal, which should, I believe, have been entitled “The West Bank Settlers’ Lawyer.”

 New York Times - July 28
"Bill Clinton Would Be an Ideal Middle East Convoy"
by Letty Cottin Pogrebin

What should Hillary Clinton do with Bill? That's easy. She should appoint him as special envoy to Israel/Palestine ​with a presidential mandate to jump start the peace process.

Bill Clinton is the perfect person to create bridging proposals and persuade both parties to make crucial compromises. No one in America is more conversant with the issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians and the events that have led them to the current impasse. No one else knows the neighborhood better — not just its leaders but the civil society activists and local organizers who will ultimately make peace a reality on the ground.

Because of his role as facilitator of the 1993 Oslo process that culminated in the handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasir Arafat on the White House lawn, and his last ditch efforts at the 2000 Camp David summit meeting with Arafat and Israel's then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Bill knows the map right down to the streets in Jerusalem and the squares in Ramallah. He knows where the minefields are — right of return, borders, security, and who controls the Temple Mount. If there's the slightest possibility that this 100-year-old conflict can be brought to a peaceful, permanent conclusion, Bill Clinton is the one who can make it happen.

Such an assignment would focus his formidable energy and expertise on this single complex issue and leave the rest of the country for Hillary to run.

Washington Post - July 29
State Dept. criticizes Israeli settlement expansion, demolitions, Peace Now welcomes US criticism of Israel's settlement expansion

Israel Hayom - July 29
US slams increase in Israeli construction beyond Green Line, Peace Now quoted on Israeli government tenders for settlement homes

The News - July 29
New Israeli Settlement Plans Provocative, Peace Now quoted on Israeli government tenders for settlement homes

Haaretz - July 28
Left-wing Israeli Activists Facing Violence, Death Threats, Hagit Ofran, director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch, describes growing threats to the organization

Haaretz - July 28
Secret 1970 Document Confirms First West Bank Settlements Built on a Lie, features Peace Now's aerial settlement maps and Hagit Ofran, director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch, cites the first usage of military orders to seize land for civilian use

Reuters - July 28
US concerned over Israel's settlement activity, Peace Now quoted on Israeli government tenders for settlement homes

Daily Sabah - July 27
US slams new Israeli settlement plans for undermining peace, Peace Now quoted on Israeli government tenders for settlement homes

The Jerusalem Post - July 26
IDF raizes 15 illegal Arab homes in East Jerusalem and West Bank, Eyal Raz, spokesman for Peace Now, says demolitions could exacerbate tensions

Washington Post - July 23
In the settlement of Kiryat Arba, the demand is to expand, Hagit Ofran, Director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch, quoted on the threat of settlement expansion to peace