Early this week, the Washington Post ran a piece titled, “In the settlement of Kiryat Arba, the demand is to expand.” If you just read the title, you might think it was about the continuing growth of Israel’s settlements. If you only read the first few paragraphs, you might think that it was about the shocking murder of Hallel Ariel and the cynical use of her death to promote settlement growth.
But read to the end and you find that Kiryat Arba – one of the most iconic and radical of the ideological settlements, the settlement home to Baruch Goldstein (y”sh), who murdered Muslim worshipers at the Ibrahimi Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs in 1994 – is shrinking. Settlers there are given to lament that “political considerations and outside pressure means nothing changes.”
Who is helping lead the charge to bring this “outside pressure”? Peace Now.
So it is no surprise that in the same article, when the Washington Post wanted to learn the facts about Israeli settlements from an authoritative source, they turned to Peace Now’s Hagit Ofran.
Quote of the day:
--Document revealed that confirms the system of confiscating Palestinian land by military order, which is allowed by international law, as a cover for the purpose of establishing settlements, which is not.*
News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:
89 units in Gilo
--Yoram Tal, the father of Omri Tal, who was killed in Operation Protective Edge, shouted at Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during a memorial ceremony for the soldiers who fell in that 2014 war.*
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The fifth in a series of security validators for APN is Condoleezza Rice, an American political scientist and
diplomat. Rice served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the first female African-American to
hold that position, as well as the second African American secretary of state, and the second female secretary of
state. Rice was President Bush's National Security Advisor during his first term, making her the first woman to
serve in that position. Before joining the Bush administration, she was a professor of political science at
Stanford University where she served as Provost from 1993 to 1999. Rice also served on the National Security
Council as the Soviet and Eastern Europe Affairs Advisor to President George H.W. Bush during the dissolution of
the Soviet Union and German reunification.
NOTE: News Nosh will be published in a truncated version from July 31 through August 17th.
--MK Ahmed Tibi commenting on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's video clip message to Arab citizens.*
Note from Jerusalem Re: 2016 APN Israel Study Tour
Greetings from Jerusalem! I’m here to prepare APN’s Israel Study Tour, which will be November
12-17, 2016. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve met with Israelis and Palestinians, and discussed plans for the tour
with my friends at Israel’s Peace Now movement.
I grew up in Jerusalem, spent most of
my life in Israel, and usually travel here twice a year. Still, I’m always amazed at how much I learn each time
I come here, particularly when I accompany an APN Study Tour group. Israel is incredibly dynamic. It’s full of
contradictions. It’s ever-changing. It’s both exhausting and comforting. It’s troubling and inspiring. It's both
emotionally and intellectually provoking. At APN, we try to pack this complexity into five overloaded days of
tours and meetings with Israelis and Palestinians throughout Israel and the West Bank.
Our tours typically end with a meeting with Peace Now’s young activists. I had a chance to meet with seven student activists at Peace Now’s Tel Aviv office. They came in for a briefing and left with “activist kits” – t-shirts, flags, stickers and more -- to use on campus (I snapped a photo of a couple of them on their way out). Some will march today, Thursday, in Jerusalem to show solidarity with participants at Jerusalem’s Pride and Tolerance Parade, to protest the homophobic violence that led last year to the murder of 16-year-old Shira Banki, a Jerusalemite high-schooler, who marched in solidarity with her gay friends and was stabbed to death by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish zealot.
I spent several hours with Peace Now’s young activists. There’s nothing better if you’re looking for a dose of inspiration and hope for Israel’s future.
I can’t wait for our November 12th-17th tour. I hope you’ll join us. We know that, as usual, it will be an engaging, fascinating tour. And as you'll see below, our home base, the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem, offers the chance to unwind in the heart of this unique city.
Please feel free to write to me or to my colleague David Pine with any questions you may have about the tour. Below are links for more information and how to reserve your spot. We’d love to see you in Jerusalem in November.
Ori Nir
APN Director of Communications and Public Engagements
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Go HERE for more about the Study Tour, and HERE for a working schedule of this year's trip.
To secure your place on this unique, small-group tour experience, print out and complete this FORM and return to APN by mail or email with the deposit (payable by check or credit card). Deposit deadline is August 31, 2016, after which we will be able to accept participants if space allows.
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 what it will mean if Netanyahu’s ruling coalition's move in the Knesset to apply Israeli law to the settlement of Maaleh Adumim is approved; if last week's Saudi delegation visiting Israel, led by a retired general, was a breakthrough; whether, in the aftermath of the abortive military coup in Turkey, President Erdogan's purging of tens of thousands of ostensibly disloyal officers, educators and civil servants is an Islamist counter-revolution; how this development could affect Turkey domestically and how it could affect Israel and the region; and if Netanyahu, similar to what Erdogan is doing in Turkey, is attempting to clamp down on media.