--Zionist Union MK Erel Margalit responded to Minister Gilad Erdan, who blamed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for the killing of two Israelis in the West Bank.**
It’s been eight years since APN first partnered with New Story Leadership (NSL), a program that brings Israeli and Palestinian fellows to Washington for six weeks of leadership-skills development. The program includes an internship with a Washington-based nonprofit or a congressional office and intense dialogue to foster a better understanding of the other side to the conflict. For most fellows, this is the first chance they have to engage in intense conversations with young people from the other side of the Israeli-Palestinian divide, to listen, reach out, forge relationship and often make friends. The program has given birth to several Israeli-Palestinian nonprofit partnerships.
Each summer in the past eight years, APN has hosted a couple of NSL fellows – an Israeli and a Palestinian – sometimes in partnership with the American Task Force on Palestine. And each year, we host the group for an introductory meeting to tell the fellows about APN and Peace Now. On Friday, July 1, we got together at our office with the NSL fellows and staff for what was supposed to be a short introductory meeting, and turned into a fascinating two-hour discussion about efforts for Israeli-Palestinian peace and prospects for a two-state solution.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) joins its sister organization, Israel's Peace Now movement, in strongly condemning the recent deadly terrorist attacks against Israelis in the West Bank and in pointing out that ultimately, the only way to end such violence is ending the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip by achieving a two-state solution.
This imperative was further underscored in today's report by the international Middle East Quartet, the body that brings together the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace.
APN intern Aparna Clarke attended a June 30, 2016 panel discussion on America’s future Middle East policy, following November’s presidential elections. Following is her report:
What kind of Middle East policy is the next U.S. administration expected to adopt?
The Arab Center Washington DC (ACW) brought together on Wednesday, June 29th four leading Washington scholars on Middle East Policy to consider this question. The panelists were Ellen Laipson, Distinguished Fellow and President Emeritus of the Stimson Center, Aaron David Miller, Vice President for New Initiatives and Distinguished Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Manal Omar, Associate Vice President for the Middle East and Africa at the United States Institute of Peace, and Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland and non-resident senior fellow at the Brooking Institute’s Center for Middle East Policy. The discussion was moderated by ACW’s Executive Director, Khalil Jahshan.
All four panelists acknowledged the volatile and troubling current climate of the Middle East, emphasizing both the challenges that the next President will face and the necessity for him or her to exercise prudence with regards to policy implementation.
A 13-year-old Israeli girl, Hallel Ariel, was stabbed to death in her sleep at her family’s home in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba near Hebron. The attacker, 17-year-old Muhammad Tarayre of the neighboring village of Bani Naim jumped the fence into Kiryat Arba, fatally stabbed the girl, stabbed a security guard, and was then shot dead.
Americans for Peace Now (APN), the sister-organization of the Israeli peace movement Peace Now, strongly condemns this terrorist attack. Attacks such as this are completely unjustifiable, and are antithetical to the pursuit of a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
History is full of consequences for those who lose their self-control. Many have paid dearly for the
ignorant things they have said and done.
Moses was told to speak to a large rock, from which God would allow water to flow to quench the people’s thirst. Moses didn’t do that. He struck the rock not once but twice. The consequences were severe: Moses, the ultimate Zionist, was not allowed to enter the land of Israel.
He shouldn’t have done that.
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