On Tuesday, June 21st, APN and New Israel Fund co-hosted a a briefing from security expert Yossi Alpher, who was in Washington DC promoting his new book, “No End of Conflict: Rethinking Israel-Palestine.”

Alpher focused on the disastrous impact of the peace impasse with the Palestinians and the dangerous slippery slope Israel and the Palestinians are on, zeroing in on the need for all parties, including global think tanks and policy planners as well as Diaspora Jewish communities, to adopt a new agenda that recognizes the emerging reality and asks how to manage the slippery slope (rather than a non-existent peace process) and to at least delay Israel’s descent towards the status of ugly bi-national state and international pariah.

As we all know, a picture is worth a thousand words. This is our aim: to make people think and to act for peace.

This week, we bring you a new cartoon, asking -what is that wall holding back? "Let It Go."

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 the prominent Israeli former government and security officials who spoke out last week very bluntly against Netanyahu and his government and whether this could this be the beginning of serious change; if ISIS is losing the battle for the Levant and if the Obama approach is winning; and whether there are lessons here for Israel regarding Hamas in Gaza.

Hagai Elad, executive director of Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, on a short visit to Washington DC, was hosted Friday June 17th for a roundtable briefing by the New Israel Fund. NIF is one of B’Tselem’s chief funders.

 B’Tselem, one of the most prominent human rights organizations in Israel, works tirelessly to inform the Israeli public about human rights violations of Palestinian civilians under Israel’s occupation in the West Bank.

 Elad elaborated on B’Tselem’s recent decision to stop referring complaints to the Israeli military law enforcement system, whose role is to handle cases of mistreatment of Palestinians by Israeli Defence Force soldiers. Elad explained that the whitewashing employed by the military law enforcement system has made it extremely difficult for B’Tselem to follow through with investigations: only 3% of cases filed by B’Tselem go to trial. This percentage is so small that even the number of files misplaced and lost in the system is higher.

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