Let’s take a moment for a thought experiment. I do this days after more Palestinian attacks on Israelis, including the horrific murder of a mother of six children; soon after Israel announced the expropriation of another 370 acres of land near Jericho; and after Majed Faraj, the Palestinian security chief, announced that Palestinian security forces had intercepted 200 potential terrorist attacks against Israel. The thought experiment focuses on whether the “Plan B” for the Israel-Palestine dispute should be Israel’s annexation of the territories it occupied in 1967 and the extension of full citizenship rights to the Palestinians in those areas.
APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday January 29, 2016
Quote of the day:
“The search, identification and marking of alleged traitors is an old fascist characteristic, an ugly
and dangerous one.”
--Likud MK Benny Begin slammed the campaign 'outing' left-wing artists as traitors and called for Im Tirtzu’s funding sources to be exposed.**
--Likud MK Benny Begin slammed the campaign 'outing' left-wing artists as traitors and called for Im Tirtzu’s funding sources to be exposed.**
In 2014, opponents of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel began promoting legislation in various U.S. states denouncing the BDS movement.
In 2015, these efforts shifted/expanded to mirror efforts in the U.S. Congress to hijack concerns about BDS against Israel in order to pass legislation mandating that Israeli settlements be treated, in effect, as part of sovereign Israel.
At the outset of 2016, it is already clear that these efforts are continuing and building. Indeed, the clear trend at the state-level is moving away from anti-BDS resolutions in favor of binding legislation to – in effect – have states boycott, divest from, and sanction companies that engage in BDS against Israel, or that in any concrete way differentiate between Israel and the settlements.
This table --
which will be updated regularly and which is based on data drawn from the websites of the various state
legislatures -- is intended to help people understand and follow what is happening at the state
level.
(Do you know about legislation missing from the table? Please let me know - LFriedman@peacenow.org).
APN's daily news review from Israel
Thursday January 28, 2016
Quote of the day:
"As one of the only ones here who grew up in a dictatorship, I am telling you that (you) are going in a
very wrong direction."
--MK Haim Yellin (Yesh Atid), who immigrated from Argentina during that country's "Dirty War" period of state terror, tells Culture Minister Miri Regev after she presented her controversial 'Cultural Loyalty' bill to Knesset.**
--MK Haim Yellin (Yesh Atid), who immigrated from Argentina during that country's "Dirty War" period of state terror, tells Culture Minister Miri Regev after she presented her controversial 'Cultural Loyalty' bill to Knesset.**
The current U.S. and EU approaches are similar in that both bar producers and exporters of products made in settlements from indicating that the point of origin of the products is Israel. The approaches differ, however, in how far they go. U.S. labeling, in effect, differentiates between Israel on the one hand, and the West Bank/Gaza on the other. The EU differentiates not only between Israel and the West Bank, but within the West Bank between Israeli and Palestinian goods. This difference reflects, fundamentally, the different historical and economic circumstances in which the respective regulations were adopted.
APN's daily news review from Israel
Wednesday January 27, 2016
Quote of the day:
“After Operation Protective Edge, Cast Lead, Pillar of Defense and thousands upon thousands of dead and
injured that the IDF left in Gaza, a state whose government ministers and MKs call on civilians to shoot to
kill; a state whose soldiers shoot and kill Palestinians every day; in whose army a soldier killed a youth who
went out to collect thistles; and the trials of those who committed real atrocities goes on and is dragged out
and later it turns out that none of them are really responsible for their actions – in a country like this,
that’s what bothers us? One dead Palestinian?
--Israeli writes letter to the editor lambasting the ‘racket’ raised by the State of Israel, which arrested three left-wing and human-rights activists.**
--Israeli writes letter to the editor lambasting the ‘racket’ raised by the State of Israel, which arrested three left-wing and human-rights activists.**
The strength of organizations working to end the occupation and their supporters is greater than we think.
One day the occupation will end. It will probably happen in one fell swoop. And when it happens, it will suddenly
emerge that everyone was against it. That the politicians had actually worked to end it, that the journalists
strove indefatigably to expose its injustices, that the cultural institutions condemned it courageously and that
Israeli academia was a center of persistent resistance, from which the struggle drew ideological and moral backing.
In short, everyone was part of the Resistance.
This week, Alpher discusses why he has had so little discussion on issues related directly to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and prospects for new negotiations recently; whether, even if that’s the case regarding the PLO in the West Bank, we can ignore assessments regarding Hamas and Hezbollah activity there, alongside predictions regarding violence emanating from Gaza, extremist inclinations among the Israeli Arab community, and even a high-level forecast of ISIS activity against Israel; the angry Israeli reaction to US Ambassador Dan Shapiro's statement that Israel exercises a legal double standard in its approach to Israeli settlers as opposed to Palestinians in the West Bank; and whether Israeli-Turkish negotiations regarding normalization of bilateral relations hold out any hope for a better situation in Gaza.
APN's daily news review from Israel
Tuesday January 26, 2016
You Must Be Kidding:
"In the fall of 2015, a series of stabbings were made across the country. Most of them were committed by Arab citizens of Israel ..."
--False information in the controversial new Israeli civics textbook.
"In the fall of 2015, a series of stabbings were made across the country. Most of them were committed by Arab citizens of Israel ..."
--False information in the controversial new Israeli civics textbook.
I came from a long line of worriers — we’re Jews after all! My parents worried that
I’d never make a living as a songwriter and urged me to become a shoe salesman! I didn’t become a shoe
salesman but I remain a worrier.
I worry about Israel today, after nearly 50 years as an occupier of another people. The Occupied Territories hardly figure in the public discourse in Israel these days, and yet the occupation won’t go away simply as a result of inattention.
The attitude of right-wing extremist supporters of Israel also worries me greatly. When you tell them that constructing peace is a complex undertaking, that it requires both imagination and pragmatism, they’ll dismiss you by dumbing down the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They say things like, "The Muslims want to destroy Israel" or "The Arabs refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state" or "If the Arabs had accepted Israel in 1948, the Palestinians wouldn’t be where they are today."
They say things like, "Israel has no partner for peace," ignoring the Palestinian government's renouncement of violence against Israel. They even have problems with the Palestinians using a non-violent diplomatic path towards peace by turning to the international community for support of their national aspirations.
Extremists here and in Israel will never find a situation in which Israelis and Palestinians can reach an accord and a Palestinian state can peacefully come into existence.
That’s why I’m so worried — and infuriated.