New Jersey Jewish News - June 29, 2015
APN's Ori Nir op-ed: Satire can't keep up with Israel's loose-lipped politicians
http://njjewishnews.com/article/27695/satire-cant-keep-up-with-israels-loose-lipped-politicians#.VZWSqvlVikq
JewSchool - June 29, 2015
APN intern Susanna Berman op-ed: The Elephant on the Bus
http://jewschool.com/2015/06/37321/elephant-bus/
Politico - June 30, 2015
APN's Lara Friedman welcomes Obama administration's clarification regarding distinction between Israel and West
Bank settlements
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/administration-objects-to-israeli-settlements-provision-in-trade-bill-119620.html
Huffington Post - June 30, 2015
APN's Lara Friedman welcomes Obama administration's embracing of distinction between Israel and West Bank
settlements
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/30/trade-bill-israel-settlements_n_7700814.html
Times of Israel - July 1, 2015
Obama administration rejects conflating Israel and West Bank settlements, a position asserted earlier by APN
http://www.timesofisrael.com/state-department-backs-away-from-anti-bds-laws-language/
Globes (Israeli economic daily) - July 1, 2015
Obama administration embraces distinction between Israel and West Bank settlements, which APN had underscored
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-obama-adminstration-1001049200>
JTA - July 1, 2015
Obama administration embraces distinction between Israel and West Bank settlers, which APN had flagged during
legislative process
http://www.jta.org/2015/07/01/news-opinion/politics/obama-administration-will-not-enforce-anti-bds-law-on-west-bank-settlements
Jerusalem Post (JTA story) - July 1, 2015
Obama administration embraces distinction between Israel and settlements, which APN underscored during legislative
process
http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Obama-administration-will-ignore-Israel-controlled-territories-in-anti-BDS-law-407709
Why is Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to Washington, launching his vicious attack against President Obama now?
Oren says he asked his publisher to go ahead and publish his new book “Ally” in order to influence the debate in the US over the deal that Washington and its international allies are negotiating with Iran. Some, including Jeffrey Goldberg of Atlantic, buy Oren’s explanation.
I don’t. Had Oren sought to weigh in on the Iran debate, he could have done so without an ugly ad-hominem attack on President Obama, without the outrageous attacks on Obama’s aides (particularly the senior Jewish aides), against American Jewish journalists and against the American Jewish community at large, as he did in his book and in his Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy and Los Angeles Times articles.
On July 1, 2015, Prof. Ami Pedahzur of the University of Texas at Austin, an expert on Israel's radical right, briefed APN on his recent research regarding the West Bank settlers' power and influence in Israeli public life.
Washington, DC – Americans for Peace Now (APN) today welcomed the Obama Administration’s June 30 rejection of
legislative language conflating Israel with West Bank settlements (full text of the State Department statement is
copied below). APN Director of Policy and Government Relations Lara Friedman commented:
“We welcome the State Department’s statement that U.S. policy regarding settlements remains unchanged. For months
we have been warning of ongoing efforts by some in Congress, led by AIPAC and supported by various right-wing
organizations, as well as by some in the current Israeli government, to change U.S. policy on this issue by
stealth. These efforts seek to exploit concerns about boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) targeting Israel –
concerns APN shares – as cover for legislation the true purpose and effect of which are to protect and promote
settlements.
Shortly before I ended my sophomore year of college, I found myself in my advisor’s office with an important question:
Doron Rosenblum, one of Israel’s leading satirists, recently wrote on his Facebook page: “I got
it. They (members of the ruling coalition) are defeating criticism and satire through using satire’s own power,
as judokas do, by taking themselves beyond the absurd. Today, no satirist can outdo the insanity of" Benjamin
Netanyahu’s government.
Indeed, Israel’s leading television satire show, Eretz Nehederet (What a Wonderful Country), recently ran a humorous quiz on its web site, in which participants were asked to guess whether quotes attributed to Likud Knesset Member Oren Hazan were true or false. I took the quiz and failed miserably. Hazan’s real quotes were much more outlandish than the made-up ones.
