Congress has a long record of supporting and defending Israel's security, Israel's economy, Israel's position and treatment in international organizations and the international community, Israel's right to self-defense, and Israel's reputation as a nation that seeks peace. For this it deserves credit. 

Congress also has a long record of refusing to affirmatively support Israel's policy of building settlements in the occupied territories, including, for example, by barring the use of U.S.-backed loan guarantees for settlement activity. For this too, Congress deserves credit.  Israel's settlements enterprise runs counter to the policy of every U.S. administration since 1967, whether led by a Republican or Democrat, and runs counter to Israel's own interests.  Settlements undermine Israel's security, erode Israel's position in the international community and belie Israel's commitment to peace and the two-state solution - and if there is no two-state solution, Israel cannot survive as both a democracy and a Jewish state.  

This week, Alpher discusses whether there is any chance former US President Jimmy Carter will succeed in generating Palestinian unity where everyone else has failed when he arrives in the region this Thursday to mediate between Hamas and Fateh, in cooperation with Saudi Arabia; if Israel’s northern front is heating up or if recent incidents are connected to events in the Syrian civil war; how US involvement in the Saudi-led effort in Yemen, directed against Iranian intervention squares with the US-led nuclear talks with Iran; why Israel couldn’t observe the centenary of the Armenian genocide on April 24.

APN's daily news review from Israel

Monday April 27, 2015 
 

Quote of the day:

"It is dangerous and irresponsible to deposit the education portfolio in the hands of Naftali Bennett. We are at such a critical time. The video going around the Internet yesterday of young people brutally abusing a helpless dog, the violence and racism that long ago left the Internet comments and reached the street, the absolute indifference of so many people to the pain of people living in poverty, of refugees, of Palestinians - those things are closely related to the image of the education system, to the values or lack of values that it bequeaths to the citizens it raises. We must not give its reins to the leader of Messianic nationalism, who has never been ashamed to instigate and incite."
--Meretz party leader Zehava Gal-On fears the likely appointment of far right leader of Habayit Hayehudi, Naftali Bennett, as the next Education Minister.**

APN's daily news review from Israel

Sunday April 26, 2015 
 

Quote of the day:

“In truth, it’s wrong for them to dare to spoil the Jewish homogeneity, and on the eve of Memorial Day yet. Arrogant bastards.”
--Omer Senesh wrote cynically on Facebook after witnessing three young Arab men being barred from entering the posh Tel-Aviv shopping mall where he works.**

1.  Bills, Resolutions & Letters
2. “Settlements = Israel” Legislation Gains Traction
3. Hearings   
4. Members on the Record

 [UPDATED 5/13 to reflect new info about pro-settlement language in the Senate version of the Customs bill -  S. 1269 - see Section 2, below, for details].

Watch the video below.

The Middle East Institute (MEI) and the Conflict Management Program at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) are pleased to host Lara Friedman (Americans for Peace Now), Ghaith Al-Omari (WINEP), Ilan Peleg (MEI) and Shibley Telhami (Univ. of Maryland) for a discussion about the policy options confronting key players in the peace process following the re-election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  

Is the peace process over, as critics of PM Netanyahu allege? Depending on what kind of a government Netanyahu forms, what are Israel's options for dealing with the Palestinian issue? How might Israel's settlement policies be affected by the formation of a "right-wing" government versus a "national unity" government?  Will the Palestinian Authority accelerate its campaign for state recognition in global organizations? And finally, what influence can the Obama Administration exert on the two sides?   

Washington, DC – APN Today released the following statement regarding pro-settlements legislation in the House and Senate:

“As a pro-Israel, pro-peace organization and the sister organization to Shalom Achshav (Peace Now), Israel’s veteran grassroots, Zionist peace movement, Americans for Peace Now (APN) rejects and condemns efforts in Congress, backed by AIPAC, to legislate U.S. support for Israeli settlements. We urge Congress to recognize the danger and folly of this approach and to hold firm in its well-established support for Israel and its equally well-established refusal to endorse Israeli settlements – and to reject HR 825 and efforts to pass similar language in the Senate.

Israeli author Amos Oz likes to say that he loves Israel even when he can’t stand it.

Israel’s public sphere has in recent months given Israelis such as Oz, and their friends overseas, many reasons for frustration. The growing gap between rich and poor (the widest in the world), overt expressions of racism, intolerance and xenophobia, anti-democratic ultra-nationalist legislation, government policies that pull the rug from under the pro-peace rhetoric of its leaders. And rhetoric that doesn’t even presume to be pro-peace.

Dr. Baskin, renowned Israeli peace activist and political commentator, award-winning journalist and author, and negotiator of Gilad Shalit's release, visited Los Angeles for this special post Israeli election event.