Americans for Peace Now

Settlements 101

by APN 12/09/12

What is a settlement?

"Settlement" is the term used to denote Israeli civilian communities built in territory conquered by Israel in the Six Day War (June 1967). This territory is comprised of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula. These neighborhoods have been a major issue in the peace process since 1967 and remain highly controversial.

Settlements in the Sinai were evacuated and destroyed in 1979, following Israel's historic peace agreement with Egypt and the return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt.

Settlements in the Gaza Strip were evacuated and destroyed as part of Israel's unilateral "disengagement" from Gaza in 2005.

Therefore, today settlements only exist in the Golan Heights and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem).

Open Zion: APN's Lara Friedman - How Obama Can Get Tough With Bibi

by admin_as_editor 12/05/12

Recently, the European Union adopted harsh new Iran sanctions, strongly supported by Israel. Shortly thereafter, Israel announced new East Jerusalem settlement construction. The EU's top official Catherine Ashton, who was about to visit Israel, condemned the announcement in measured terms; Israel's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, publicly told her, in effect, to shove it. Imagine if in response, Ashton had indefinitely postponed her trip. Imagine that Israeli ambassadors in EU capitals were summoned to the local foreign ministries and read the riot act. Imagine that Israeli press had been alerted, leading to headlines about how Prime Minister Netanyahu and Lieberman were squandering the friendship of the EU and European support on Iran for the sake of settlement expansion.

Open Zion: APN's Lara Friedman - How Obama Can Get Tough With Bibi

by admin_as_editor 12/05/12

APN on Gaza in the NYT: Only the U.S. Can Broker Peace

by admin_as_editor 11/20/12

At the invitation of the New York Times "Room for Debate," APN's Lara Friedman weighed in with analysis of what President Obama can and should do to address the Gaza-Israel crisis and to ensure that any new ceasefire does not become simply an intermission between rounds of violence.

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APN Resource Page on the Gaza Crisis
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Open Zion: APN's Lara Friedman - Round Two At Turtle Bay

by admin_as_editor 11/14/12

For the second consecutive year, the Palestinians are seeking enhanced status at the U.N. It feels like a re-run of 2011, but there are significant legal and political differences that should not be overlooked.

Huffington Post: APN's Lara Friedman - If Not Now, When? If Not Abbas, Who?

by admin_as_editor 11/09/12

Suppose Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told an interviewer that he'll never recognize Israel or accept any agreement that doesn't give the Palestinians every inch of historic Palestine, including all of Jerusalem. He insists on full Palestinian right of return - including his own right of return to his native Safed, which since 1948 has been part of Israel -- and maintains that it is the Palestinians' right to use all means, including violence, to achieve their goals.

Bibi's Tried-and-True Settlement Weapon (Lara Friedman at the Daily Beast)

by admin_as_editor 11/06/12

Today's announcement that the Israeli government if moving full steam ahead with the construction of nearly 1300 new settlement units should surprise nobody. The announcement paves the way for construction in Pisgat Zeev and Ramot (settlement neighborhoods of East Jerusalem), as well as in the huge and extremely controversial settlement of Ariel - a settlement located smack-dab in the middle of the northern West Bank, in a location that makes its inclusion as part of Israel under any realistic borders scenario pretty much impossible.

Heroes

by admin 11/06/12

Last month, on September 11th, we sat down to begin drafting this letter to tell you about the vital work of Americans for Peace Now (APN) and the Israeli Peace Now movement.

Huffington Post: APN's Lara Friedman - No More Excuses for Bibi

by admin_as_editor 10/11/12

Headlines today are focused on the announcement yesterday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu of early Knesset elections. Rather than add to the feeding frenzy of speculation, today I want to weigh in, belatedly, on Bibi himself.

Forward: "Occupation Corrupts Soul of Israel" by APN Board member Leonard Fein

by APN 09/06/12

Attacks Reflect Zig-Zag Line of Settlement Enterprise

It is tempting to impute retroactive intentionality to yesterday's events. As Gershom Gorenberg felicitously puts it, we mistakenly assume "that if things turned out a certain way, someone planned it that way." Looking back now, it may seem a foregone conclusion that Israel's settlement policy in the West Bank (and in Golan, too) was from the beginning an evil design, intended to encroach on Palestinian rights rather than to solve immediate problems. But the effort to draw a straight line of intentionality from then to now obscures more than it clarifies.

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Settlements 101

What is a settlement?

Open Zion: APN's Lara Friedman - How Obama Can Get Tough With Bibi

Open Zion: APN's Lara Friedman - How Obama Can Get Tough With Bibi

APN on Gaza in the NYT: Only the U.S. Can Broker Peace

Open Zion: APN's Lara Friedman - Round Two At Turtle Bay

Huffington Post: APN's Lara Friedman - If Not Now, When? If Not Abbas, Who?

Bibi's Tried-and-True Settlement Weapon (Lara Friedman at the Daily Beast)

Heroes

Huffington Post: APN's Lara Friedman - No More Excuses for Bibi

Forward: "Occupation Corrupts Soul of Israel" by APN Board member Leonard Fein

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