Washington, DC -- A day after the fourth round of general Israeli elections in two years, with most of the votes counted, Israel seems still stuck in an ongoing, almost endemic political crisis.
But the real crisis is not the absurd cycle of elections. The real destructive crisis threatening Israel's security and democracy is its 53 years of occupation and de-facto annexation of the West Bank that pushes Israelis and Palestinians farther still from an eventual settlement to their conflict.
APN's daily news review from Israel - Sunday March 21, 2021
Quote of the day:
"The racist Netanyahu thinks we Arab people are idiots. He thinks that we can be lied to our faces and that
we will buy it."
—Joint List lawmaker Aida Toma-Suleiman said after
Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told an Arab-Israeli newspaper that the Jewish Nation-State Law
is not against Arab-Israelis. (The controversial law seeks to define the character of the
state as Jewish, but does not make an explicit commitment to equality for all citizens or declare the state as
democratic. It downgraded the status of the Arabic language in Israel and it includes a clause establishing "Jewish
settlement as a national value," which could lead to discrimination on the basis of nationality in the allocation
of land and resources.)*
APN's daily news review from Israel - Thursday March 18, 2021
You Must Be Kidding:
“I know there is a real religion, the Jewish religion. A religion of peace, love and tolerance…And there is
a religion, unfortunately, of violence, of terror, of jihad. That is the religion that Mansour Abbas
represents."
— Leader
of Jewish supremacist party, ‘Religious Zionism,’ MK Bezalel Smotrich compares Judaism and Islam. **
Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently said that “the Biden administration enthusiastically embraces the 2016 International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism,” known by its acronym as IHRA.
Join us in asking Secretary Blinken to curb his enthusiasm.
Twelve Democratic members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the Biden administration to embrace policy that supports the human rights and dignity of the Palestinian people. The letter lists past letters sent to the Trump administration regarding such matters. Following is the full text of the letter:
Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin
Following an election campaign that pundits depict as the sleepiest in Israel’s history, Israelis went to the polls for the fourth time in two years. Election fatigue notwithstanding, the results of this round could be more consequential than the past three. Will Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc win the coveted 61 MK majority for him to form a coalition? Will the opposition gain enough votes to foil such a government? Will the Kahanist extremists cross the threshold to make it into the Knesset? Will Meretz? And how are the Arab parties going to fair?
Dr. Scheindlin is a public opinion expert and an international political and strategic consultant, as well
as a scholar and a writer. She has advised and conducted research on seven national campaigns in Israel
over the past twenty years, and has provided research and advising for elections, referendums, and civil
society campaigns in fifteen different countries.
APN's daily news review from Israel - Wednesday March 17, 2021
Quote of the day:
"For me there are two types of people who are totally unacceptable: those under criminal indictment and
Kahanists who are racists."
--Meretz party chairman, Nitzan Horowitz, says in an interview that he won't be recommending Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu form the next government.*
APN's daily news review from Israel - Tuesday March 16, 2021
Number of the day:
97
--Percentage
of legislative bills proposals for order submitted by the Arab Knesset members that dealt with social
issues concerning all Israeli citizens - despite the common belief among Jewish Israelis that Arab MKs focus mainly
on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.*
Seventeen Democratic members of the House of Representatives on March 15, 2021 sent a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, urging him to take additional action to ensure that the Israeli government provide COVID-19 vaccines and facilitate vaccination programs for Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Following is the text of the letter and the list of signatories:
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.