Please join us on Friday at 1:00 PM (EST) for a briefing call with Dr. Matti Steinberg, an Israeli expert on Hamas, on Palestinian politics and on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A former senior adviser to the heads of the General Security Services in Israel and a professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Steinberg is one of Israel’s leading experts on Palestinian affairs. He is the author of the award-winning book “Unending Quest: The Development of Palestinian National Consciousness, 1967- 2007 (Hebrew).

Peace Now has just announced that in the last few days, following the killing of the three Israeli teens, there have been alarming developments on the ground in settlements: Three new (serious) outposts were established and a new road to Givat Eitam outpost was paved, in addition to other several protest tents and other developments that the settlers put up in different places in the West Bank.

The settlers are taking advantage of the killing of the three teens in order to set facts on the ground that they wouldn't dare to do before. We don't know if they got a green light from the government (although such a green light could not have made the acts legal, short of planning procedures), however, those developments will be judged by the government's reaction.

On July 1, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu eulogized the three Israeli yeshiva students murdered in the West Bank. “A deep and wide moral abyss separates us from our enemies,” he said. “They sanctify death while we sanctify life…”

When 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir was kidnapped and murdered in East Jerusalem a few days later, Netanyahu’s words — and words like them — framed the story. Indeed, an unbiased consumer of media reports about Abu Khdeir’s killing would likely conclude that while the perpetrators turned out to be Jewish Israelis, they might just as likely, or more likely, have been Palestinians.

Israel's Peace Now movement, Shalom Achshav, organized a demonstration in Tel Aviv Thursday, calling for restraint and denouncing violence, incitement and revenge. Several thousand Israelis gathered for this Demonstration of Sanity, and listened to speeches by Knesset members and leading peace activists, including Peace Now's Secretary General Yariv Oppenheimer.

Washington, DC –Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly condemns the firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel, supports Israel's right of self-defense and calls on the government of Israel to avoid harming innocent civilians as it retaliates for the rocket attacks.

Commenting on the current escalation, APN President and CEO Debra DeLee stated:

"The escalating violence on Israel's border with Gaza is deeply alarming. Once again innocent Israelis are being targeted by rockets, while innocent Palestinians are caught in the crossfire as Israel exercises its legitimate right to self-defense.

Link to the article from American President Obama at the top of the page, as well as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' piece also published in conjunction with the Ha'aretz Israel Peace Conference.

See a large and readable version of APN's Ad

Israeli strategic affairs expert Yossi Alpher, who authors Hard Questions Tough Answers, APN's weekly news analysis, was our guest on Thursday, July 3^rd, for a briefing call on the current Israeli-Palestinian security crisis and its repercussions.  Since Thursday, Alpher's presentation has been overtaken by events; we have included here the still relevant Q&A session.

Dave Pollock of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy is the author of Beyond Words, a study of Palestinian incitement. In this interview, he talks about his study, about the impact of incitement – both Palestinian and Israeli – and about ways to reduce it.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) mourns with the Palestinian people the death of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, the 16-year-old Palestinian kidnapped and brutally murdered last week in Jerusalem.  APN (once again) condemns the kidnapping and the killing, and sends its condolences to the Abu Khdeir family. APN calls on the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority and all Palestinian factions, to prevent further escalation and further loss of innocent lives.

APN's President and CEO Debra DeLee said:

Q. The past week has witnessed the discovery of the three yeshiva students' bodies near Hebron, their highly emotional funeral, the kidnapping and brutal murder of a Palestinian boy from Jerusalem, and the apprehension of his young Jewish murderers. Meanwhile, Arab citizens of Israel are rioting, while rockets from Gaza continue to hit as far as Beersheva. A new intifada?

A. No, or at least, not yet. There are a number of important factors that distinguish the current situation from the circumstances that led to the second intifada that erupted in the fall of 2000; they mitigate against a new one.