On Friday, 24 July 2015, Peace Now held it's annual conference in Tel Aviv under the title: Israel Now - Building an Alternative." With 1,200 participants, many of them youth, this was Peace Now's largest conference of all time. Some 60 speakers - including Members of Knesset, journalists, civil society leaders, experts and activists - participated in different panels focusing on the two state solution; international pressure; identity politics; the parliamentary opposition; and the struggle against silencing and de-legitimization of peace organizations. Another issue highlighted at the conference was the struggle against the demolition of Palestinian village of Susya, which is taking place these very days.

Watch highlights of the conference here:

Download APN's exciting new News Nosh App!
The News Nosh App allows you to access all the news available in our News Nosh email, plus several new features, formatted for ease of use on a mobile device.

This week, Alpher discusses ramifications of the Iran nuclear deal for US-Israel relations, as well as regionally; Israel’s relations with Jordan and Saudi Arabia; how Turkey has exploited the momentum of the Iran nuclear deal; and at this time, two weeks past the conclusion in Vienna of the Iran nuclear agreement with the international community, who is gaining and who is losing in the Middle East.

The sub-committee for settlements of the higher planning committee of the military’s Civil Administration met yesterday to discuss 15 plans, at various planning stages and in different settlements. In total, the committee discussed plans that regard 1,065 housing units. Of these housing units, the plan approved 541 new housing units, retroactively legalized 228 existing housing units, and approved the development of infrastructure for a plan that consists of 296 housing units, while further approval will be needed before construction of the housing units can begin.
 

We mourn the passing of APN friend Theodore Bikel.

The world renowned stage and film actor and singer was also a leading peace activist for Israel, and was currently serving as Chairman of the Board of Partners for Progressive Israel. He publicly refused to perform in Israeli settlements, and in 2010 led a settlement boycott effort by 120 artists which he wrote about in the Huffington Post's "Legitimizing an Obstacle to Peace"

As we all know, a picture is worth a thousand words. This is our aim: to make people think and to act for peace.

This week, we bring you a new cartoon, asking what troubles the Prime Minister most: “Existential Threat”

Rabbi Seth Goldstein has served as the rabbi of Temple Beth Hatfiloh in Olympia, WA since 2003, after graduating from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. He is a member of the board of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, served as a co-chair of an RRA task force examining issues of Jewish status and identity, is a participant in the Clergy Leadership Program of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality and a fellow of CLAL's Rabbis Without Borders.

Tisha B’Av (“the ninth of Av”) is a day of fasting and mourning for the destruction of the ancient Temples in Jerusalem, and is observed this year beginning the evening of July 25. Like Yom Kippur, it is a full day fast (The fast is being observed on the 10^th of Av this year because the 9^th falls on Shabbat, and thus the fast is postponed.)

The Temple holds an important place in the collective spiritual consciousness of the Jewish people. It is seen as the place where the community was in deep and close connection to God. The destruction of the Temple led to the separation from the land, the dispersion of the community and a need to rebuild the ritual infrastructure of Judaism, so its loss is remembered as a great tragedy. In addition to setting aside this one day to mourn, prayers for the rebuilding of the Temple and Jerusalem punctuate our liturgy.

Interview with Iran expert Meir Javedanfar. An Iranian-born Israeli who co-authored a book on Iran's leadership and teaches courses on contemporary Iranian politics at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Javedanfar is well-positioned to analyze attitudes toward the agreement both in Israel and in Iran. The interview is about 10 minutes long.

Interview with Barbara Slavin, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, an Iran policy expert, on the impact of the new agreement on Iran and on prospects that the new agreement may serve to stimulate reform in Iran, going beyond Iran's nuclear ambitions. The interview is about 8 minutes long.

Update: this action, now closed, ran in July 2015. 

On July 14, the Obama Administration, its P5+1 partners, and the government of Iran announced the achievement of an historic agreement over Iran’s nuclear program.

This is a good deal. It is grounded not on trust and goodwill but on far-reaching limitations on Iranian activities and intrusive verification mechanisms. Implementation of this agreement –key elements of which will continue in force for decades – will make Israel, the region and the world more secure. When implemented, this agreement will:

• Roll back Iran’s nuclear program;

• Limit Iran’s nuclear activities going forward;

• Prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon; and

• Ensure that any effort by Iran to try to “sneak out” towards developing a nuclear weapon will be far more likely to be detected, and the U.S. and international community will be in a far stronger position to respond.