A Long Line of Worriers

Sheldon Harnick

DonateI came from a long line of worriers — we’re Jews after all! My parents worried that I’d never make a living as a songwriter and urged me to become a shoe salesman! I didn’t become a shoe salesman but I remain a worrier.

I worry about Israel today, after nearly 50 years as an occupier of another people. The Occupied Territories hardly figure in the public discourse in Israel these days, and yet the occupation won’t go away simply as a result of inattention.

The attitude of right-wing extremist supporters of Israel also worries me greatly. When you tell them that constructing peace is a complex undertaking, that it requires both imagination and pragmatism, they’ll dismiss you by dumbing down the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They say things like, "The Muslims want to destroy Israel" or "The Arabs refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state" or "If the Arabs had accepted Israel in 1948, the Palestinians wouldn’t be where they are today."

They say things like, "Israel has no partner for peace," ignoring the Palestinian government's renouncement of violence against Israel. They even have problems with the Palestinians using a non-violent diplomatic path towards peace by turning to the international community for support of their national aspirations.

Extremists here and in Israel will never find a situation in which Israelis and Palestinians can reach an accord and a Palestinian state can peacefully come into existence.

That’s why I’m so worried — and infuriated.

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Peace Now Settlement Watch: Settlers Take Over Two Houses in Hebron

News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:

Today, (January 21st, 2016), settlers took over two houses in Hebron near the Cave of the Patriarchs. The settlers broke into the houses claiming to have purchased them from the Palestinian owners. It was reported that the owners deny having sold their houses and plan to take legal measures to force the settlers out and maintain ownership on their property.

Even if the houses were truly bought by the settlers, it is still in the hands of the Israeli government to decide whether to allow them to settle in the houses. The authority to establish a settlement in the West Bank rests exclusively in the hands of the Government of Israel, irrespective of any ownership claim. Every purchase of property in the West Bank by Israelis must be approved by the Minister of Defense, and such an approval have yet to be granted.

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Press Release: APN Condemns Israeli Government Confiscation of West Bank Land

Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly condemns the Israeli government's decision to confiscate some 380 acres in the West Bank. The expropriated land, according to Israeli media reports, is intended for Israeli settlers' use.

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PAST ACTION - Thank Ambassador Shapiro for Speaking the Truth

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Update: this action, now closed, ran in January 2016. 

In a speech delivered in at a conference in Tel Aviv on January 18th, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro spoke the truths about Israeli policies and about U.S. concerns for Israel’s future.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has criticized Ambassador Shapiro for his comments. Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has demanded that he recant them and apologize. A former aide to Netanyahu went so far as to use an offensive anti-Jewish slur against the Ambassador.

Click here to thank Ambassador Shapiro for speaking hard truths to the Israeli government and the Israeli people (via Facebook here; via Twitter here).

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In a speech delivered in at a conference in Tel Aviv on January 18th, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro spoke the truths about Israeli policies and about U.S. concerns for Israel’s future.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has criticized Ambassador Shapiro for his comments. Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked has demanded that he recant them and apologize. A former aide to Netanyahu went so far as to use an offensive anti-Jewish slur against the Ambassador.

Did Ambassador Shapiro get the facts wrong?

Read our two new They Say, We Say questions to find out!

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News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:

This morning the Army Radio reported that Minister of Defense Ya'alon authorized the declaration of 1,545 dunams south of Jericho as state land. This land has been overtaken by settlers years ago for the purpose of agricultural cultivations. According to the Army Radio the declaration will be published in the coming weeks. This is the largest declaration since August 2014, when 4,000 dunams in the Etzion Bloc area were declared as state lands, resulting in an international storm of criticism. 

This approval comes after several declarations and confiscations in the last few weeks as two orders were signed on 23 December 2015, intended to take over new lands in the Qalqilya region and Qusra region southeast of Nablus (see details below).

Peace Now: Continued land confiscation by the Netanyahu government is a diplomatic catastrophe. The government's decision is another step on the way to destroy the possibility for a two state solution. Netanyahu is being dragged by Naftali Bennett and begins a silent annexation of area C.

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APN warmly welcomes implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)

APN warmly welcomes implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and congratulates the Obama Administration and its international partners on this historic achievement. The JCPOA has already succeeded in dramatically rolling back Iran’s nuclear program and will stringently limit this program going forward, in order to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear program in the future. In doing so, the JCPOA is a clear win for the American people, for U.S. leadership, for U.S. national security and, we believe, for Israel. It is for these reasons that APN and our supporters across the U.S. for years worked in support of a diplomatic solution to the challenge of Iran.

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New Year for trees, nothing new for Palestinians.

Tu Bishvat

On Monday, most Israelis will celebrate Tu Bishvat by cherishing the fruit of the land and planting plant trees.

But in the West Bank, extremist settlers routinely destroy trees belonging to Palestinian farmers - not to mention other forms of vandalism and assault.

DonateAccording to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 11,254 trees have been vandalized in the West Bank in 2015, a 20% increase over the previous year. It is bitterly ironic that many of the trees these cowards choose to uproot or vandalize are olive trees - the very symbol of peace.

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Americans for Peace Now welcomes the statement issued by the European Union's foreign ministers, which states that no European agreements with Israel would be applicable in the Occupied Territories and reiterating the EU's policy of labeling products made in West Bank Israeli settlements.

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January 18, 2016 - Basic questions on the broadest issues

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This week, Alpher discusses the Iran nuclear deal being fully implemented, with sanctions lifted earlier than originally predicted, and the US and Iran exchanging detainees; where these leave Washington’s relations with Israel and the Sunni Arab states; and the essentially Sunni Arab movements of Islamic State and al-Qaeda and the collapse of several Arab states - how and why all this began five years ago and whether we have figured that out so we can avoid repeating past mistakes.

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