Israel’s new government - which, at least in its initial composition, is one of the most hardline in Israel’s history - will be sworn in within days.

This government brings together Israel's ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties along with a new centrist party. Past positions of this government's members suggest future policies that are the antithesis of what we stand for. This government seems bound to act to further hinder the viability of a two-state solution, to further exacerbate Israel's isolation internationally, to intensify West Bank settlement construction, promote undemocratic legislation and to act to stifle dissent. The Palestinian question is not even mentioned in the government’s guidelines! The cabinet’s super-important Justice portfolio has been given to The Jewish Home’s Ayelet Shaked, who for years has been pushing legislation to dry up the funding sources of Israel’s pro-democracy, pro-peace nonprofit organizations such as Peace Now.

The coalition agreement between the Likud and the Jewish Home party (Bayit Yehudi) reveals the plans of the new government and indicates its intentions, including: 

 
1. Granting the settlers control over the construction of settlements and over Israel's authority in the West Bank, while allocating more funds to the settlements. 
 
2. Passing legislation and reforms that change the democratic rules of the game. 
 
3. Allocating public funds to bolster the political power of the Israeli Right. 
 
This agreement, which includes a Jewish Home stronghold on a variety of positions directly related to settlement development, constitutes a clear danger to the possibility of arriving at a two state solution and illustrates the true intention of the current government - massive settlement expansion and the silencing of opposition to the occupation. 

I am a product of the '60's. I demonstrated against the Viet Nam war, marched for civil rights and against racism. I have boycotted lettuce and grapes, in support of the United Farmworkers; Dow, for manufacturing napalm during the Viet Nam war; Coors, for discriminatory hiring practices against people of color and gays; Nestlé, for its aggressive campaign to sell breast milk substitute to young mothers in developing countries; Target, for its significant contributions to Tom Emmer, the rightwing candidate for Minnesota Governor whose agenda included positions I abhorred on everything; and Walmart, for its poor labor practices (except when my mother Ruth Epstein, who turns 100 this August, insists on going there “for the bargains”).

You get the picture. And while I don't support the boycott of Israel or Israeli-made products, I do support boycotting products made in settlements – and I urge others to do the same. In taking this position, I stand with friends, colleagues, and loved ones in Israel – including Shalom Achshav (Peace Now), the veteran Israeli peace movement. I seek out Israeli wine at my local stores, but only buy it if it comes from one of the vineyards inside the Green Line.

I boycott settlements – and urge others who care about Israel to do likewise – because settlements and their expansion is the greatest obstacle to achieving a two-state solution for Israel and her Palestinian neighbors, and thus the greatest threat to an Israeli future that is Jewish, secure, and democratic.

Galia Golan, a co-founder of Israel’s Peace Now movement, is professor of government and chair of the Program on Diplomacy and Conflict Studies at the School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, and professor emeritus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

An expert on Israel’s international relations, Golan will comment on Israel’s future relations regionally and globally under Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which will be sworn in this Wednesday.

To listen to the call click here

To receive a link of the recording, please email Katherine Cunningham at kcunningham@peacenow.org. APN will send you a link to the recording of the call as soon as it is available

The Settlers’ Dream Government

Analysis of the coalition agreement between the Likud and the Jewish Home party (Bayit Yehudi)

The coalition agreement between the Likud and the Jewish Home party (Bayit Yehudi) reveals the plans of the new government and indicates its intentions. Beyond increasing the budgets and development of settlements, the government intends to address sectorial interests relating to the national religious public and to finance ideological educational activities aimed to fortify the right side of the political map. In addition, the government intends to initiate actions to restrict freedom of expression, to weaken the High Court of Justice and impair Israel’s democracy.

 This week, Alpher discusses what is the core problem that prevents Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu putting a government in place, even one with only 61 ministers; assuming that within a few days Netanyahu manages to field a narrow right-religious coalition, what his political options are; how the Europeans and the region are reacting to the emerging new coalition; given repeated battlefield advances in Syria in recent weeks, what might an opposition victory by Islamist and other rebels in Syria over the Assad government and its Iranian and Hezbollah supporters look like, and is it realistic?

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

Recently we asked you to call your Representative and urge them to sign a pro-diplomacy letter being circulated by Representatives Schakowsky (D-IL), Doggett (D-TX), and Price (D-NC) among Democrats in the House. Thousands of you responded – and your representatives took notice!

In the end, 151 House Democrats signed this letter to President Obama asking him to stay on course, build on the recently announced political framework and continue to work toward a strong and verifiable agreement between the P5+1 countries and Iran that will prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon.

This would be a huge success for any pro-peace, pro-diplomacy letter. It is an even more significant success today, given the degree to which the debate in Congress has been dominated by voices opposing diplomacy and seeking to undermine or block an agreement. While in no way committing its signers to any specific position with respect to a final deal, nonetheless this letter signals that there may well be sufficient support for a deal in Congress to sustain a presidential veto of diplomacy-killing legislation.

A full list of the letter’s signers (and non-signers) is below (only Democrats; Republicans were not asked to sign). You can check it to see if your representative is on either list.

If they are, we need you to take one more action:

If your member is one of the 151 members of Congress who signed the Schakowsky-Doggett-Price letter, click here to thank them for doing the right thing.

If your member is one of the 47 Democrats who did NOT sign the Schakowsky-Doggett-Price letter, click here to send them a message letting them know that you, as a constituent, are frustrated and disappointed in them.

Please act now. Opponents of diplomacy and an achievable Iran nuclear agreement are not giving up. They have for more than two years been working to kill talks and undermine an agreement; their efforts will only intensify as the June 30 deadline for talks approaches. Members of Congress need to know that their constituents, Americans who care both about U.S. interests and Israel, support diplomacy and an agreement - and want them to do the same.

Sincerely,

Lara Friedman
Director of Policy and Government Relations
Americans for Peace Now

P.S. Few would have predicted that the Schakowsky-Doggett-Price letter would attract so many signers. The fact that it did so is in large part a testament to the energetic grassroots activism mobilized in support of the letter. Indeed, the success of the Schakowsky-Doggett-Price letter demonstrates how important it is that members of Congress hear from you – now and in the future. Never doubt for a minute that your opinion matters to your elected officials, whether with respect to Iran, or Israel-Palestine, or any other issue.

This is another in a series of reviews of new books on Middle Eastern affairs. We asked Dr. Gail Weigl, an APN volunteer and a professor of art history, to review Yossi Alpher's new book about Israel's relations with Middle Eastern peripheral states and groups.

Yossi Alpher, Periphery: Israel’s Search for Middle East Allies (Lanham, MD, 2015). 169 pages, with lists of heads of Mossad and persons interviewed, maps and index. $28.31 

Periphery: Israel’s Search for Middle East Allies is Israelo-centric.  “Periphery” therefore must be understood to refer to the Arab states surrounding Israel and the search for Middle East allies to refer to nation states, religious minorities, and ethnic groups outside the periphery, whose interests, in theory, dovetailed with those of Israel.

The book thus is not a history in the classical sense, but a consummate insider’s comprehensive record and analysis of fluid “periphery doctrines” open to a variety of alternative understandings.  First conceived as a grand strategy by David Ben-Gurion in an ad hoc operation that only in retrospect emerged as a strategic initiative, the doctrine originated in the fact that Israel was surrounded by hostile states committed to its destruction, and focused on two primary objectives: marketing Israel to the European powers as a significant player in the Middle East, and strengthening the fledgling nation by facilitating Jewish emigration from the United States, Europe and Arab nations.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) applauds the letter sent today to President Obama, signed by 150 House Democrats, in support of ongoing diplomacy with Iran.  APN congratulates Representatives Schakowsky (D-IL), Doggett (D-TX), and Price (D-NC) for their leadership in spearheading this effort and commends all House members who co-signed this critically important letter, which APN backed strongly.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced tonight the formation of a narrow government coalition that brings together Israel's right-wing and religious parties, Americans for Peace Now (APN) is expressing deep concern for the new government's impact on Israel's future as a democracy and a Jewish state.

APN's President and CEO Debra DeLee said: "This government, based on the ideology of its members, is bound to act to further hinder the viability of a two-state solution, to further exacerbate Israel's isolation internationally, to intensify West Bank settlement construction, promote undemocratic legislation and act to stifle dissent.