Maxxe Albert-Deitch is Americans for Peace Now's Strategic Communications Coordinator. Prior to joining APN, she worked as a historian, focusing on research and projects engaging in ethnohistory, archaeology, and conflict transformation in Israel and Palestine. She earned a Master’s degree in History from the College of William and Mary.

I took over PeaceCast, the APN podcast, back in April of this year. The conversations I’ve had with guests are as varied as the powerful work that they do– which is to say, very. But the common through-line that has popped up in nearly every interview is that authors and activists have never seen their work spotlit to this degree before. Books that were published 20 years ago are back on Middle Eastern Studies syllabi. Journalists anticipating quiet book releases or PhD dissertations find themselves rewriting chapters and adding afterwords, suddenly forced to be the first representatives of a whole generation on a global stage.

It’s bigger than PeaceCast, obviously. Israel and Palestine have been catapulted into social consciousness over the past 14 months. Words like “occupation” and “intifada” jumped into common parlance. Israel and Palestine stopped being a fringe issue, or a topic that only drifted into American politics every once in a while— it is now a central issue in Congress. College campuses are divided, leaving students and faculty and administrators in a many-sided standoff. Families are split– older generations who grew up with the fresh memory of the Holocaust and casual antisemitism and the narrative that Israel would forever be the only safe place for Jews in the world versus younger generations whose social media feeds are dominated by the news of bombs landing in Gaza City with little to no context of the years of conflict that set the stage for the violence that’s taken place over the past year.

November 26, 2024- Americans for Peace Now welcomes the announcement of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah.

We hope that this is a significant step towards a lasting end to the conflict between the two, allowing both Israeli and Lebanese citizens to return to their homes and rebuild their lives.

We express our gratitude to the Biden Administration for its role in securing this critical agreement and urge continued leadership to sustain this momentum towards an end to the war in Gaza and the safe release of all hostages.

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

Dear Friend of APN,

On this day in 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated at the age of 46. Anyone who is old enough to remember can still tell you exactly where they were when they heard the news. I wasn’t born yet, and still, the echo of both President Kennedy’s leadership and his death are such that, 61 years later, I sit here writing about it.

On this day 2014, Tamir Rice was assassinated at the age of 12. We never got the chance to see what Tamir would do in his adult life. We never got to hear his speeches or feel his leadership.

I started my message to you today with this because both of these tragic moments are powerful reminders of national pain, but also of our collective need for community and for action. In challenging times, and these clearly are challenging times, I immediately look for two things. Who are my people, and what can we do?

November 21, 2024- Yesterday evening, the Senate voted on three Joint Resolutions of Disapproval (JRD) that would block the sale of certain weapons to Israel, including systems such as Joint Direct Attack Munitions and 120mm tank rounds, both of which have been used in ways that are contrary to US law.

For the very first time, 19 Senators voted for conditioning our military aid to Israel to ensure that it is only used in ways that align with our policies and our values. Americans for Peace Now was proud to support these important resolutions and is grateful to the sponsors, Senators Sanders, Welch, Merkley, and Schatz for their leadership and to the additional Senators who voted in favor of them last night.

Americans for Peace Now’s Director of Government Relations, Madeleine Cereghino, said: “The weapons in question are responsible for extensive civilian casualties including strikes on schools, hospitals and refugee camps. With a groundbreaking number of Senators opposing these arms sales, last night’s vote sent a clear message of disapproval regarding Israel’s conduct in Gaza. This is a matter of our values. The US cannot credibly champion peace and human rights while sending Israel the weapons they are using to perpetuate the war in Gaza in violation of US and international law.”

Recording of our November 20, 2024 webinar with Yonatan Mizrachi from Shalom Achshav's Settlement Watch team. This webinar was co-produced with our colleagues at Shalom Achshav, Canadian Friends of Peace Now, and La Paix Maintenant. The conversation was anchored by Hadar Susskind.

Yonatan Mizrachi, a leading expert from the Settlement Watch team, presented new insights from Shalom Achshav's latest annual report, "War and Annexation: How the Israeli Government Changed the West Bank During the First Year of War."

In the wake of a year-long war in Gaza and nearly two years under a far-right, pro-settler government, the Israeli government's agenda in the occupied West Bank is clearer than ever: to advance annexation policies and further reduce Palestinian presence in Area C.

Last week, despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary, the Biden Administration refused to hold the Netanyahu government accountable by declaring them in violation of US foreign assistance laws, and declined to halt the transfer of offensive weapons. Now, just a week later, the Senate will vote on a series of bills to block the sale of certain offensive weapons to Israel.

With over 43,000 Palestinians killed, 102,000 injured, and the humanitarian crisis worsening daily, the United States must respect our own laws and end our role in fueling this war. Contact your senators today and urge them to support the Joint Resolutions of Disapproval introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders (VT), Peter Welch (VT), Jeff Merkley (OR), and Brian Schatz (HI).

November 18, 2024- Americans for Peace Now welcomes the Biden Administration’s announcement of new sanctions on extremist West Bank settlement organizations and settlers.

The sanctions on the largest West Bank Settlement organization, Amana and its subsidiary, Binyanei Bar Amana Ltd, are long overdue. Amana has played a significant role in facilitating the establishment of illegal outposts and driving Palestinians from their land.