On May 25, APN hosted a briefing call on the political development in Israel, following Prime
Minister Netanyahu’s signing a new coalition agreement with right-wing firebrand Avigdor Lieberman, appointing
Lieberman to the position of Minister of Defense. Eldar, a senior columnist with al-Monitor, spoke about the
implications for Israel, its security, and its relations with the Palestinians and the world.
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There aren’t many holidays that take note of an absence, of when something ceases, of an end. But there is such a holiday: Lag B'Omer - the 33rd day between Pesach and Shavuot. It is a little-known Jewish holiday that celebrates (among other things) the cessation of a divinely-sent plague that resulted from people not showing one another adequate respect.
The plague we suffer from is not divinely sent, but one of human choices and actions. It takes work and time to end it, but humans are clever, and when motivated, we are able to work true wonders. Political conflicts are not decreed by fate. They are ours to resolve. It starts with one day. |
Lag B'Omer is celebrated with joy and huge bonfires throughout Israel. But every year, Hebron settlers use this holiday as an opportunity to steal Palestinian furniture to burn in their bonfires. This year, an activist caught settlers in Hebron doing just this and shared it with Peace Now. Stand with us and with our Peace Now colleagues in Israel. Help us stand up to the extremist settlers. |
Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.
This week, Alpher discusses what happened last week, with Israel beginning last week with a Likud-Labor unity government, blessed by the president of Egypt, and ended with an even more right-wing government and the departure of a defense minister who stood up for IDF commanders with liberal values; the fallout; and where this leaves civil-military relations in Israel.
This Sunday, thirty days after Passover begins, there is another holiday – one almost no one has
heard of. This holiday is called “Pesach Sheni” – second Passover- and has no celebrations, no special services,
no seder. Yet, perhaps we should consider reviving it.
Originally, it appears in the Bible because there were a number of people who were, for reasons out of their control, unable to celebrate the Passover a year after leaving Egypt. Upset that they would be unable to celebrate, they complained to Moses, and were instructed to observe it a month later, just for one day.
Second Passover is the holiday of second chances.
APN hosted a briefing call on Wednesday, May 25th, at 2:00 pm Eastern Time with Akiva Eldar,
senior political columnist with Al-Monitor’s Israel Pulse and formerly with Haaretz.
Akiva discussed the recent developments in the Israeli political arena: Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition negotiations with Avigdor Lieberman and before that with Labor’s Yitzhak Herzog; Moshe Yaalon’s resignation from the government and the Knesset, and the increasing tension in Israel between the government and the security establishment.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) today sounded the alarm over the imminent appointment of Israeli serial provocateur and extremist firebrand Avigdor Lieberman as Israel’s new Minister of Defense. APN's President and CEO Debra DeLee commented:
“Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is today once again showing the world that he puts politics and personal political survival above the national security of Israel and its people.
“Avigdor Lieberman has a long and ugly track record of irresponsible, reckless, and deliberately inflammatory rhetoric and actions. As foreign minister in Netanyahu’s previous government, he caused severe damage to Israel’s foreign interests, creating crises in Israel’s relations with regional and global allies.
Recently, APN Director of Policy and Government Relations Lara Friedman was invited to speak at two events for the American University in Cairo (AUC), organized under the auspices of AUC’s Prince Alwaleed Center for American Studies and Research, part of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. The first lecture, entitled “The Middle East and the 2016 U.S. Elections,” took place on March 13, 2016 at AUC's historic Oriental Hall on the Tahrir Square campus. The second lecture, titled “A Conversation with A Washington Insider: Americans for Peace Now's Lara Friedman,” took place March 14, 2016 at AUC's campus in New Cairo.
Click either image below to play the video.
Rabbi Rachel Miller Solomin is a Jewish educator, writer, life coach, and mother living and
working in California’s Silicon Valley. She was ordained from the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in
2001.
Several years ago, on a bright California Sunday, I had a car accident involving pedestrians. By maneuvering my car, I had avoided hitting them head-on. The family involved incurred only minor physical damages, but they were traumatized.
Since then, I have been struck by the relationship of these events to the Jewish laws of monetary damages. This week’s Torah portion, Emor, contains the biblical origins of these laws: “If anyone maims his fellow, as he has done so shall it be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The injury he inflicted on another shall be inflicted on him” (Leviticus 24:19-20, my emphasis). This formula, known variously as the lex talionis, reciprocal or retributive justice, assigns penalties appropriate to the injury. In the Torah, “an eye for an eye” is intended to limit consequences to proportional justice rather than permitting vengeance killings in response to minor injuries. When the accident happened, I ran out of my car and collapsed, sobbing apologies, beside scared, crying children in their stroller. The children’s mother suggested I move away from the kids -- ”If my husband sees you, he’ll kill you.”
Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.
This week, Alpher discusses the State Comptroller’s report on conduct of the summer 2014 war with Hamas in Gaza and its significance; why, unlike Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon appears to remain highly reticent to engage Israel militarily again; impressions and insights that are relevant to Israel in his travels in Canada and New Zealand; and why Israel is, relatively speaking, smug about dealing with BDS and even the EU boycott of settlement goods.
Dear partners and friends,
I am very excited at the opportunity to introduce myself to you as the new director of Shalom Achshav (Peace Now).
I was born and raised in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel. I studied in the regional high school in Kibbutz Kfar Blum, and then served in the IDF for 14 years as a combat soldier and a commander. If you follow the Israeli media, you may have seen my name mentioned in the context of my work for civil rights in Israel.
For me, Israel’s Memorial Day and Independence Day are both complex and special. Every year, on Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day, I mourn the tragic loss of my friends Avraham, Yuval, Ro’i and Ro’i, two dear friends who shared the same first name. Hours later, on Yom Ha’atzma’ut, after a day of commemorating friends lost in battle, I pivot with the rest of the country to celebrate my state and its many achievements. Yet, as I do, I cannot ignore my ever-growing frustration with the fact that our leadership is doing so little to end the ongoing violence and horror that haunts us. They are doing so little to actively pursue peace.
