The pro-Netanyahu newspaper Israel Hayom, a political daily distributed free of charge and funded by American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, is the main reason for Israel’s dropping to the unflattering “partly free” category in Freedom House’s 2016 Global Freedom of the Press report. Vanessa Tucker, Freedom House’s vice president for analysis, explains in the following interview why her organization is concerned about the impact of the Adelson-funded daily on Israel’s public arena.

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 Israeli calculations regarding the means and benefits of responding with force to new Hamas tunnel-digging; if Israel’s deterrence has failed and Hamas continues to attack by diverse means, if there are additional reasons for the Netanyahu government to avoid retaliation; if there are people in Israel advocating re-conquering and reoccupying the Strip; and if recent sporadic rocket fire from Gaza was not attributed to Hamas, who’s in charge there?

Despite Monday’s bus bombing, terror incidents have waned. Is the $100 million a year the U.S. spends on the Palestinian Authority Security Forces paying off?

Pinto, a battalion commander whose infantry unit was responsible for this north-west sector of Gush Etzion, a restive part of the southern West Bank, seemed preternaturally calm despite being at the doorstep of a major Palestinian city—which was likely the point.

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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 why, even though Israel has a peace treaty with Caiso, but no formal ties with Riyadh, Israel offered its blessing for a deal that affects a vital naval passage that has triggered war in the recent past; explains the timing of Sunday's declaration by Netanyahu’s government whence they met on the Golan Heights and the prime minister declared that the Golan would always remain a sovereign part of Israel; connects the regional conflict situations of the ceasefire in Syria, which appears to be ending, Yemen, where there is optimism regarding a ceasefire, and Ngorno Karabach (an enclave disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan) where renewed fighting has broken out; and why, now 15 years after his assassination by Palestinians and 11 years after he was declared a national hero to be memorialized annually in school ceremonies, far-right-wing Major General Rehavam Zeevi (“Gandhi”) is accused of having been a serial rapist and sexual harasser and having consorted with gangsters.

Peace Now’s Settlement Watch project reported this week that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government approved construction of hundreds of new homes in West Bank settlements, and is accelerating the pace of planned building in the settlements. Peace Now’s data was based on info obtained from the High Planning Council for Judea and Samaria, the government agency responsible for construction licensing and planning in West Bank settlements. The data showed that this year’s numbers (January through March) were higher than the equivalent period last year.