This week, Alpher discusses what are the issues that bear the most intense scrutiny regarding the upcoming nuclear deal with Iran; why is there a commotion in Israel over two Israelis that decided of their own free will to cross the border into the Gaza Strip; how could they have entered unhindered? What was the reason that that the authorities initially acted indifferently to Mengistu’s flight in terms of their contacts with his family? And what will happen now?

Americans for Peace Now (APN) welcomes the Palestinian Authority's decision to summon its ambassador to Chile, following anti-Semitic comments that Ambassador Imad Nabil Jada' recently made in Santiago.

According to a statement issued by the Palestinian Authority last night, the PA's Foreign Minister, Riadh al-Maliki, summoned Jada' to Ramallah "for consultation and clarification" in regards to the statements he made in May, which were made public earlier this week.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly condemns vile anti-Semitic statements made by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s ambassador to Chile, in which he denied the existence of a Jewish people, accused the Zionist movement of striving to “dominate life in the entire planet,” and hailed the forged “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” as recommended reading.

APN calls on Mahmoud Abbas, the Chairman of the PLO and the President of the Palestinian Authority, to repudiate the statements of his ambassador to Santiago, Imad Nabil Jada’, to dismiss him, and to remind Palestinian officials of the terrible impact of hate-speech on the cause of peace.

This week, Alpher discusses the strategic significance for Israel of last week’s sweeping Islamist attacks on Egyptian army installations in Sinai, near the border with Israel; the regional implications, shared by Israel with some of its neighbors and with Europe, Russia and the United States; defines Israel’s dilemma in strategic terms, and what the ramifications are; how West Bank-based Hamas and lone-wolf terrorism affect Israel’s relations with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas; and what this portends for the prospect of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

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 Sandy Tolan's new book about young Palestinian using the power of music to transform their lives under occupation.

APN's Ori Nir interviews Sandy Tolan.

Sandy Tolan, Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land (New York, 2015). 438 pages. $28.00.

Sandy Tolan’s Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land reads like fiction, but is a meticulously documented work of non-fiction, as the author makes clear in his introduction to the extensive source notes.  While the book remains focused throughout on the main protagonist, Ramzi Aburedwan, his musical training and successful effort to bring the healing power of music to the Palestinian communities of the Israeli Occupied Territories, equal – if not more attention – is devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from the founding of Israel to the present.  The stage for Ramzi’s story is never-ending physical and emotional violence perpetrated against the Palestinian people by the Israeli government and IDF. That history is interconnected with the more or less extensive stories of many Palestinians, Europeans and Americans devoted to music as the means to assuage Palestinian suffering and restore Palestinian honor and identity.

Why is Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to Washington, launching his vicious attack against President Obama now?

Oren says he asked his publisher to go ahead and publish his new book “Ally” in order to influence the debate in the US over the deal that Washington and its international allies are negotiating with Iran. Some, including Jeffrey Goldberg of Atlantic, buy Oren’s explanation.

I don’t. Had Oren sought to weigh in on the Iran debate, he could have done so without an ugly ad-hominem attack on President Obama, without the outrageous attacks on Obama’s aides (particularly the senior Jewish aides), against American Jewish journalists and against the American Jewish community at large, as he did in his book and in his Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy and Los Angeles Times articles.

On July 1, 2015, Prof. Ami Pedahzur of the University of Texas at Austin, an expert on Israel's radical right, briefed APN on his recent research regarding the West Bank settlers' power and influence in Israeli public life.

Washington, DC – Americans for Peace Now (APN) today welcomed the Obama Administration’s June 30 rejection of legislative language conflating Israel with West Bank settlements (full text of the State Department statement is copied below).  APN Director of Policy and Government Relations Lara Friedman commented:
 
“We welcome the State Department’s statement that U.S. policy regarding settlements remains unchanged. For months we have been warning of ongoing efforts by some in Congress, led by AIPAC and supported by various right-wing organizations, as well as by some in the current Israeli government, to change U.S. policy on this issue by stealth. These efforts seek to exploit concerns about boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) targeting Israel – concerns APN shares – as cover for legislation the true purpose and effect of which are to protect and promote settlements. 

Shortly before I ended my sophomore year of college, I found myself in my advisor’s office with an important question:

Doron Rosenblum, one of Israel’s leading satirists, recently wrote on his Facebook page: “I got it. They (members of the ruling coalition) are defeating criticism and satire through using satire’s own power, as judokas do, by taking themselves beyond the absurd. Today, no satirist can outdo the insanity of" Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Indeed, Israel’s leading television satire show, Eretz Nehederet (What a Wonderful Country), recently ran a humorous quiz on its web site, in which participants were asked to guess whether quotes attributed to Likud Knesset Member Oren Hazan were true or false. I took the quiz and failed miserably. Hazan’s real quotes were much more outlandish than the made-up ones.