Congressman Andy Levin recently (D-MI) introduced groundbreaking legislation intended to re-define the United States’ role as a catalyst for Israeli-Palestinian peace. By implementing tangible steps that would accelerate progress toward peace and discourage steps that push it further out of reach, Congressman Levin’s Two-State Solution Act injects new hope into the moribund  Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

On Monday, November 29 Americans for Peace Now hosted special webinar featuring Congressman Andy Levin to hear directly from him about the significance of his legislation.

Watch the video recording here.

Listen to the recording here.

Read the transcript here.

Israel’s Knesset hosted a rare conference on Monday, November 22, to discuss the surge in violent anti-Palestinian attacks by West Bank Israeli settlers.  The conference was organized by MKs Mossi Raz (Meretz), Osama Saadi (Joint List) and Ibtisam Mara’ana (Labor) as well as the nongovernmental organizations Peace Now, Breaking the Silence and Yesh Din.

This week, Congressman Mark Pocan (D-W1) led 26 House Democrats in sending a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, urging him to act to prevent the advancement of plans to build settlements in the E-1 area of the West Bank.

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.

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.

On Tuesday, November 9th, I joined the first West Bank settlement tour organized by Peace Now since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-sponsored by the Geneva Initiative, it was organized for diplomats stationed in Israel and it attracted some twenty diplomats from foreign embassies and consulates.

These settlement tours are a staple of APN’s annual study tours to Israel and the West Bank. Having organized the study tours for almost fifteen years, I knew the route and recognized the storyline of the tour guide, Peace Now's Settlement Watch Co-Director, Hagit Ofran.

But despite the familiarity, every time I join one of Hagit's tours I learn something new. Every time, I am devastated by the depth of the de facto annexation process caused by the settlements and their disastrous impact on future prospects for achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace.

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.

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.

Israel’s plans to build in the area known as E-1 are putting a future where a secure and democratic Israel lives next to a viable independent Palestine at grave risk.

Israel’s Civil Administration is currently holding hearings to review objections to settlement plans in E-1. This is one of the few remaining stages before settlement construction will be allowed to commence.

There’s a reason the proposed settlements in E-1 have been called “doomsday settlements.” If Israel allows the plans to be enacted it would threaten the territorial contiguity necessary for a viable independent Palestinian state by dividing the north of the West Bank from the south, as well as the West Bank from East Jerusalem. E-1 is a vital corridor for Palestinian communal life, connecting Ramallah and the northern West Bank to Bethlehem and the southern West Bank. 

Our colleagues at Peace Now have filed objections to the plans in Israel, and now it is our turn to back them up. Representative Mark Pocan is leading a letter urging the Biden Administration to weigh in and use diplomatic pressure to halt Israel’s approval process of E-1 settlements.

This action closed on Friday, November 19.