This piece by Shaqued Morag, Executive Director of Peace Now, first appeared as a Ha'aretz article and APN has turned into a brochure.

I grew up in an era when peace was not a fantasy but an option. When I was nine, the first Oslo agreement was signed with the Palestinians. That year, the song that won Israel’s Festigal, the children’s song festival, was titled “Peace is a Useful Word.” A year later, Yitzhak Rabin signed the peace agreement with Jordan. It was clear that this was what prime ministers were supposed to do. When I was 11, the Oslo II agreement was signed. Shortly thereafter, Rabin was assassinated. At my school in Kfar Malal, they continued to educate for peace. We came every year to Rabin Square for the memorial, welcomed the withdrawal from Lebanon and later from the Gaza Strip, and continued to believe in peace. Because there is no other way.

But what was known to every child in the 1990s, that occupation is temporary, and that peace should be sought, has become much less clear over the years. While “Candlelight Youth” of 1994 grew up to be a high-tech generation, the settlers’ Hilltop Youth settled in Israeli positions of power to make the temporary as permanent as possible. Illegal outposts began to pop up deep in the West Bank, in areas that were not supposed to be part of Israel after the peace agreement. Today, their number exceeds 100. What is being sold to us as a “political deadlock” is actually a very dynamic situation, where facts are set on the ground by a minority that does not wait for Israeli citizens’ approval.

Appearances can be deceiving.  The cafes of Tel Aviv bustle and are full.  Families gather in the gardens of Haifa and float on the Dead Sea.  Even in Jerusalem all appears calm, and the slight whiff of imminent apprehension is barely detectable.  The conflict does not impinge upon the good life.   

And yet, tensions simmer.  Another Israel exists.  Check the budget and see how a constant state of alert devastates funding for Israeli education, for social services, and for investment in infrastructure.  Stroll the cemeteries, and see dates of death following dates of birth in quick succession.  Too quick.  Examine the passerby and count the war injuries, visible in the wheelchairs and the prostheses.  Read the public opinion polls giving voice to the low esteem in which the “Occupier,” is held.  Visit the mosques in Nablus or in Gaza and hear the hatred dripping venomously from the imams’ tongues.  And then ask yourself, soberly, is doing nothing but accepting the status quo the best possible program?

Progressive Israel Network Opposes Netanyahu’s Annexation Pledge

Responding to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement of his intent to extend Israeli sovereignty over large parts of the West Bank, the Progressive Israel Network released the following statement:

Americans for Peace Now calls on the Trump administration, Congress, and fellow American Jewish organizations to act to prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from carrying out his declared intention to annex wide swaths of the occupied West Bank immediately after next week’s Israeli elections.

Such a step would be an existential threat to Israel’s security and wellbeing. Particularly if endorsed by the United States, it would likely destroy future efforts for a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian peace, upon which Israel’s future as a democracy and a Jewish national home relies.

Barbara Green is a long-time activist and volunteer with Americans for Peace Now

I groaned when asked to write a peace parsha for Rosh Hashana this year.  It gets harder each time. The reasons for optimism fade almost daily. With a critical election looming in Israel and an American president who calls Jewish Democrats disloyal, it's tempting to just walk away from the Israel issue and our longstanding struggle for an end to the Occupation and the creation of a Palestinian state.  Every once in a while, I remember the feeling of euphoria after the signing of the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn in 1993. We used to make a gesture -- thumb and forefinger a scant millimeter apart -- and say to ourselves, "Peace is this close. It can never go back to the way it was." Didn't really happen that way, right?

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.

Dear friend,

Amid reports that Trump is considering publishing his political plan before Israel’s general election, I met, together with several other representatives of the Israeli Peace Camp, with US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. I thought you would be interested in the content of this meeting.

At the meeting, we expressed our dismay regarding the US government's actions in relation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Specifically, we argued that unilateral moves by the Trump administration are further undermining trust between Israelis and Palestinians and may spark a new round of violence, the price of which will be paid by Israelis and Palestinians on the ground.

We reminded the Ambassador that most Israelis continuously and unwaveringly support the two-states solution.  We reiterated that these Israeli citizens favor a solution guaranteeing peace and security over the Greater Israel one-state vision, which would spell an end to a democratic Israel, and would run afoul of the shared values at the core of the special relationship between our two countries.

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.

Americans for Peace Now is outraged by President Trump's statement suggesting that the vast majority of American Jews are disloyal, and strongly condemns it. This outrageous, anti-Jewish slur fans the flames of Jew hatred in the US and puts American Jews in danger.

Trump's comment also poisons US-Israel relations, attempting to shatter bipartisan US support for Israel's security and wellbeing, for Trump's own political gain.