Deja Vu All Over Again? – Israeli Elections Redux

A month after it was sworn in, Israel’s Knesset voted to dissolve itself and drag the Israeli public into another election cycle.

What will this campaign look like? How much of an appetite does the Israeli public have for another round? Do the new elections provide a second chance for Benjamin Netanyahu’s opposition to depose him? How realistic is such a scenario? Will the right more effectively coalesce to come out stronger? And how about the left -- will it unite? Will the Arab parties re-unite?

Allison Kaplan Sommer of Israel’s Haaretz daily addressed these and other questions at a briefing call on June 6^th . 

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.

Update: this action, now closed, ran in May 2019.  

The Trump administration, at the direction of National Security Advisor John Bolton, is ramping up its provocations against Iran and moving the United States perilously close to an unnecessary war. This crescendo comes one year after Trump’s decision to put the US in violation of the Iran nuclear deal.

Tell Congress to take a stand against an unauthorized war of choice against Iran.

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, the Trump administration undertook yet another move to delegitimize the Palestinian national movement and sever contacts with Palestinian leaders. Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, a high-ranking member of the PLO Executive Committee and head of the Department of Public Diplomacy and Policy for the Palestinian Authority, announced on May 13th that the US had denied her a visa without providing an explanation. Ashrawi, who earned a doctorate from the University of Virginia and has negotiated with every US administration from Reagan to Obama, was slated to speak at several think tanks and universities and planned to visit family. Ashrawi has been fiercely critical of the Trump administration.

As the latest of a set of hostile actions by the Trump administration against high-ranking and influential Palestinians, the denial of a visa to Hanan Ashrawi should be of great concern to advocates of a two-state solution.

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 (APN) welcomes the ceasefire reached between Israel and Hamas, while recognizing that it will provide only a lull between flareups. Security and stability for Israelis and Palestinians depend on a political settlement for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

APN strongly condemns the barrage of some 700 rockets launched by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad from the Gaza Strip at civilian communities in southern Israel. We stand with our Israeli brothers and sisters.

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.

from Aviva Meyer, APN Interim CEO and Board Vice Chair:

A few months ago I was watching Fareed Zakaria's show GPS on CNN when I heard him mention the name, Michael Walzer. Okay, when I say "watching" the show I had it on while I was trying to do a myriad of other things. But upon hearing the name Walzer I stopped what I was doing and paid attention. You see, both Michael and I serve on the board of Americans for Peace Now, where I am also the interim CEO. Fareed was paying homage to Michael's new book, "A Foreign Policy for the Left".