APN's Daily News Review from Israel - Sunday April 26, 2020

Quotes of the Day:

“But someone should have told us about Gideon’s victims and about Daoud who fought the Palmachnik Dudu. Someone should have told us about their just cause, alongside our own, about the bitter fate we had in store for them and imposed on them.”
—Haaretz commentator Gideon Levy examines Israeli society’s understanding of the Nakba by looking at the fate of the village which was destroyed in part by the soldier after whom he was named.**

“(Coronavirus) will not prevent us from fulfilling the significant human need to come together, Israelis and Palestinians, to remember and remind others of our loved ones, and to say once more that a just peace is the key to a better future for us all – an even stronger message today in a time when people in Israel, Palestine and all over the world are standing together against a joint threat.”
—Yonatan Gher, Israeli co-executive director of Combatants for Peace said about the annual Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony being held Monday live online.**

On Monday, April 20 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an agreement with Blue and White party chairman Benny Gantz to form a unity government. Official talks on forming this government began just under a month before this agreement was signed, with the supposed intention that this was an emergency government to deal with COVID-19.

This then begs the question of how central COVID-19 has actually been in forming the deal and how important it would be as an agenda item for the proposed government.

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.

We will soon celebrate Israel's 72nd Independence Day, and along with this all of Israel's great achievements. My colleagues and I, both Americans for Peace Now and Shalom Achshav (Israel’s peace movement), are determined to add one more: A negotiated settlement that ends the occupation and provides security and democracy for Israel and statehood for the Palestinians.

(Photo: Me with Leonard Fein (z"l), a founder of APN and a mentor, during an APN Israel study tour.)

This is what being pro-Israel means to us. We realize we are in difficult times, and this is a hard issue, but I was motivated to write these Yom Ha’atzmaut words below to honor my friends at Shalom Achshav. It has also been published in the Jewish Journal and Washington Jewish Week.

I have never worked with better, more dedicated people than them. Please honor these patriots, perhaps with a $72 donation or whatever you are willing to give.

Thank you.

Mark Bilsky
Americans for Peace Now

Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.

1. Bills, Resolutions, and Letters
2. Hearings
3. On the Record

APN's daily news review from Israel
Thursday April 23, 2020

Number of the day: 75

• Percentage of Palestinian citizens of Israel who identify themselves as Israeli, according to a poll by the Jewish People Policy Institute's Pluralism Index.*

Americans for Peace Now (APN) strongly supports Dianne Lob’s nomination to become the next Chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

APN's daily news review from Israel
Wednesday April 22, 2020

Number of the day: 31

• The percentage of Israelis who believe that Binyamin Netanyahu will vacate his chair for Benny Gantz, as the coalition agreement requires.*

APN's daily news review from Israel - Tuesday April 21, 2020

Quote of the day:

"Where the weakening of democracy and the justice system are concerned, the elimination of an alternative to (Netanyahu’s) rule, the future of the occupied Territories and the power of the High Court, Netanyahu's deserves a grade of 9 out of 10 (for fulfilling his election promises). What does Gantz deserve? Students who had a particularly hard time would once have received the following grade on their end-of-year report cards: 'Graduates to second grade but not at our school.'"
--Yedioth political analyst Nahum Barnea gives grades to the leaders of Likud and Kahol-Lavan for their unity government agreement on the basis of the fulfillment of their election promises.*