Since I began covering Israel and its Middle East neighbors in the wake of the Six-Day War of 1967, it has been apparent to me that an enduring peace is possible only after Jews and Arabs reach a point of mutual respect and understanding. This objective has over the ensuing years has proven extremely elusive. Both societies have staked territorial claims that leave little room for the interests of the other. Both overlook the fact that history does not stand still, not in the Middle East or anywhere else, and that territorial claims are not sacred. If Jews and Arabs do not respond to changing conditions, and embrace a vision of social justice, both surely risk destruction. Peace Now -- Shalom Achshav in Hebrew -- has recognized that truth since its founding thirty-five years ago.  As a Zionist, dedicated to the ideal of a homeland for the Jewish people, I applaud the struggle that Peace Now wages for the well-being of the two peoples who live in Palestine.   

Read APN Chair Jim Klutznick's letter for Rosh Hashana 5780 (2019)

Milton Viorst most recent book is Zionism: The Birth and Transformation of an Ideal. It examines Zionism from the sowing of its seeds in enlightenment Europe centuries ago to the establishment of a nation state in 1948 to the widespread criticism to which it is subject today for an unduly harsh policy toward its Palastinian neighbors. Zionism is Viorst's sixth book on the Middle East. He was the Middle East corespondent for the New Yorker and has written on the Middle East for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, as well as The Atlantic, Time and The Nation. He served on the faculty at Princeton as a Ferris Fellow. He lives in Washington with his wife, Judith, a celebrated poet.    

Americans for Peace Now signed on to a letter sent by T'ruah, The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, to Israel's High Court of Justice ahead of the Court's hearing of Human Rights Watch's Omar Shakir against the government of Israel's decision to deport him from Israel: 

24 September 2019
Israeli Supreme Court Chief Clerk, Idit Malul
Supreme Court Justices and Registrars
Sha’arei Mishpat St
Jerusalem 9195001 Israel

Dear Ms. Malul,

We write on behalf of five American Jewish organizations in support of Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine Director of Human Rights Watch. We call on the Israeli government to cease its efforts to deport Shakir and on the Israeli Supreme Court to reverse the lower court ruling that upheld the deportation.

This episode of APN's podcast features a presentation that Nizar Farsakh and Ori Nir gave at Ithaca College on September 17th. The talk was an attempt to make the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more accessible to young people by weaving personal narratives of an Israeli-American and a Palestinian-American into the collective national narratives of Israelis and Palestinians.

Listen to the full episode

On September 17^th, Ori Nir participated in two special events at Cornell University and Ithaca College together with Nizar Farsakh, the chair of the Board of the Museum of the Palestinian People in Washington DC.

Farsakh is the former General Director of the PLO Delegation in Washington DC, and a former adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.