Washington, DC – Americans for Peace Now (APN) today issued this following statement on the eve of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's first meeting with Donald Trump since Trump was inaugurated as president of the United States:

This past weekend, before leaving for Washington, Prime Minister Netanyahu told his Cabinet: 'I have navigated Israeli-U.S. relations in a prudent manner, and I will continue to do so now.'

Update: this action, now closed, ran in February 2017. 

David Friedman is a friend of the settlement movement who backs unlimited settlement expansion, has accused President Obama of being an anti-Semite and says that liberal Zionists are "worse than kapos." Tell your Senators to reject his nomination to be the next US ambassador to Israel.

Time is short and your Senators need to hear from you TODAY. If you don’t know who your Senators are, you can look them up here. Then call the US Capitol switchboard – (202) 224-3121 – and ask to be connected to each of your Senator’s offices. Tell the person who answers the phone in each office:

• I am a constituent and I care about Israel and Israeli-Palestinian peace
• That is why I strongly oppose Donald Trump's choice to be the next US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, and urge Senator XXX to reject him.
• Mr. Friedman poses a threat to longstanding US policies in the Middle East that have been supported by Democratic and Republican presidents alike.
• He is hostile to the two-state solution - the only way to ensure Israel’s future as the democratic homeland of the Jewish people.
• He is a friend of the settlement movement and an avid supporter of further settlement expansion.
• The contempt Mr. Friedman has shown toward liberal American Jews - labeling them worse than Nazi collaborators - makes him a horrible choice to be our representative in Israel.
• I urge Senator XXX to reject Mr. Friedman's nomination to be the next US ambassador to Israel.

P.S. Please forward this to your friends and urge them to call.

APN previously issued the following petition:

Sign the Petition

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, Alpher discusses updates on the agenda for the Trump-Netanyahu summit scheduled for later this week; new developments that could conceivably disrupt US-Israel relations in the near term beyond issues regarding the settlements, Iran, and Syria; potential Israeli responses to future Hamas attacks; Not labeling the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group; and the report that Trump also wants to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization.

Trump recently said that advancing settlement construction is unhelpful for peace, but which settlements exactly he was referring to is open for interpretation.

Judy Maltz

If his latest statements are any indication, U.S. President Donald Trump may be having second thoughts about how unharmful Israel’s West Bank settlement project is to the peace process.

In an interview published on Friday with the Israeli daily Israel Hayom, Trump described himself as “not someone who believes that advancing settlements is good for peace,” and urged the government to “act reasonably.”

“There is limited remaining territory,” Trump said. “Every time you take land for a settlement, less territory remains.”

In a statement issued through the White House a week earlier, he said that although settlements per se were not an impediment to peace, “the construction of new settlements or the expansion of existing settlements beyond their current borders may not be helpful in achieving that goal.”

America’s unpredictable new president may be a bit more forthcoming about where he draws the line when he meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday. Meanwhile, his statements have been interpreted as a green light for Israel to continue building within the settlement blocs, though not beyond them.

Settlement blocs refer to the larger Jewish population centers located in the West Bank, many of which are close to the Green Line, or the borders of the 1949 armistice agreement. Many of them fall on the Israeli side of the incomplete separation barrier Israel began building nearly 15 years ago during the second Palestinian uprising.

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APN's Ori Nir in Haaretz: February 8, 2017
“As Netanyahu Cozies Up To Trump, American Jews' Alienation From Israel Escalates”

Israel’s newly adopted, patently unconstitutional “Regularization Law” further distances most American Jews from the government of Israel and the State of Israel.

It does so by further underscoring the similarities between Israel’s leadership and U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign of constitutionally controversial executive orders. It thus further deepens the sense of dissonance in the minds of American Jews regarding the U.S.-Israel relationship. Continue Reading...

Haaretz: February 9, 2017
“Trump's Israel Ambassador Linked to New Expansion of Radical West Bank Settlement,” Peace Now opposes Donald Trump’s pick for David Friedman as Ambassador to Israel and condemns the organization he heads, American Friends of Beit El, which funds construction of Israeli settlement homes on private Palestinian land.

The New York Times: February 7, 2017
“Israeli Allies Condemn Settlement Law as Lawsuits Loom,” in light of Israel’s new law, retroactively legalizing settlements built on private Palestinian land, Peace Now’s spokesperson, Lior Amichai, declares their plans to challenge the law in court.

Haaretz: February 7, 2017
“Explained: Israel's New Palestinian Land-grab Law and Why It Matters,” APN explains that the new law authorizes retroactive legalization for more than 50 outposts and settlements.

Haaretz: February 7, 2017
“U.S. Jewish Leaders Come Out Against Land-grab Law: 'This Isn’t the Israel We Want to See',” Peace Now, alongside the New Israel Fund, J Street, American Jewish Committee, Rabbi Rick Jacobs of the Union for Reform Judaism, and the Anti-Defamation League, criticized the law for making theft “an official Israeli policy.”

The Boston Globe: February 7, 2017
“Israel Passes Provocative Law to Retroactively Legalize Settlements,” Anat Ben Nun, Peace Now’s Director of External Relations, warns that the law is “deteriorating Israel’s democracy, making stealing an official policy and bringing us one step closer to annexation.”

Algemeiner: February 6, 2017
“Jewish Leaders Denounce Palestinian Authority’s ‘Fort of Torture’,” APN’s Ori Nir disapproves of the Palestinian security services’ actions to torture detainees, despite any cooperation they might have with Israel in the battle to fight terrorism.

Today marks 34 years to the murder of Emil Grunzweig, one of the movement's leaders, at an anti-war rally in Jerusalem.

Grunzweig, a scholar, a teacher and a leading peace activist, was at the front row (fourth from the left) of young Israelis who marched toward the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on February 10, 1983, demanding that the findings of a state commission of inquiry regarding the government's conduct during the 1982 Lebanon War be implemented.

The murdered was Yona Avrushmi, a young Jerusalemite who later confessed to being brainwashed by extremist right-wing propaganda. He threw a hand grenade into the crowd of pro-peace demonstrators, killing Grunzweig and injuring nine others.

Avrushmi was released from prison in 2011 after serving 27 years of a life sentence.