Americans for Peace Now (APN) condemns today’s Knesset vote on the so-called “reasonableness law” which bars
Israel’s Supreme Court from challenging unreasonable laws and executive measures. This vote is, according to the
very members who supported it, only the first step towards more unreasonable, anti-democratic legislation by the
government, including measures to move forward with the annexation of the West Bank and perpetuate the
occupation.
APN calls on the Biden administration to move past declarations of concern and respond by iterating the
concrete steps it will take in response to the actions of the Netanyahu government. APN also urges fellow American
Jewish organizations to speak out loudly and clearly against the anti-democratic trajectory of Israel under
Netanyahu’s government of nationalistic zealots.
APN strongly supports the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have been demonstrating for over six months
against the government and its anti-democratic policies and practices. We stand in solidarity with them and
encourage them to further escalate their protest. By embarking on its anti-democratic “legal reform” today, the
governing coalition underscored the protesters’ assertion that the government, while legally elected, is
illegitimate and should be treated as such.
We hope that some members of the ruling government coalition would appreciate and understand what the
demonstrators are concerned about, change course, and work to protect the rights of all citizens of Israel - Jewish
and non-Jewish alike. We also encourage Israelis to look beyond specific legislation to push for creating a
constitution that would protect all Israelis and avoid the fiasco that Israel has been experiencing in the past few
months.
Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived.
1.Bills, Resolutions
& Letters
2.
Israeli President on the Hill
3. Thou Shalt Not Call Israel
“Racist”!
4.
Hearings & Events
5. Media & Reports
6. Members on the Record
(Israel/Palestine)
7. Members on the Record (Iran &
other Mideast 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.
By Madeleine Cereghino, Director of Government Relations
Yesterday, House Republicans forced a vote on a resolution intended to specifically target Democratic members of Congress who have been vocal in their opposition to the Israeli government’s ongoing occupation and anti-democratic practices.
While we may not agree with every comment made about Israel, it is crucial to emphasize that criticizing Israeli policies and actions is not inherently antisemitic. Still, it is disappointingly obvious that Speaker McCarthy is only concerned with antisemitism when it is politically expedient. This was the clear impetus for yesterday’s messaging resolution, which says that Israel is not a racist or apartheid state, rejects antisemitism, and reaffirms United States support of Israel. For Congress, it was about as groundbreaking as the renaming of a post office.
Voting for or against yesterday’s non-binding resolution is inconsequential. It requires little effort to
claim to "stand with Israel." But what does it mean to “stand with Israel?” Do House Republicans stand with Israel
as its Prime Minister seeks to dismantle the judicial check on the Knesset's power, jeopardizing the country’s
democracy? Do they stand with Israel as sitting members of its government incite violence and then allow the
military to stand by and watch as settlers rampage through Palestinian towns? The answer, unfortunately, is a
resounding yes.
After nearly six decades of occupation and seventy-five years of conflict, we cannot settle for mere platitudes. As Israel's closest ally, the United States must stand not just with Israel but FOR Israel and FOR the individual and national rights of the Palestinian people. We must stand FOR a democratic and secure Israel that coexists harmoniously with its neighbors, and FOR a Palestine that is free, independent, and sovereign.
The United States should stand for practices and policies that bring us closer to a viable long-term solution. Even when it means confronting difficult truths, we must be willing to speak out. The United States, as Israel's closest ally, has a responsibility to champion policies that pave the way for a brighter future—a future of justice, self-determination, and equality for both Israelis and Palestinians.
There could hardly be a greater disconnect between tomorrow’s US Congressional salute to Israel and its democracy, and the anti-democratic campaign that Israel’s government is ramming through the Knesset. While the US government in Washington is embracing Israel’s ceremonial head of state, President Isaac Herzog, Israel’s political head of state, Benjamin Netanyahu, is systematically working to wreck the very values of democracy, equality, justice and peace that Washington wishes to see and respect in Israel.
President Herzog, aware of this discordance, told President Biden in the White House today that “Israeli democracy is sound and resilient” and that the heated internal Israeli debate over the so-called legal reform is testament to that resilience. But Herzog knows how endangered Israeli democracy is as the government of Israel works to gut it by denying it basic judicial checks on the already vast powers of the executive branch.
Furthermore, both Presidents Herzog and Biden know that Israel cannot and will not be a true democracy as long as it continues occupying the West Bank and ruling over millions of Palestinians who lack national sovereign rights and human rights.
Americans for Peace Now’s President and CEO Hadar Susskind said: “President Biden and other leading Democrats have spoken about their concerns regarding Israel’s character as a democracy. Israel’s democracy is indeed important and worth fighting for. But the administration and Congress need to see past Herzog’s ‘shared values’ platitudes and address the issues of settlement expansion, settler violence, and creeping annexation.
“What Israel needs from its friends in Washington is not more enabling, but rather a reality check, an intervention, which would clearly define what the US is and is not willing to accept from a state that wishes to continue enjoying a values-based ‘special relationship’ with America. The red lines should be clear and so should the consequences if they are crossed.”
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.
Guest edited by Madeleine Cereghino, Director of Government Relations here at Americans for Peace Now, where the Round-Up was born!