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"A solution of two national states -- a Jewish state --
Israel; an Arab state -- Palestine. The Palestinians are our closest neighbors.
I believe they may become our closest friends."
APN volunteer Barbara Green begins her Rosh Hashana thoughts
with: This is an awkward time of the year for some secular Jews like
me.
Barbara Green has been a volunteer for Americans for Peace Now for many years. She lives in Washington, DC.
This is an awkward time of the year for some secular Jews like me. We know it’s a time of renewal and perhaps even symbolic rebirth, but what does that mean if you don’t really think the supreme ruler is sitting in judgment and deciding your fate for the coming year? Well, it could mean a lot of things. For me it’s a time to take stock: to look back on the past year and own up to things done which shouldn’t have been, or not done which should have been, and everything in between. What could I do to put those things to right? And what do I hope to change in the coming year? A small aspiration of mine is the intention in the coming year to dial back my propensity for righteous indignation. Hardly a day passes when I’m not upset – if not downright angry – about events in the world but I’m learning that indignation no matter how righteous sometimes may be counter-productive.
Maimonides teaches the blowing of the shofar is intended to waken us from our mindless slumber, our symbolic sleep which allows us to turn away from blatant injustice. He admonishes us to “….look to our souls and better our ways and actions.” For me this means doubling down on my efforts to pursue an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state. We Jews weren’t meant to be occupiers. Forty-nine years of holding another people under occupation is more than enough. Israeli security professionals have weighed in on this issue and concluded that the occupation does not provide security. It is a national security liability. The occupation is hurting not only Palestinians but Israelis as well – not equally but significantly.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) mourns the death of Shimon Peres, the former president and
prime minister of the State of Israel, an icon of Israel's founding generation, a visionary of peace and
security for Israel, a dedicated leader who led Israel through wars and in the quest for peace.
Over the weekend, more than 70 American intellectuals - including members of APN's Board of Directors such as Michael Walzer and Edward Witten - published an Open Letter in the New York Review of Books calling for a targeted boycott of “all goods and services from all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories, and any investments that promote the Occupation.”
APN warmly welcomes and endorses this letter. Its message echoes and validates the position that APN has proudly advocated for years, often as a lone voice of sanity in the pro-Israel Jewish community. You can find out more about our position - expressed in policy statements, opeds, advocacy documents, and more - here.
Like the signers of the Open Letter, we oppose boycotts of Israel. And like the signers of the Open Letter, we have long argued for activism targeting settlements and the occupation, which we believe to be an important and effective way to fight the occupation and fortify the foundations of a two-state solution.
We are pleased and encouraged to see that this position is gaining greater traction in the American intellectual community, especially given the fact that the conflation of Israel and the settlements is becoming dangerously mainstream. Now more than ever, we must fight to uphold the distinction between Israel and the settlements. We must reject the creeping legitimization of settlements. And, with our rhetoric and our activism, we must target the pro-settlement and anti-peace policies that fuel the occupation and endanger the two-state solution. This Open Letter is an important step in doing all of those things, and we commend its authors and signers. We also hope their action will inspire others to act as well - click here for some actions that can be taken today to fight settlements and the occupation.
You Must Be Kidding:
"He represents courage and presence."
--Parents of newborn explain why they named their son after Elor Azariya, the ‘Shooting Soldier from Hebron,’ who is on trial for shooting dead a wounded and incapacitated Palestinian assailant.**
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 where Israel positioned itself in the Middle East during the outgoing year; how the Israel-US relationship appears to have suffered; how events in the surrounding Middle East affected the mood of Israelis; how the so-called “lone wolf intifada” affected Israelis; and the prospects for progress between Israel and the Palestinians in the year ahead .
--Israel's Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said about attempts by ministers and right-wing MKs to make an amendment to the Absentee Property law in order to confiscate privately-owned Palestinian land, Channel 10 reported.*
Wall Street Journal: September 22
“Abbas
to seek U.N. Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements in the West Bank,” Peace Now settlement
data quoted in story on possible Israeli-Palestinian UN resolution
AFP: September 22, 2016
“Israel,
Palestinians clash over settlements at UN,” Peace Now settlement data quoted in story on possible
Israeli-Palestinian UN resolution
Times of Israel (written by JTA): September 19
“Liberal
pro-Israel groups to Congress: Don’t obstruct the Iran deal,” Americans for Peace Now and other groups warn
against “poison-pill” provisions and measures that would seek to re-impose sanctions
Front Page:
- Kerry: Israel is turning into a bi-national state, we must act or shut up
- Assad is pounding Aleppo: Entire areas were destroyed
- Finance Ministry advancing increase in retirement age of women to 65
- Netanyahu to meet Trump and Clinton today: Under the cover of objectivity, is the Prime Minister again intervening in the US elections
- (MK) Oren Hazan arrived at military exercise in Negev and passed out business cards to soldiers
- (Arab) Lod resident shot dead in front of her children; her husband tried to murder her two years ago
- (The link between) Amir Peretz, a German spy and a mysterious trust fund
- New York-Ashdod: When Netanyahu and Abbas Perform a Duet in Ramallah // Haaretz Editorial
- AIPAC, enough // Rogel Alpher