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 the State Comptroller’s report on conduct of the summer 2014 war with Hamas in Gaza and its significance; why, unlike Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon appears to remain highly reticent to engage Israel militarily again; impressions and insights that are relevant to Israel in his travels in Canada and New Zealand; and why Israel is, relatively speaking, smug about dealing with BDS and even the EU boycott of settlement goods.

Yesterday morning, as I always do, I began my morning with OJ and News Nosh. I read a terrifying interview by Maariv’s Lior Dayan with extremist settlers of West Bank illegal outposts, and a sober essay by political scientist Revital Amiran, describing why the discussion in Israeli society about the soldier who shot dead the neutralized terrorist in Hebron is a watershed event. Neither article is available in English anywhere else.

The day before that, I was outraged to learn that Israel had expropriated land from a Palestinian family and handed it over to Amana, the settlers’ organization that establishes new West Bank settlements.

Every day, what I read in News Nosh helps me to stay informed about the infuriating aspects of the conflict as well as the difficult work of Israelis and Palestinians to resolve it. There is simply no other service that offers so much on the issues I care so deeply about – and it’s free!

This daily news aggregator of the Hebrew press gives you not only the up-to-the-minute news, but also summaries of the top stories and analysis. You can surf the web for Israeli news sites, struggle with Hebrew and pop-up ads, or you can let APN do the work for you. All you need to do is sign up.

Thank you,

Mik Moore
Board member, Americans for Peace Now

Dear partners and friends,

I am very excited at the opportunity to introduce myself to you as the new director of Shalom Achshav (Peace Now).

I was born and raised in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel. I studied in the regional high school in Kibbutz Kfar Blum, and then served in the IDF for 14 years as a combat soldier and a commander. If you follow the Israeli media, you may have seen my name mentioned in the context of my work for civil rights in Israel.

For me, Israel’s Memorial Day and Independence Day are both complex and special. Every year, on Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day, I mourn the tragic loss of my friends Avraham, Yuval, Ro’i and Ro’i, two dear friends who shared the same first name. Hours later, on Yom Ha’atzma’ut, after a day of commemorating friends lost in battle, I pivot with the rest of the country to celebrate my state and its many achievements. Yet, as I do, I cannot ignore my ever-growing frustration with the fact that our leadership is doing so little to end the ongoing violence and horror that haunts us. They are doing so little to actively pursue peace.

News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:

As published May 9th in Haaretz following Peace Now's investigation, construction of a huge structure referred to as the “Amana House” has recently started in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem. The structure is intended to serve as an office building for the Amana association - a private entity operating toward establishing and expanding settlements and responsible for many of the illegal outposts in the Territories. The structure is being built within the Palestinian neighborhood  of Sheikh Jarrah, and is adjacent to St. Joseph Hospital, which serves the Palestinian population of Jerusalem and the West bank.

Construction of the settlement is supported by a wide array of governmental institutions, headed by the Israel Land Authority (ILA). The ILA, in an illegal and misleading procedure and without a tender, expropriated private Palestinian land and handed it over to Amana, a right-wing, pro-settler organization that is politically and ideologically affiliated with the right-wing government.