This week, Alpher discusses the strategic significance for Israel of last week’s sweeping Islamist attacks on Egyptian army installations in Sinai, near the border with Israel; the regional implications, shared by Israel with some of its neighbors and with Europe, Russia and the United States; defines Israel’s dilemma in strategic terms, and what the ramifications are; how West Bank-based Hamas and lone-wolf terrorism affect Israel’s relations with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas; and what this portends for the prospect of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

This is another in a series of reviews of new books on Middle Eastern affairs. We asked Dr. Gail Weigl, an APN volunteer and a professor of art history, to review Sandy Tolan's new book about young Palestinian using the power of music to transform their lives under occupation.

APN's Ori Nir interviews Sandy Tolan.

Sandy Tolan, Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land (New York, 2015). 438 pages. $28.00.

Sandy Tolan’s Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land reads like fiction, but is a meticulously documented work of non-fiction, as the author makes clear in his introduction to the extensive source notes.  While the book remains focused throughout on the main protagonist, Ramzi Aburedwan, his musical training and successful effort to bring the healing power of music to the Palestinian communities of the Israeli Occupied Territories, equal – if not more attention – is devoted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, from the founding of Israel to the present.  The stage for Ramzi’s story is never-ending physical and emotional violence perpetrated against the Palestinian people by the Israeli government and IDF. That history is interconnected with the more or less extensive stories of many Palestinians, Europeans and Americans devoted to music as the means to assuage Palestinian suffering and restore Palestinian honor and identity.

New Jersey Jewish News - June 29, 2015
APN's Ori Nir op-ed: Satire can't keep up with Israel's loose-lipped politicians
http://njjewishnews.com/article/27695/satire-cant-keep-up-with-israels-loose-lipped-politicians#.VZWSqvlVikq

JewSchool - June 29, 2015
APN intern Susanna Berman op-ed: The Elephant on the Bus
http://jewschool.com/2015/06/37321/elephant-bus/

Politico - June 30, 2015
APN's Lara Friedman welcomes Obama administration's clarification regarding distinction between Israel and West Bank settlements
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/administration-objects-to-israeli-settlements-provision-in-trade-bill-119620.html

Huffington Post - June 30, 2015
APN's Lara Friedman welcomes Obama administration's embracing of distinction between Israel and West Bank settlements
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/30/trade-bill-israel-settlements_n_7700814.html

Times of Israel - July 1, 2015
Obama administration rejects conflating Israel and West Bank settlements, a position asserted earlier by APN
http://www.timesofisrael.com/state-department-backs-away-from-anti-bds-laws-language/

Globes (Israeli economic daily) - July 1, 2015
Obama administration embraces distinction between Israel and West Bank settlements, which APN had underscored
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-obama-adminstration-1001049200>

JTA - July 1, 2015
Obama administration embraces distinction between Israel and West Bank settlers, which APN had flagged during legislative process
http://www.jta.org/2015/07/01/news-opinion/politics/obama-administration-will-not-enforce-anti-bds-law-on-west-bank-settlements

Jerusalem Post (JTA story) - July 1, 2015
Obama administration embraces distinction between Israel and settlements, which APN underscored during legislative process
http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Obama-administration-will-ignore-Israel-controlled-territories-in-anti-BDS-law-407709

Why is Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to Washington, launching his vicious attack against President Obama now?

Oren says he asked his publisher to go ahead and publish his new book “Ally” in order to influence the debate in the US over the deal that Washington and its international allies are negotiating with Iran. Some, including Jeffrey Goldberg of Atlantic, buy Oren’s explanation.

I don’t. Had Oren sought to weigh in on the Iran debate, he could have done so without an ugly ad-hominem attack on President Obama, without the outrageous attacks on Obama’s aides (particularly the senior Jewish aides), against American Jewish journalists and against the American Jewish community at large, as he did in his book and in his Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy and Los Angeles Times articles.

On July 1, 2015, Prof. Ami Pedahzur of the University of Texas at Austin, an expert on Israel's radical right, briefed APN on his recent research regarding the West Bank settlers' power and influence in Israeli public life.