Haaretz - March 24, 2014
APN's Ori Nir op-ed: Two-staters, unite behind Kerry
http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.581723
Each year at Passover, Jews read this line in the haggadah, "In every generation a person is obligated to see themselves as if they had left Egypt." Why? Because each of us should understand that in our generation, just as in our ancestors' generation, the status quo is not inevitable. Societies founded on inequality, on domination of others, on ruling those who do not wish to be ruled cannot, in the arc of history, last. In every generation there is a wrong to be righted. Today, it is in our hands to right it.
This year, you can add flavor to your seder by sharing this thoughtful reflection by Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb. Rabbi Dobb, who has written previously for Americans for Peace Now, has graciously contributed our 13th haggadah insert. In it, he asks us to make peace with the idea of limits.
Since 2001, Americans for Peace Now has asked rabbis from the extended APN family to contribute reflections on the haggada: that story which has for centuries been understood as the archetype of liberation. Many of us have made these reflections a permanent part of our seder - we hope you will, too. You can find them here.
May we all enjoy a sweet and liberating Passover,
Debra DeLee
President and CEO,
Americans for Peace Now
Submitted by Rabbi Fred Scherlinder Dobb (2014)
To be read after the meal, just before the search for the afikomen. (Tzafun)
APN's daily news review from Israel
Tuesday April 01, 2014
Quote of the day:
"Your campaign slogan was 'where is the money' -- the money is right there."
--MK Stav Shaffir (Labor) yelled at the Yesh Atid MKs after they voted to appropriate $50.6 million of taxpayer money to the World Zionist Organization's Settlement Division.**
--MK Stav Shaffir (Labor) yelled at the Yesh Atid MKs after they voted to appropriate $50.6 million of taxpayer money to the World Zionist Organization's Settlement Division.**
Secretary of State John Kerry cut short a tour to Europe Monday to rush to Israel and the West Bank to salvage the US-brokered peace process from collapse.
The reason for the current crisis, the most severe since the beginning the so-called Kerry initiative eight months ago, is the Israeli government’s balking at the release of Palestinian security prisoners, convicted terrorists who Israel has committed to releasing as a gesture to the Palestinians.
This week, Alpher discusses what Olmert's conviction for receiving bribes means for the peace process; why Netanyahu refuses to release veteran terrorist prisoners who are Arab citizens of Israel; how this issue jibes with a new Israel Foreign Ministry document that appears to find legal justification for Avigdor Lieberman's proposal to transfer Arab-populated parts of Israel to Palestinian sovereignty under a two-state redrawing of borders.
Unlike Israel's unilateral insistence on the 'Jewish state', Israeli and Palestinian leaders need to find a recognition formula that reconciles two opposing national narratives.
By now everyone has realized that there’s a new issue on the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations agenda that’s not going away: The demand that the Palestinians not only recognize Israel - something they have done repeatedly, starting in 1993 - but that they recognize Israel as "a Jewish state," or some similar wording. No such “recognition-plus” demand was made of Egypt or Jordan, nor was it mentioned in the Oslo agreement or subsequent Israeli-Palestinian documents. It made a brief appearance in the Annapolis talks of 2007, but only as a marginal issue. Only In 2009 did it truly come into play, courtesy of Benjamin Netanyahu.
APN's daily news review from Israel
Monday March 31, 2014
Quote of the day:
"For many Israelis, the “recognition-plus" [of recognition of Israel as a Jewish state] demand has taken
root not because they are looking for an excuse not to make peace, but, at least in part, because it taps into
their longing to not simply be tolerated in the Middle East, but to be embraced, in the region and the world,
as a legitimate, indigenous nation, consistent with Israel’s founding Zionist narrative of the return of the
Jews to their historic homeland."
--APN's Lara Friedman explains the mindset behind the Israeli and Palestinian narratives and suggests how to unravel the apparent Gordian knot of the demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.*
--APN's Lara Friedman explains the mindset behind the Israeli and Palestinian narratives and suggests how to unravel the apparent Gordian knot of the demand for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.*
APN's daily news review from Israel
Sunday March 30, 2014
Number of the day:
10.
--The number of days it took 150 Dutch workers to duplicate the most famous parts of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's palace in the Israeli city of Kfar Saba. Tanks and actors to arrive soon.**
--The number of days it took 150 Dutch workers to duplicate the most famous parts of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad's palace in the Israeli city of Kfar Saba. Tanks and actors to arrive soon.**
APN's daily news review from Israel
Friday March 28, 2014
Number of the day:
50.
--Number of olive trees Yitzhar settlers chopped down Thursday in Palestinian town of
Huwwara.**
APN's daily news review from Israel
Thursday March 27, 2014
Quote of the day:
"It is a stain of dishonor that no members of the foreign service have seen fit to stand up and
challenge policies that they know better than anyone are leading Israel to international leprosy and domestic
disaster."
--David Landau, former editor-in-chief of Haaretz, writes why Israelis don't need to sympathize with striking Foreign Ministry employees over their low wages.**
--David Landau, former editor-in-chief of Haaretz, writes why Israelis don't need to sympathize with striking Foreign Ministry employees over their low wages.**