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. On the Record
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.
The Biden administration last week issued a joint statement with the Palestinian Authority announcing the resumption of the U.S.-Palestinian Economic Dialogue (USPED).
In a virtual meeting, administration officials and senior representatives of the Palestinian Authority “recognized the importance of restored political and economic relations between the U.S. government and the Palestinian Authority and pledged to expand and deepen cooperation and coordination across a range of sectors,” the statement said. The re-activation of this body reverses one more component of the Trump administration’s sweeping anti-Palestinian policy.
December 21, 2021
Stan Rupnik
Illinois Investment Policy Board 100 W. Randolph, 16th Floor Chicago, Illinois 60601
Douglas Wesley
Illinois Investment Policy Board 100 W. Randolph, 16th Floor Chicago, Illinois 60601
Dipesh Mehta
Illinois Investment Policy Board 100 W. Randolph, 16th Floor Chicago, Illinois 60601
Michael R. Mahoney
Illinois Investment Policy Board 100 W. Randolph, 16th Floor Chicago, Illinois 60601
Andrew Lappin
Illinois Investment Policy Board 100 W. Randolph, 16th Floor Chicago, Illinois 60601
Alicia Oberman
Illinois Investment Policy Board 100 W. Randolph, 16th Floor Chicago, Illinois 60601
Dear Illinois Investment Policy Board:
We are Jewish Illinoisans writing to urge the Illinois Investment Policy Board to refrain from adding Unilever PLC to the Illinois Prohibited Investment List. The implications of such a move would be a significant departure from longstanding US foreign policy. As members of the community who care deeply about Israel’s future, we object because this step undermines efforts to enable Israel to live in peace and to maintain its character as a democracy and a Jewish state.
The July 2021 Ben & Jerry’s decision to cease sales of its product in Israeli settlements is a principled pro-Israel position. Both Ben & Jerry’s and its parent company Unilever have repeatedly stated that their policy is limited to territory that is under Israeli military occupation, and that this decision would not extend to sales of their products within the state of Israel. By narrowly targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank while continuing to sell products in the state of Israel, Ben & Jerry’s has taken a moral stance to boycott settlements – one of the greatest threats to Israel's future and a Two-State solution – while continuing to support the legitimacy and existence of the state of Israel.
The United States does not recognize the Israeli settlements as part of the state of Israel – settlements and Israel’s occupation have been broadly recognized as violations of international law by much of the international community. For a future Two-State solution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, and, indeed, for the future of Israel as a democracy and a Jewish state, it is vital that the distinction between sovereign Israel and the settlements be maintained.
By wrongly applying the same standard of treatment to both the settlements in the occupied territories and the state of Israel, Public Act 099-0128 undermines the distinction between the two –contributing to the erasure of the Green Line and threatening the future of a negotiated Two-State Solution.
The law is a clear attempt to conflate Israeli settlements with Israel and is a divergence from longstanding bipartisan US foreign policy. As Jewish Americans who care deeply about the security and longevity of the State of Israel, we urge the board to vote against adding Unilever PLC to the Prohibited Investment List.
Signed,*
Jim Klutznick; Americans for Peace Now, Board Member and Chair
Marilyn Katz; Americans for Peace Now, Board Member
Aviva Futorian; Americans for Peace Now, Board Member
William S. Singer
Judith Kossy
Rochelle Diogenes
Susan Gzesh
David Ginsberg
Barbara Engel
Deborah Rosenberg
Mark Zivin
Richard Goldwasser
Judy Wise
Judd Miner
Linda Miner
Brad Gordon
Bettylu Saltzman
Fredric P. Andes
Bird Hoffman
Sarah Stafford
*Professional titles and organizational affiliations are given for identification purposes only and do not indicate organizational endorsement of this open letter
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.
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. Islamophobia (with Israel as the hook) in the House Debate Around Anti-Islamophobia Bill 3. Gosar Targets Muslim Equities in Jerusalem; Colleagues Stay Silent 4. $1 Billion for Israel/Iron Dome Blocked AGAIN, but It's Still Just Rand Paul, So No Big Deal 5. On the Record
Even before Joe Biden was sworn in as president, his foreign policy team busily engaged with Washington’s Israel-Palestine policy community to lower expectations. Don’t expect us to broker peace negotiations was the message, but do help us shape a strategy to keep the path open for a future two-state Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.
Talks about such a strategy took place between Biden administration officials and various stakeholders both in Washington and in the region. Allies advised. Think tanks and advocacy groups generated reports, and papers were pushed on the desks of relevant State Department officials.
But instead of taking measures to bolster a future peace agreement, the Biden administration withdrew into a comfort zone of benign neglect on Israel-Palestine, allowing destructive developments that none of its predecessors had permitted – except Donald Trump, of course.
Sure, Biden’s Middle East team reversed some of the Trump administration’s disastrous anti-Palestinian practices and dusted off traditional U.S. positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But when it came to real action that would help keep the two-state solution viable, the Biden administration has done alarmingly little during its first year in office.
Biden administration officials seldom speak publicly about their Israel-Palestine policy. A revealing and jarring exception was a September 17 address to the Arab Center Washington DC by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Joey Hood. The official spoke dismissively about going back to "peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians that did not lead anywhere."
He explained: "The typical approach for the past 20-something years has been, ‘Let’s go for a Nobel Peace Prize, let’s try to get everything solved,' and it just hasn’t worked. So what this administration is trying to do is to see, can we just make lives better for people? Can we just stop the dying and then make lives better for people, whether they’re Israeli or Palestinian?"
Yes, these words (just "make lives better for people") came from the Biden administration, not the one that preceded it. Hood went on to talk about the current government in Israel as a chief reason for the administration’s handling the Israel-Palestine issue "slowly but surely."
Slowly but surely, the government of Israel is allowing construction in locations that could mean a death blow to future efforts to establish an independent, contiguous Palestinian state. Namely, the narrow corridors that connect East Jerusalem to its West Bank environs on the east, south and north.
Due to relatively new so-called "governability laws" – ironically passed by Netanyahu – toppling a government coalition in Israel is no easy matter. Today, a simple no confidence motion in the Knesset is not enough. The opposition needs to come up with an alternative 61-member coalition. The chances of this happening are slim to none.
Second, there is no interest for any of the current coalition members, especially the right-wing coalition parties, to go to new elections. Polls show that both Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s party and Gideon Saar’s party would crash if elections were to be held now.
Third, Israeli governments seldom fall due to ideological, policy reasons. Typically, the cause is petty politics. Disagreements on settlement policy are not likely to cause the demise of this unusual right-left government.
Israeli politicians are used to U.S. pressure regarding settlements. And in the past, they respected U.S. demands to avoid building in ultra-sensitive spots that would deny contiguity to a future Palestinian state. The Biden administration has an opportunity to demand much more than past administrations have. Instead, it has chosen the path of least resistance and benign neglect.
My organization’s mission is peace now. And while I realize that right now a negotiated peace agreement is not in the offing, I know that inaction in the face of occupation and settlement expansion will make Israeli-Palestinian peace unattainable for generations to come.
We at Americans for Peace Now know that fighting against intolerance is an intersectional issue: the struggles against antisemitism and Islamophobia must be fought in unison. Just as other communities show up for us, it is our duty to stand as allies alongside our Muslim friends and neighbors.
We are seeing a rise in Islamophobia in nearly every corner of the globe. Anti-Muslim rhetoric, bigotry and acts of violence have increased as white supremacist and Islamophobic hate group networks have grown in strength and inspired acts of anti-Muslim violence and terrorism, including the murder of a Muslim family in London, Ontario over the summer and the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand mosque shootings.
This anti-Muslim bigotry must end.
That's why Americans for Peace Now is proud to support the Combating International Islamophobia Act, which will require the State Department to create a Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Muslim Bigotry. Sponsored by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and modeled on the already existing position of Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism, this vital legislation passed the House of Representatives this week. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced the Senate companion to the bill on Tuesday.
Sadly yet unsurprisingly, the debate around this bill has been vitriolic. Opponents of the bill have lobbed horrific and false accusations of terrorism and have tried to use unrelated claims about Israel’s security and the threat of antisemitism to push back against this legislation.
We will not let detractors divide or distract us from the real issue at hand.
To see the full text of the legislation, click here.
Americans for Peace Now (APN) welcomes last night's passage of the Combating International Islamophobia Act in the House of Representatives. Introduced by Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), this bill would establish a Special Envoy to combat Islamophobia.
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