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.
October 17, 2024- While it is yet to be confirmed, reports indicate that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by the IDF earlier today in Gaza. If those reports are accurate, the Israeli government, Hamas, the United States, and all interested parties should seize this moment to declare an immediate ceasefire. This must of course include the return of all hostages and the admission of a massive influx of aid to the people of Gaza.
After more than a year of the horror of war, the Netanyahu government has still never offered any strategic
vision or definition of success beyond their meaningless slogan of “total victory.” Certainly, from the Israeli
perspective, the killing of Sinwar is a victory. Now is the moment for Israelis and Palestinians, with support from
the United States and others, to demand of their leaders an end to this war. Additionally, we urge the Biden
Administration to exert every ounce of leverage it has with the Israeli government and Hamas’s leadership, and
bring this bloody conflict to an end. There is no “total victory” for Israel and certainly none for Hamas. There
can only be respite for long-suffering innocent Palestinians and Israelis, who deserve the chance to begin to
rebuild their shattered societies before it is too late.
October 16, 2024- Americans for Peace Now welcomes the recent letter from the Biden administration to the Israeli government, emphasizing the urgent need to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza within the next 30 days. But it is not enough.
The government of Israel has been arbitrarily impeding humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip for over a year, in violation of both Section 620I of the US Foreign Assistance Act and the Biden administration’s own National Security Memorandum 20. These actions not only exacerbate the suffering of civilians but also undermine US commitments to human rights and international law.
It is time for the Biden administration to translate its strong language into meaningful action. We urge the administration to impose real consequences for these violations, rather than allowing a cycle of statements to be followed by inaction.
Recording of our October 29th, 2024 webinar with Joshua Leifer. This conversation was hosted by Maxxe
Albert-Deitch and Karen Paul.
We spoke with Joshua Leifer about Tablets Shattered, his lively and personal history of the fractured American Jewish present. Formed in the middle decades of the twentieth century, the settled-upon pillars of American Jewish self-definition (Americanism, Zionism, and liberalism) have begun to collapse. The binding trauma of Holocaust memory grows ever-more attenuated; soon there will be no living survivors. After two millennia of Jewish life defined by diasporic existence, the majority of the world’s Jews will live in a sovereign Jewish state by 2050. Against the backdrop of national political crises, resurgent global antisemitism, and the horrors of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Leifer provides an illuminating and meticulously reported map of contemporary Jewish life and a sober conjecture about its future.
Joshua Leifer is a journalist whose essays and reporting have appeared widely in international publications, including The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Haaretz, and elsewhere. He is currently pursuing a PhD in history at Yale University.
Listen to the audio recording on our podcast, PeaceCast-https://peacenow.libsyn.com/330-tablets-shattered-book-talk-with-joshua-leifer
Watch the video recording on our YouTube channel- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XUTzgneNmg
Read the transcript HERE.
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.
Dear Friend of APN,
I woke up on what I thought would be just any other Shabbat morning. As soon as my feet hit the floor, I
heard my wife coming upstairs. I can’t tell you why, but I immediately knew something was wrong. She walked into
the room and said, “something terrible is happening in Israel, but Ana (our youngest child who was there on a
gap year program) is ok.” Thus began, for me at least, October 7th.
That day is burned in my memory, as I’m sure it is for many of you. I spent it watching the unfolding horror
of the Hamas massacre and reaching out to family and friends, hoping desperately to hear that they were home and
safe. And I also spent it trying to understand what was happening and trying to wrap my head around what it would
mean for Israelis, for Palestinians, and for all of us. A year later, I think we are all still trying to figure it
out.
October 1, 2024- Americans for Peace Now welcomes the new sanctions imposed by the U.S. Treasury Department on violent Israeli settlers and organizations in the occupied West Bank. The nationalist violence against Palestinians has reached the point where even the Israeli government is taking action against the most notorious settlers. Avichai Suisa, the leader of extremist group HaShomer Yosh, Eitan Jordani from the illegal outpost Havat Ma'on and Hilltop Youth certainly deserve to be sanctioned, by both Israel and the U.S.
But individual sanctions against local leaders are not enough. Two powerful Ministers in the Israeli
government, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, control much of the civilian administration in the West Bank and
the police, respectively. Their incitement to violence, land theft and de facto annexation as well as measures
taken to protect violent settlers makes them ultimately responsible – along with Prime Minister Netanyahu – for the
immense upsurge in anti-Palestinian lawlessness. The Biden Administration should not shrink from sanctioning these
Ministers because of their official positions, which only heighten their dangerous irresponsibility.