To return to the new Peace Now website click here.

January 2005 Archives

2004 Yitzhak Rabin Peace Award Luncheon

APN's annual West Coast event included the presentation of the Yitzhak Rabin Peace Award to Gene Reynolds...

...American Friends of Peace Now sent a letter to President Bush last week, urging him not to provide American funding to pay for proposed high-tech crossing points in Israel's security barrier in the West Bank.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) asked Mr. Alpher for his analysis of a new demographic study carried out by several right-wing Israelis and American Jews....

January 25, 2005 - Americans for Peace Now (APN) today called on the Bush Administration to press the government of Ariel Sharon to reverse a decision that it took last summer to apply the Absentee Property Law to East Jerusalem, a move that effectively allowed Israel to seize millions of dollars worth of property belonging to Palestinian landowners without compensation.

Q. How relevant is the new report about no "demographic threat" to Israel as a Jewish state? Q. What about Russian missile sales to Syria?

Give President Abbas time.

See the letter to the editor from the Washington Times from APN President & CEO Debra DeLee...

January 24, 2005 - Vol. 6, Issue 25

JEWISH VICTIMS OF SETTLER VIOLENCE, PART I: Assaf Ravid was the operations officer of the Border Police in Kalkilya during the evacuation of the Mitzpe Yitzhar settlement outpost. "It was my first evacuation," he related, "All the access routes were blocked. The road was full of rocks, burning tires, and black oil. Masses of settlers sat on the ground and held onto each other. We began to clear a path towards the settlement outpost in the morning, and managed to get there ...

Legislative Round-Up - 1/21/05

I. 109th Congress - Key Committees II. New Bills and Resolutions III. Rice Confirmation Hearing

Legislative Round-up - 11/23/04

Special Edition: ForOps Redux HR 4818 - FY05 Omnibus Approps Bill

Hard Questions, Tough Answers - January 17, 2005

Q...senior security officials have issued severe warnings regarding likely negative security consequences of the disengagement from Gaza... Q. What's new with the security fence?

January 17, 2005 - Vol. 6, Issue 24

IT WORKED SO WELL THE FIRST TIME: A lead editorial in Ha'aretz commented about the Sharon government's return to a confrontational relationship with the Palestinian Authority, saying, "Ariel Sharon's display of anger at Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) after the suicide bombing at the Karni crossing shows that Israel has chosen to return to the relationship ...

In a letter to President George Bush, Americans for Peace Now (APN) today called on the White House not to provide U.S. funding to pay for proposed high-tech crossing points for Israel's security barrier at locations in the West Bank.

Democracy Din - APN OpEd from Mark Rosenblum

President George Bush's willingness to make the Israeli-Palestinian peace process a top priority during his second term is cause for cautious celebration.

January 10, 2005 - Vol. 6, Issue 23

IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE: The Palestinian presidential elections are over, and the people have spoken. But what would have happened if other leading Palestinian political figures had run for the office? In a survey of Palestinian opinion conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) at the very end of December, 38% of respondents said that they would have voted for Marwan Barghouti (34% of Mahmoud Abbas' voters and 54% of Mustafa Barghouti's voters ...

APN Congratulates Mahmoud Abbas on Victory

"Americans for Peace Now extends its congratulations to Mahmoud Abbas for being chosen to be president of the Palestinian Authority in yesterday's election," said Debra DeLee, President and CEO of Americans for Peace Now, a Jewish, Zionist organization dedicated to enhancing Israel's security through peace and to

January 2005

...President George Bush will take the oath of office for the second time, marking the start of a new administration and a new opportunity to reevaluate his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

December 2004

"There is a Season..." Ad was published in American-Jewish newspapers across the country

October 11, 2004, Vol. 6 Issue 12

Disengagement Support Rises: In Friday's Yedioth Ahronoth survey of Israeli public opinion, 65% of respondents said they support disengagement, up from 58% in a poll from September 14th, while only 25% said they do not support it, down from 27%. A huge majority (70%) said that disengagement from Gaza is only the beginning, after which will come the evacuation of settlements in Judea and Samaria. Only 21% did not hold this view. 58% said that disengagement will improve ...

October 18, 2004 Vol. 6 Issue 13

300K ISRAELIS SUPPORT VIOLENT CIVIL REBELLION: The latest Peace Index survey from the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research of Tel Aviv University found continued Israeli public support for the disengagement plan, as well as troubling backing for violent rebellion. The poll indicated that 60.7% of Jewish respondents support Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral plan for disengagement from Gaza, while 30% do not and 9.3% don't know. Even 51.3% of Likud voters support ...

December 27, 2004, Vol. 6 Issue 22

NIXONIAN DEMOCRACY: Even though the Israeli Peace Now movement has been leading the street battle in favor of the evacuation of settlements from Gaza and part of the West Bank, that has not spared it from being targeted by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's graduates from the School of Watergate Studies. Yoel Hasson, Sharon's adviser on complaints and requests from the public, has announced that he intends to plant Likud supporters inside Peace Now to spy on its activities. ...

December 20, 2004, Vol. 6 Issue 21

PEACE NOW URGES CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION OF SETTLER LEADER: The Israeli Peace Now movement and Knesset members have urged the Israeli Attorney General to launch a criminal investigation into comments made by settler leader Pinhas Wallerstein in which he called for public disobedience against the disengagement plan. Wallerstein told a meeting of the Settlers Council yesterday that the public should "disobey the 'transfer' law en masse, even at the price of a prison term." He ...

December 13, 2004, Vol. 6, Issue 20

HAMAS TO ABBAS: In an analysis of yesterday's tunnel bombing attack against IDF troops by Hamas and the Fatah Hawks faction, Amit Cohen wrote, "While light gusts of optimism began to blow, the tunnel digging far beneath Rafah was being completed. Although the construction began months before Arafat's death, it ended with the powerful sound of an explosion, a clear signal to his successor. If for a moment it seemed that Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) was succeeding in taking ...

December 6, 2004, Vol. 6 Issue 19

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: The Israeli Foreign Ministry doesn't remember such an atmosphere in a long time. The Foreign Ministry believes that after elections for the Palestinian Authority are held and prior to the implementation of disengagement, there will be a breakthrough in Israel's relations with Arab countries. Jerusalem officials mention Morocco, Tunisia, Oman, and Jordan as candidates for reinstating their ambassadors. There may also be agreements ...

November 29, 2004, Vol. 6 Issue 18

GELT BY APPROPRIATION: The Israeli government is proposing to directly transfer over NIS 300 million to settlements in the occupied territories, according to a new analysis from the Israeli Peace Now movement of Israel's 2005 state budget bill. This sum does not include the security budget that is allocated for settlements, nor does it include a substantial amount for settlements that is hidden from the public and cannot be located in the state budget. However, after a ...

November 15, 2004, Vol. 6 Issue 17

LEGACY MATTERS, PART I: In an op-ed carried in Ma'ariv, Ben-Dror Yemimi wrote, "A Palestinian friend of mine, we'll call him Jamal, berates me every time I write something critical about Yasser Arafat, the wonderful leader of the Palestinian people. It isn't that he believes that Arafat is as pure as the driven snow, but, he explains to me, you and your kind don't understand who and what Yasser Arafat is for the Palestinian people. You, he added, perceive him to be a ...

November 8, 2004, Volume 6 Issue 16

BUSH WITHERS ON SETTLEMENTS: The Bush Administration failed to deduct sums used for Israeli government spending in the occupied territories from the U.S. loan guarantees that were given to Israel. Such sums were deducted last year from the loan guarantees. In early 2003, when the White House decided to give Israel $9 billion in loan guarantees to help the Israeli economy pull itself out of its crisis, a clause was inserted stipulating that the administration was entitled to ...