Washington, DC - Ahead of next week's meeting between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - as well as other senior Israeli leaders - Americans for Peace Now today urged the President not to "walk back" from his positions on Israeli-Palestinian peace and not to commit to precipitous military action against Iran.

See a PDF of the letter

APN LETTER TO OBAMA Feb 29.pdf

Washington, DC - Americans for Peace Now (APN) expresses concern about the deteriorating situation in Syria and urges the Obama Administration to engage urgently to end the crisis.

APN President and CEO Debra DeLee said: "Last Friday, the U.S., along with the Arab League and other members of the international community, met in Tunis with various Syrian opposition groups, in an effort to end the crisis in Syria. APN commends the Obama Administration for its role in organizing this meeting and the Arab League and Turkey for their own efforts in this crisis.

Alpher discusses why Russia is propping up the Assad regime and how this affects Russia's relations with Israel and the rest of the Arab world, the state of the revolution in Syria, and whether the right-wing organization "Im Tirzu" is fascistic in nature.

We are all concerned about the threat of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. An Iran armed with nuclear weapons represents an alarming scenario that neither the U.S. nor Israel, nor for that matter, the world, can afford to dismiss, and one that the U.S. and the international community must exert all efforts to avoid.

Most of us are also concerned - and increasingly so - over the growing frenzy of talk about military action against Iran. Military action is unlikely to do more than delay Iran's nuclear program and is almost certain to have far-reaching unintended consequences for the U.S., Israel, and the region.

The fate of Migron, an illegal outpost in the heart of the West Bank, is about to be decided. The implications of this decision are about far more than the future of a handful of settlers in a single outpost. This decision will be a litmus test of Israeli rule of law and, ultimately, of Israel's capacity to make peace with the Palestinians.

How can one outpost be so important?

The Rabbis always understood that the Torah is a document that must be interpreted. Throughout our history we have always understood that we cannot have direct access to God's meaning but are always bounded by the need to put it in human terms. Therefore, insisting that any particular meaning is the only meaning - whether it's about the borders or settling the land, how to dress, or anything else -- is dangerous.

The ongoing work of Peace Now's Settlement Watch program, headed by the formidable Hagit Ofran and readily available at peacenow.org, and frequent analysis by the apparently indefatigable Lara Friedman, American for Peace Now's director of policy and government relations, provide comprehensive -- and disheartening -- details on settlement actions and issues in general.

Fein is an APN Board Member who has written and advocated for progressive Jewish causes since the 1960s. In 1974 he founded Moment magazine, the journal of Jewish ideas, and in 1985 he founded MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger.

Extremists vandalized again in Jerusalem in an apparent "price tag" attack against Peace Now's Jerusalem offices. The extremists sprayed "No leftists, no terror attacks"

Read JTA and Jerusalem Post articles...

Peace Now executive director Yariv Oppenheimer, slammed Monday's compromise offer by Migron residents as "outrageous. The government is avoiding fulfilling the Supreme Court decision. Not only will the outpost not be evacuated on time, it will not be evacuated at all. And the settlers will gain another settlement in the heart of the West Bank,"

Brian Reeves, a graduate student who interned with APN over the summer, is pursuing his graduate studies at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. Following is the first in what we hope will be a series of blog posts commenting on his experience in Israel. Brian is a graduate of Brandeis University, where he was the President of J Street U.

Alpher discusses how Hamas and Fateh signing the "Doha declaration" and moving their reconciliation project a step forward influences the peace process, what international military intervention in Syria might look like, what else, if anything, can Israel do about the daily slaughter in neighboring Syria, and what was the general strike that the Netanyahu government just settled and why is this significant?

Today, February 10, is the 29th anniversary of the murder of Emil Grunzweig. Grunzweig was a reserves paratrooper in the IDF, who fought in the Six-Day War, and served as a reserve officer in the War of Attrition, the Yom Kippur War, and the 1982 Lebanon War. After his discharge, he became an educator and peace activist. Emil was killed during a 1983 Peace Now rally when right-wing activist Yona Avrushmi lobbed a grenade into the crowd.

In the last two days, two more price tag attacks were made against a monastery, a Jewish-Arab bilingual school and the offices of Peace Now in Jerusalem.

APN made online history this week. Our active Facebook page now has over 30,000 fans, more than any US Jewish organization. We use our Facebook page to feature activities, news and views, and to encourage open discussion on the issues. Americans for Peace Now has been leading the pack in providing a fresh voice on Facebook about Israel for over two years.

If you have not done so yet, join our Facebook page and be a part of APN's online conversation.

Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek ("house of peace/pursuers of justice!") in Chester, CT. She serves as co-chair of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America and is a member of the Rabbinic Cabinet of JStreet. She is also an alumna of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.

Alpher discusses why there is such a fuss being made over the 23 percent that Moshe Feiglin won in the Likud leadership primaries, what "confidence-building measures" in the West Bank the Quartet is asking Netanyahu to offer, whether Bashar Assad resembles his father in terms of the violence currently being perpetrated by him, and what the Israeli angle should be on Congress threatening to withhold foreign aid to Egypt unless Cairo stops cracking down on American and other foreign-sponsored democracy-advocacy groups in Egypt.