The independent Palestinian polling firm AWRAD (Arab World for Research & Development) this week published a new poll of Palestinian students in West Bank campuses that recently had student council elections. Poll results show - among other things - that among West Bank students, the Palestinian governments' approval ratings (both that of the Fatah-led government in the West Bank and that of the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip) are very low.
The evacuation of the five illegally-built houses in the West Bank settlement of Beit El was completed without any confrontations between the settlers and the police.
As part of the political crisis around the Ulpana Hill outpost, PM Netanyahu announced a "compensation package" for the settlers in which 851 new units will be built in disputed areas in the West Bank.
Alpher discusses how we should we understand the situation in Egypt, whether Mofaz's, leader of the Kadima party who recently joined the Netanyahu government as a deputy prime minister, visit to Washington last week where he promoted his ideas for renewing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process points the way toward some sort of new peace initiative, and if the new enlarged and more "central" Netanyahu coalition might constitute a first step toward a Likud-Kadima-Atzmaut union and a pragmatic peace plan.
Extremist settlers are escalating their campaign to resist Israeli government attempts to remove five illegally built houses at the West Bank settlement of Beit El, near Ramallah. As government representatives seem to be inching toward an agreement with settler leader to peacefully evict the houses, some of the more militant settlers are escalating their actions and rhetoric to try to hinder the eviction.
The first videotaped testimony from the "Dis-Cover the Occupation" campaign of the Israeli organization Breaking the Silence has a soldier recalling how he witnessed settler children burning a Peace Now effigy.
Watch this from among the 800 testimonies given by Israeli soldiers after serving in the occupied territories.
What do you call a unilateral "withdrawal" that leaves Israeli settlers and soldiers behind? The answer: Continued occupation.
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With Israeli-Palestinian efforts at an impasse and immediate-term hopes for progress toward any agreement fading, the appeal of new ideas is understandable. This is no doubt why discussion of Israeli unilateral options--generally in terms of unilateral "withdrawals" from the West Bank--is in the air.
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On June 7th, APN Spokesperson Ori Nir was interviewed by Washington, D.C. Pacifica Radio-affiliate WPFW about failed attempts by Israeli extremist lawmakers to "legalize" settlement construction on privately-owned Palestinian land.
WPFW interview June 7 2012.mp3
APN Board Member Letty Cottin-Pogrebin last month published an opinion piece on the Daily Beast's Open Zion blog, suggesting the appointment of former President Bill Clinton as a special presidential emissary for Israeli-Palestinian peace. 
My colleague Lara Friedman, APN's director of policy and government relations, returned from Stockholm over the weekend after two days of discussions co-sponsored by the Swedish National Defense Research Organization (akin to the American RAND Corporation) and Princeton University's Liechtenstein Institute for Self Determination. VIDEO precedes the Q and A. Yossi Alpher visited the Peace Now offices in DC last week, as Israel marked 45 years since the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem were captured in the Six-Day War.
Watch the video of his short analysis on the impact of 45 years of occupation on Israeli society and then read the Q and A on the decision to evacuate 30 settlement housing units in Bet El, unilateral initiatives regarding withdrawal from West Bank territory, and why the press has gone out of its way to cover PM Netanyahu
Neve Shalom ("Oasis of Peace"), a small community in which Jewish and Arab Israeli citizens choose to live together, was vandalized last night, apparently by settlers or settler-sympathizers. Graffiti saying "Death to the Arabs" was sprayed on Neve Shalom's bilingual school. Several cars were vandalized with hateful graffiti. The tires of fourteen cars were punctured.
Arthur Stern, pictured right, was an APN Board and Executive Committee Member, and SoCal Regional Co-Chair. He recently passed away and as per his request, fellow APN leader Sandy Weiner gave one of the eulogies.
Yariv Oppenheimer, Secretary-General of Peace Now, will not bring us peace. But he is he only one who is succeeding in blocking the settlers and preventing the expansion of the outposts<
...His name is Yariv Oppenheimer (Peace Now Secretary General), and he drives the settlers mad because he has succeeded time and again in placing a few boundaries for this band of people, who are certain that the entire area beyond the Green Line is their private domain, and they can do with it as they please without interference.
...With diligence and courage, Oppenheimer and his activists succeed in confronting the settlers, undeterred by threats, online comments bordering on madness, burning hatred and defamations...
By Yael Paz-Melamed
The ugly reports keep rolling in. A rally against African migrants turns
violent and a race riot ensues; the whole thing is repeated a week
later. A Jewish-Israeli of Ethiopian descent is "mistaken" for a migrant
and assaulted in Tel Aviv. A group of teenagers in Tel Aviv is arrested
for a series of brutal, racially-motivated robberies and assaults
targeting Africans. A Sudanese man is viciously beaten in Tel Aviv. A
Sudanese hotel worker is nearly lynched in Eilat. An apartment in
Jerusalem is torched with 10 Eritreans trapped inside.
A few weeks ago, Americans for Peace Now sent out my letter asking you stop being defensive about what our adversaries say about us. They have been accusing us of all kinds of nonsense - when actually, APN and our sister organization Shalom Achshav, have been working for the only possible solution that will lead to peace and security for Israel. If you want to see what effect we are having, read this editorial published yesterday by the editor and columnist Yael Paz-Melamed for the Israeli daily Ma'ariv.
"Building 300 housing units in Beit El and expanding other settlements are not a punishment to Peace Now but a punishment to all the citizens in this country..."
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Netanyahu was quoted with regard to the litigation of Peace Now and other organizations, that they should know for every illegally built structure in the settlements that he will be compelled to demolish by court order, he will build ten.
In response, Peace Now published an open letter to him as an ad in the Hebrew media, and is collecting signatures to be sent to the Prime Minister.
By James Klutznick, APN's Chairman of the BoardAlpher offers some thoughts regarding Israeli strategic policies
