Hillary Clinton just issued a formal invitation for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to begin direct peace talks on September 2nd. This is good news. It presents an opportunity for progress towards peace.

Now the real hard work must begin.  Direct talks are not an end in themselves; their only value is as a means to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

A strong American role is needed to ensure that these negotiations will be productive.

Fighting broke out this morning across the Israel-Lebanon border. One senior Israeli officer is dead, as are three Lebanese soldiers and one journalist.

The details of what took place today are still emerging, but one thing is clear: Without strong American leadership events like today's could spiral out of control.

Tell President Obama to engage to prevent an escalation.

In 2006, we saw fighting along the Israel-Gaza and the Israel-Lebanon borders escalate into a full-on war.  Today's developments - coming on the heels of an uptick in rocket fire targeting southern Israel - are eerily similar.

Israel is considering ending the moratorium on new settlement construction in September.

This would be bad for Israel and bad for peace: Settlement construction undermines faith in peace talks. Settlements constitute a burden to Israel's security services. They create points of friction between Israelis and Palestinians. And they drain Israel's financial resources.

For these reasons, APN activists have worked together to convince Washington to press for a continuation of the moratorium.

Now, it is time to focus our efforts on another important message: As Americans who love Israel, we know that ending the settlement moratorium would play into the hands of those who seek to delegitimize Israel.

We need to deliver this message directly to Israelis, many of whom are not aware of the impact that new settlement construction could have on public American support for Israel.

As part of this effort, APN is asking our activists to make short videos explaining how new settlement expansion could undermine Israel's standing in their communities. The top videos we receive will be featured in Israel starting August 10th as part of the new campaign by the Israeli Peace Now movement.

Here is one such video: