Americans for Peace Now: Blog: June 2011 Archives

Cottage Cheese?

By Noam Shelef on June 30, 2011 10:56 AM

The headlines in Israel today are all about cottage cheese. I'm not kidding. See for yourself. The story is about Israeli popular protest over the rising price of dairy products. Cottage cheese became the symbolic focal point for the protest, and for weeks it has been in the headlines.

Our colleagues in the Israeli Peace Now movement took advantage of the public debate to make the point that Israel's economic situation is directly impacted by the economic costs and the fiscal burden of settlements.

Peace Now released ads in print and through social media channels with the simple message: "This Cottage Costs You More!"

The ad is based on a picture of cottage-style homes under construction in the settlement of Revava. The photo was taken by Peace Now's Settlement Watch team earlier this year.

Peace Now opposes settlement expansion because it undermines the prospects for resuming peace talks, burdens Israel's limited security resources, and makes a two-state solution more difficult.

APN to Huntsman: Don't be fooled about American Jews

By Noam Shelef on June 29, 2011 5:04 PM

APN today sent the following letter to Governor Jon Huntsman to clarify that most American Jews want to see American policy promote Israeli-Palestinian peace, even if it means that America sometimes places pressure on all parties -- including Israel -- to achieve this goal. APN's letter follows media reports that the Republican Jewish Coalition has voiced concerns over Huntsman's affiliation with realist foreign policy experts.

Continue reading APN to Huntsman: Don't be fooled about American Jews.

Matti Steinberg on Palestinian Unity

By Lara Friedman on June 22, 2011 5:59 PM

Yesterday, APN cosponsored a standing-room only briefing featuring Professor Matti Steinberg, Israel's preeminent expert on Hamas.

The other cosponsoring groups were the Foundation for Middle East Peace, Churches for Middle East Peace, and the Middle East Institute. The video for the event is here:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Continue reading Matti Steinberg on Palestinian Unity.

It's not about Zionist summer camp anymore

By Noam Shelef on June 22, 2011 4:37 PM

I've been tempted to write something about Allison Benedikt's piece in the Awl since the moment I read it. It is a brutally honest story of an American Jew who has had to come to terms with the reality that Israel does not always live up to the values that we cherish.

Her story is not unique. Many of us struggle with the dissonance between our values and the image of Israel that we were raised with on the one hand, and what we know of the reality of occupation on the other.

Continue reading It's not about Zionist summer camp anymore.

Wanting Something for Nothing: The Real Reason Behind the Outrage Over Obama's Reference to 1967

By Lara Friedman on June 22, 2011 1:51 PM

(My new piece posted on the Huffington Post)

The outrage over Obama's reference to 1967 lines in the May 19th speech isn't truly about "defensible" borders. It's about greed.

Purveyors of right-wing hasbara know Obama didn't demand that Israel return to the 1967 lines or try to impose any border.

Continue reading Wanting Something for Nothing: The Real Reason Behind the Outrage Over Obama's Reference to 1967.

Reading the Conflict - How Israelis and Palestinian Negotiate: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Oslo Peace Process

By emily on June 17, 2011 3:09 PM

Today, I recommend a slim and eminently readable volume that should be required reading for anyone who ever plays any role in Middle East diplomacy, in either the American, Israeli, or Palestinian governments: How Israelis and Palestinians Negotiate: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Oslo Peace Process.

Continue reading Reading the Conflict - How Israelis and Palestinian Negotiate: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Oslo Peace Process.

Don't let Glenn Beck set Jerusalem on fire!

By Noam Shelef on June 17, 2011 11:01 AM

Shock jock Glenn Beck is planning to hold a rally in Jerusalem in August.

He's calling the event "Restoring Courage." But the location he's chosen shows that what he really wants to do is foster conflict. He's decided to hold the event in East Jerusalem, just outside the Old City, one of the most politically sensitive locations in the world.

Continue reading Don't let Glenn Beck set Jerusalem on fire!.

Netanyahu's "insoluble" conflict

By Ori Nir on June 15, 2011 2:58 PM

If you want to understand why the Obama administration is so angry with Binyamin Netanyahu and his government, read what Netanyahu told Etgar Keret, one of Israel's leading young authors.

Continue reading Netanyahu's "insoluble" conflict.

Reading the Conflict - The Process: 1,100 Days That Changed the Middle East

By emily on June 13, 2011 1:44 PM

When President Obama said in his recent Middle East speech that "the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps," it was treated in many quarters as if the President had introduced a new idea. On the right - in Israel as in the US - the reaction was one of fury; in the solid center, there has been a lot of talk of "Obama's peace plan."

Yet the simple truth is that Israel and the Palestinians have been negotiating on precisely that basis for as long as they've been negotiating - since the secret Oslo talks of 1993.

Continue reading Reading the Conflict - The Process: 1,100 Days That Changed the Middle East.

Generals weigh-in on '67 lines

By Noam Shelef on June 13, 2011 11:42 AM

IDF General Dov Tamari rips apart the notion -- promoted in the wake of Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to Washington -- that Israel must retain parts of the West Bank for its defense.

Continue reading Generals weigh-in on '67 lines.

Why is peace in Israel important to you?

By aaronm on June 10, 2011 12:55 PM

Last month I attended an Israel Week event at the University of Maryland. I was there in two capacities: as an intern for APN and as a graduate student at Maryland.

On campus, we asked my fellow students to tell us why peace in Israel is important to them.

Their responses are powerful. There's pro-peace energy on campus. Many college students are like me: We know that without peace, Israel's very existence in danger.

Continue reading Why is peace in Israel important to you?.

APN at NY Israel Day Parade

By Ori Nir on June 6, 2011 4:37 PM

Dozens of our supporters marched yesterday at the annual Israel solidarity parade in New York. Click "play" for a short presentation.

Jerusalem: Facts and Figures

By Ori Nir on June 5, 2011 10:15 PM

A new compendium of facts and figures about Jerusalem, published by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on the occasion of "Jerusalem Day," a national Israeli holiday intended to celebrate the so-called "reunification" of Jerusalem, shows how this holy city is becoming poorer, less developed and more religiously zealous than other Israeli communities.

First, population figures. The overall population - Jewish and Palestinian, in West and East Jerusalem - is 789,000 (2010 numbers), of them 285,000 are Arabs (36%) and 504,000 are Jews (and other non-Arabs (a negligible number of foreign workers and other foreigners), who account for 64% of the population.

Continue reading Jerusalem: Facts and Figures.

Thousands march in Tel Aviv in support of Palestinian state based on 1967 borders

By Noam Shelef on June 5, 2011 11:53 AM

Around 5,000 people participated in a march that was organized under the title 'Netanyahu said no - We say yes to a Palestinian state'.

The march ended with a rally at the Tel Aviv Museum. MKs Dov Khenin (Hadash) and Zahava Galon (Meretz) and playwright Yehoshua Sobol gave speeches.

"Members of the U.S. Congress won't be the ones who will pay the price of the next war," Sobol said. "When Netanyahu said no to the 1967 borders, he said no to peace." Read more at Haaretz.com.

Continue reading Thousands march in Tel Aviv in support of Palestinian state based on 1967 borders.

Reading the Conflict - Separate and Unequal: The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem

By emily on June 3, 2011 5:20 PM

Jerusalem Day fell on June 1 this year, neatly between two Fridays and, for me, two editions (so to speak) of "Reading the Conflict." Last week I recommended The Hour of Sunlight, the remarkable memoir of a Palestinian Jerusalemite who moved from bomb-building to co-existence efforts, his story providing a powerful glimpse into the lives lived on the other side of Israel's "undivided" Jerusalem.

This week, I recommend Separate and Unequal: The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem, because as important as personal stories are, the facts and figures point to a broader painful truth: Israel's discrimination against Jerusalem's Palestinian residents has been systematic, entirely intentional, and designed to create and hasten a mass exodus of Palestinians, from the earliest days of Israeli control.

Continue reading Reading the Conflict - Separate and Unequal: The Inside Story of Israeli Rule in East Jerusalem.

They say that Barack Obama "talks like Peace Now."

By APN on June 3, 2011 1:22 PM

By Uzi Baram

Even Benjamin Netanyahu knows that the choice facing Israel is not between the need to deflect Obama's positions and continuing life as we know it. The choice is between turning President Obama into a real partner and abandoning Israel to its fate against the nations of the world and the region, isolated and neglected like South Africa, which I visited right before the regime change in 1994. We must not interpret the applause at Congress as a sign of a strategic change. It will not determine the future.

Continue reading They say that Barack Obama "talks like Peace Now.".

James Carroll blasts Christian right, Netanyahu

By Ori Nir on June 2, 2011 2:26 PM

APN yesterday hosted award winning novelist James Carroll for a conversation about Jerusalem on the occasion of "Jerusalem Day," a national Israeli holiday marking the so-called "reunification of Jerusalem."

Carroll had strong words about the fundamentalist Christian right's support for of the most extremist Israeli ultra-nationalists, who reject any territorial compromise with the Palestinians.

Continue reading James Carroll blasts Christian right, Netanyahu.

Present at the Periphery: A Personal History

By leonard on June 2, 2011 9:30 AM

"Things today aren't the way they used to -- and they never were."

I'm no longer sure. I think back -- way back, these days -- to a more innocent time, a time of ingathering the exiles, making the desert bloom, draining the swamps, a more or less egalitarian society, the centrality of the kibbutz, and all the revisionist histories notwithstanding, there remains a chasm between Israel pre-1967 and the last 44 years. True, the early years were very far from the Heavenly Jerusalem, but hey, these were Jews who knew how to grab hold of history and turn it in the direction of their choosing.

Continue reading Present at the Periphery: A Personal History.

Peace Now tour of Jerusalem with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

By Noam Shelef on June 1, 2011 9:57 AM

Today, the Israeli Peace Now movement organized a tour of Jerusalem for Israeli and Palestinian leaders, including members of parliament.

Continue reading Peace Now tour of Jerusalem with Israeli and Palestinian leaders..

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Blog: June 2011 Archives