Alpher discusses why Israel's two largest parties, Likud Beitenu and Labor, are both dropping in pre-election opinion polls, whether the High Court's allowing Balad candidate Hanin Zoabi to run in the elections was a victory for enlightenment and pluralism in Israel, and if there are differences in approach among the three electorally-significant Arab parties.

As anyone who pays attention to the news cannot help but be aware, in recent weeks the Netanyahu government has opened the settlement floodgates, approving massive settlement expansion, especially in and around East Jerusalem. The most recent of these approvals was announced this week - the approval of more than 1000 new units in a new settlement neighborhood known as Mordot Gilo. Also this week, in a step toward normalizing settlements as part of Israel, the Israeli government decided to formally recognize a college in the settlement of Ariel as a fully-accredited Israeli university.

A breakdown of the myriad of settlement plans being aggressively pursued in recent weeks.

By Hagit Ofran and Lior Amihai

The past few weeks may have been confusing for those who try to keep track of Israeli settlement activity. So many plans and approvals, some of which are lethal for the two-state solution, make it clear that the Netanyahu government has decided to push forward as many plans as possible in order to determine facts on the ground before the elections in Israel, as long as there is no "threat" of any renewal of the peace process.

Alpher discusses the current state of the Arab revolutions; how Syria is moving in a different direction from Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen; what, if anything, would Alpher have Israel do in Arab revolutions; how should Israel address Palestinians fleeing the violence in Syria, especially in the context of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offering last week to absorb them

This week saw ugly and deeply dishonest attacks launched against former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), in the context of his name being floated as the possible nominee for the next Secretary of Defense. APN's position on Hagel and rejecting these attacks is available here.

For the sake of those who are not familiar with Hagel's real record on the issues (and are so far relying on reports that, when examined, prove inaccurate if not duplicitous), below is a compendium of major statements made by Hagel expressing his views on Israel and the Middle East and spanning his time in office.

Hagel on the Senate floor, 7/31/06: MIDDLE EAST--A REGION IN CRISIS

Hagel at the Council on Foreign Relations, 11/15/05: A Conversation with Senator Chuck Hagel on The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy

Hagel at the World Affairs Council speech, 5/20/03: "Next Steps in the Middle East"

Hagel in the Washington Post, 7/19/02: We Shouldn't Make Arafat the Issue

Hagel on the Senate floor, 6/14/02: PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Hagel on the Senate floor, 4/12/2002: THE MIDDLE EAST

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APN's Director of Policy and Government Relations Lara Friedman took part in a panel discussion at the New America Foundation on the viability of Israeli-Palestinian peace. The discussion, sponsored by the Arab American Institute and the New America Foundation's Middle East Task Force, marked the launch of a new public opinion survey on what Palestinians and Israelis want in a peace deal and what their thoughts are about the prospects for achieving it.

Full video of the event is available here. Check out Lara's powerful defense of the two-state solution starting at 57:10.

Shalom TV covers the rabbinic letter (begins at 2:01), which was coordinated by Americans for Peace Now, J Street and Rabbis for Human Rights-North America in which more than five hundred US rabbis, cantors, rabbinical students and cantorial students express grave concern about Israel's plans to advance the construction of settlements in the controversial E1 area of the West Bank and authorize thousands of new housing units in East Jerusalem.

Americans for Peace Now mourns the death of Lt. General (Res.) Amnon Lipkin Shahak, Israeli military's former Chief of Staff, a man who devoted his life to Israel's security and peace.

In recent weeks it has been fascinating to watch defenders of the Netanyahu government and the settlement enterprise engaging in logical and rhetorical contortions to try to justify the Netanyahu government's pro-settlement policies. What has emerged is simultaneously the most disingenuous and in some ways the most honest discussion of settlements in years.

Americans for Peace Now today issued the following statement:

APN supports President Obama's right, as the president of the United States, to name members of his cabinet.  With respect to Senator Hagel, APN strongly rejects attacks on Senator Hagel's record on Israel and Middle East-related issues.  We know Senator Hagel well from his time in office.  In the Senate he was a thoughtful legislator with a deep commitment to U.S. national security and a keen understanding of the full gamut of complex foreign policy issues, including the vital importance of achieving durable Israeli-Palestinian peace.

The ADL came out last week with its Top 10 list of "Issues Affecting Jews in 2012,"a list that conspicuously omits mention of many of the most troubling issues affecting Jews this past year. Below is a list of the most glaring omissions.

Alpher discusses whether there is an Israeli perspective on the Sandy Hook massacre, the danger of a new intifada in the West Bank, how Arab leaders are responding to the prospect of a new intifada, how a new intifada might affect Israel's elections, the possible evolution of a Palestinian state by 2030, and how the indictment of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and his subsequent resignation are likely to affect Likud Beitenu's election chances.

Earlier this month the Israeli government announced plans to advance the construction of settlements in the E1 area of the West Bank, as well as to authorize the building of thousands of new settlement units in East Jerusalem.

Last week we alerted you to an anti-peace, anti-Palestinian letter in Congress, urging you to contact your Member of Congress and ask them not to sign on. That letter has now been held open for signatures through the end of this week - a development that means that your activism is working, and the letters' backers are having trouble getting large numbers of members to sign on.

If you already contacted your member of Congress on this issue, thank you! If you didn't, there is still time!

Alpher discusses what broad insights emerge about the state of politics in Israel can be derived from the submitted party lists for the January 22 elections,what Khaled Meshaal's first visit to the Gaza Strip signals about the direction Hamas is likely to adopt regarding both Israel and reconciliation with West Bank-based Fateh, and given Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's cancelling most elements of his unilateral assertion of emergency powers and consideration of postponing the constitutional referendum set for December 15, where is the revolution heading?

This morning, Reps. Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Berman (D-CA), Royce (R-CA) and Engel (D-NY) began circulating a letter to be sent to President Obama.  The letter, which is circulating House-wide for cosponsors, calls on President Obama close the PLO office in Washington, to call the U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem back to Washington for consultations, and to use "every means at our disposal to ensure that this General Assembly vote does not serve as a precedent for elevating the PLO in other UN bodies or international forums."   The letter notes that this includes "reaffirming our commitment to maintaining and enforcing U.S laws that require withholding U.S. contributions from any international forum that grants membership to the PLO.  The subject line of the email sent around seeking cosigners on the letter reads "Sign bipartisan, AIPAC-supported letter to the President calling for consequences for Palestinian leadership and UN for unilateral statehood scheme."

The full text of the letter is available here.

The main objection from the Israeli government to a UN upgrade of the Palestinians' status focused, ostensibly, on the fear that it will open the door for legal action against Israel and Israelis in the International Criminal Court - something the ICC has rejected in the past.  However, the decisions and actions of the Israeli government in the wake of the UN vote give rise to the question: is the Netanyahu government deliberately trying to provoke the Palestinians to take a case to the ICC, and is he trying to deliberately provoke the ICC to take action? 

E-1 is back in the news, with a vengeance. In this document we provide all the information you need to know about this controversial settlement project, as well as answer questions you might have and refute the erroneous or deliberately misleading arguments that are being bandied about.

Ambassador Daniel Shapiro meets with the members of the Americans for Peace Now Israel study tour. The tour has also visited Hebron and E-1, the hotly contested zone for which the Netanyahu government has expedited construction planning in retaliation to the Palestinian UN vote.

Recently, the European Union adopted harsh new Iran sanctions, strongly supported by Israel. Shortly thereafter, Israel announced new East Jerusalem settlement construction. The EU's top official Catherine Ashton, who was about to visit Israel, condemned the announcement in measured terms; Israel's Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, publicly told her, in effect, to shove it. Imagine if in response, Ashton had indefinitely postponed her trip. Imagine that Israeli ambassadors in EU capitals were summoned to the local foreign ministries and read the riot act. Imagine that Israeli press had been alerted, leading to headlines about how Prime Minister Netanyahu and Lieberman were squandering the friendship of the EU and European support on Iran for the sake of settlement expansion.

On December 3rd, 2012, NPR Morning Edition hosts David Greene and Renee Montagne interviewed Daniel Seidemann, on site in Israel with APN activists, on why E1 is not just another settlement.

Also, read the transcript at NPR's site here.

Last week, in a resounding vote of confidence for the two-state solution, the UN voted to upgrade the status of the Palestinians to that of "non-member observer state."

Jerusalem, Israel - On a tour to E-1, the corridor that extends between East Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, Americans for Peace Now leaders on Sunday strongly condemned the government of Israel's intention to expedite settlement construction at this sensitive spot.

(Pictured: APN Study Tour Group in E-1 on Sunday, December 2, one day after the announcement of the Israeli Government)