To return to the new Peace Now website click here.

Be informed: Your guide to the peace negotiations

Abbas-Netanyahu-collage320x265.jpg

With Israeli-Palestinian peace diplomacy stuck for so many years, we who dedicate our lives to peace for Israel and her neighbors have been feeling a little like the East Coast cicadas that hibernate underground, and wait for more than a decade to see daylight.

Finally, we see a ray of hope for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. At a moment like this, we stand up and focus our energy and resources to do all we can to make this moment the beginning of the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Yes, we've been let down in the past. And yes, we may very well be disappointed again. But, if we do not seize every such rare moment, if we do not give it our all when it counts the most, then we would not be who we are: Americans for Peace Now.

Our friends at Israel's peace movement, Shalom Achshav (Peace Now), are telling us that there is a significant increase in interest and enrollment in Peace Now. Many Israelis, who for a long time have felt hopeless regarding Israel's prospects for peace, are now seeking ways to volunteer and re-energize the peace movement. In recent days, Peace Now has published large ads in the Israeli press, demonstrating that not only the Israeli public, but also the Israeli Knesset, overwhelmingly supports a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Seventy Knesset members would support Prime Minister Netanyahu if a two-state deal were brought to a vote at Israel's parliament, the ad says. Only 43 - a third of the house - would oppose.

As Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are preparing to leave for Washington next week, Shalom Achshav is working to support the negotiations and educate the Israeli public about the necessity and viability of peace with the Palestinians.

We at APN are doing the same.

In the coming days, we will have a resource web page running, with the latest background, commentary, and analysis on the new Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy.

Our daily review of the Israeli press, News Nosh, will temporarily restructure to focus on the talks. Our news analyses will bring you commentary on the challenges and opportunities that this new phase represents. We will offer you ways to deal with the naysayers - those who say that peace is impossible or even undesirable. We will initiate actions to support Secretary of State Kerry and his team as they shepherd the talks, and we will let you know what else you can do to help.

We know that we may be disappointed again. But you know as well as we do that Israel's Peace Now movement and Americans for Peace Now never stop pushing and trying, educating and mobilizing, and that we are always there to redouble our efforts when the opportunity for peace becomes more tangible.

So please stay tuned and stay with us. Please continue to support us as we push harder to bring Israelis and Palestinians the peace that they so much want and deserve.

Secretary of State Kerry said last week, as he announced the resumption of peace talks, that the path to resolving the conflict is "not about fate. It's about choices, choices that people can make." Make the right choice. Help us convince Israelis, Palestinians, and our own leaders to choose peace.

 

B'Shalom,

James Klutznick,
Chair of the Board

Debra DeLee,
President and CEO