Washington, DC -- APN today welcomed news of a Fatah-Hamas deal.  To the degree that the agreement provides for elections and a joint government, this is an opportunity that the Obama administration should not squander.  Commenting on today's development, APN President and CEO Debra DeLee stated:

"Today's announcement of a Fatah-Hamas deal to jointly form a government and to hold new elections is good news, and we hope that the agreement is implemented.  While we still don't know all the details of the agreement, we know that a Palestinian government representing all Palestinians, with security and governance capacity in both the West Bank and Gaza, is vital to the achievement of a peace agreement.

Washington, DC - Americans for Peace Now (APN) today announced a new campaign calling on President Obama to re-focus on achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace.

APN's campaign will include engagement with the administration and Congress, public mobilization, education and advocacy in Washington, and media outreach.

The campaign is anchored in a policy statement that APN's Board of Directors approved earlier today. The policy document proposes a specific action plan for the President, including calling on the President to personally take control of his Middle East peace policy, to enunciate the clear principles on which he expects a peace agreement to be made, and to directly engage Israelis and Palestinians, in person, during a trip to the region. The document is available here.

"President Obama's first phone calls from the Oval office more than two years ago were to Palestinian President Abbas and to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Since then, however, his personal involvement in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking has all but dissipated. And recently, the administration's efforts on this issue seem to have shifted from conflict resolution to conflict management. This is a mistake. There is no managing this conflict. The situation can quickly escalate, as recent developments show," said Debra DeLee, APN's president and CEO.

DeLee said: "There is broad support both in the Israeli and Palestinian publics, and in the international community for a two-state solution. There is also an international consensus on what a final settlement between Israelis and Palestinians should look like."

What is lacking is leadership and political will in the White House to bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders together and help them come to an agreement. We strongly believe that President Obama can do it and should do it. We are telling him: ''Now is the time. Please, don't wait."

Washington, D.C. -- APN today welcomed news of the imminent release of the Israeli Peace Initiative (IPI), reportedly endorsed by a number of leading Israeli political, intelligence, and security figures.

APN President and CEO Debra DeLee commented:  

"The Israeli Peace Initiative is a powerful demonstration of how the Israeli government could push for peace if it were genuinely interested in the two-state solution.  The fact that so many of the signers on the IPI come from the Israeli security and intelligence community only reinforces the fact that peace is vital and urgent for Israel's national security.