Americans for Peace Now: Recommended Readings: March 2011 Archives

Dissent: "American Jews & Israel" by Sarah Leonard

By APN on March 31, 2011 1:29 PM

I know well enough that the feelings toward Judaism and Israel instilled through my upbringing stalk my rational disinterest. These deep-rooted feelings give rise to such impossible desires as that the Jewish state should be different--more just, more compassionate, more understanding of oppression and tragedy--than any other.

Sarah Leonard is an editorial assistant at Dissent and an editor at The New Inquiry. This article first appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of Dissent Magazine.

Continue reading Dissent: "American Jews & Israel" by Sarah Leonard.

Dissent: "American Jews & Israel" by Jo-Ann Mort, APN Vice-Chair

By APN on March 31, 2011 1:13 PM

"Why would you want to live in Israel?" Irving Howe asked me, his voice rising in bemusement.

It was 1981, and we were at Leo's Coffee Shop on Madison Avenue near 86th Street. I was two years out of Sarah Lawrence College, struggling to be a poet in New York City, but enveloped in my quest for Jewish identity, as I had been pretty much my whole life.

My first trip to Israel--two intense weeks--had made me obsessed with the country and confused about my place: was it in Israel or in New York? I was certain that Irving would have an answer for me.

Continue reading Dissent: "American Jews & Israel" by Jo-Ann Mort, APN Vice-Chair.

The A-Word in Hebron

By APN on March 30, 2011 2:38 PM

By Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Originally published in The Forward

You've probably read about the situation in the West Bank city of Hebron, where some 800 Jewish settlers live in the midst of 170,000 Palestinians. But being there is something else. Being there can make you sick to your stomach; being there you can't help thinking of the "A-word."

Continue reading The A-Word in Hebron.

The Forward: "The 'A-Word' in Hebron" (Opinion) by Letty Cottin Pogrebin

By APN on March 29, 2011 1:04 AM

In the settlement of Kiryat Arba, Hagit Ofran, director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch project, told our delegation from Americans for Peace Now, "From here, only Israelis can enter Hebron by car; Palestinians have to go on foot." I thought she was joking. She wasn't.

Pogrebin is a founding editor of Ms. Magazine, the author of nine books, and is a past president of Americans for Peace Now.

Continue reading The Forward: "The 'A-Word' in Hebron" (Opinion) by Letty Cottin Pogrebin.

Ha'aretz: "A fire that sparked reform" by APN Vice Chair JoAnn Mort

By APN on March 25, 2011 11:59 AM

The garment unions went on to build a type of unionism nearly unique then, providing a pathway into the American dream and eventually the American middle class.

March 25, 1911, started out like any other Shabbat for the scores of immigrant workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory.

Continue reading Ha'aretz: "A fire that sparked reform" by APN Vice Chair JoAnn Mort.

West Bank settlements are Israel's nuclear meltdown, by Avi Shavit

By APN on March 17, 2011 10:35 AM

Originally published in Haaretz

On quite a few occasions this week, my mobile phone vibrated with text messages from the settlers' lobby, Yesha. Once it was a quote from Minister Gideon Sa'ar (we must resume construction in Judea and Samaria ). Another time it was a quote from Minister Gilad Erdan (stop holding up the construction tenders in Judea and Samaria ). The third time it was a quote from MK Zeev Elkin (it's time to build cities in Judea and Samaria ). The fourth time it was a quote from MK Yariv Levin (I demand the cabinet and Minister Barak approve construction in Judea and Samaria cities at once! ). The fifth time it was a quote from Minister Moshe Ya'alon (out of the mourning we must build and develop the settlements in Judea and Samaria ).

Continue reading West Bank settlements are Israel's nuclear meltdown, by Avi Shavit.

A Man, A Plan by David Remnick

By APN on March 16, 2011 4:42 PM

Originally published in the New Yorker

Psychobiography in politics is ordinarily a mug's game. Sometimes, though, an assessment of inherited traits and ideologies can be telling. For years, Israeli and American commentators have been waiting for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave behind the right-wing Revisionist ideology of his father, Benzion, a historian of the Spanish Inquisition, and, like Nixon leaving for China, end the occupation of the Palestinian territories. Just as Nixon set aside decades of Cold War ideology and Red-baiting in the interests of practical global politics, Netanyahu would transcend his own history, and his party's, to end the suffering of a dispossessed people and regain Israel's moral standing.

Continue reading A Man, A Plan by David Remnick.

Ynet: Settlers resume construction in Havat Gilad & Sunday Times: "...settlement soared after freeze..."

By APN on March 9, 2011 8:12 PM

Ynet: "Settlers resume construction in Havat Gilad" 03.08.11

Sunday Times: "Israeli settlement soared after freeze end: Figures" Tuesday, 08 March 2011

Peter Beinart's remarks at the opening session of the J Street Conference

By APN on March 2, 2011 3:15 PM

February 26, 2011

Remarks as prepared for delivery.

The Talmud says that what cannot be accomplished by reason is often accomplished by time. For us, sadly, the opposite is true. What reason cannot preserve, time will destroy. I'm talking about the democratic state of Israel.

Continue reading Peter Beinart's remarks at the opening session of the J Street Conference.

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Recommended Readings: March 2011 Archives