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Americans for Peace Now: March 26, 2020
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"BREAKING NEWS: Kahol-Lavan leader Benny Gantz shocks and offers himself to be Knesset Speaker with right-wing support in order to form a unity government with Binyamin Netanyahu...Kahol-Lavan faction unravels as partners break-off."
APN News Nosh from today [ [link removed] ]. Be sure to check your daily email (or subscribe [ [link removed] ] if you haven't yet) for updates on this major development in Israeli politics.
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Issue Briefs
Hard Questions, Tough Answers with Yossi Alpher [ [link removed] ]
Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.
March 23, 2020, - Israel in the Time of Corona, Part 2: Threat to Democracy and Rule of Law [ [link removed] ]
NOTE: Since the time this was written, a major shake-up in Israeli politics occurred (see the Breaking News taken from APN's News Nosh above). Yossi Alpher will cover this developing political earthquake in detail in the next issue.
Q. After more than a year, Israel still has an interim government and no approved budget. Now it also has a corona crisis to manage. Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, who has delayed convening the Knesset, says the current choices are between a unity coalition and anarchy. Why anarchy?
A. Edelstein, in coordination with PM Netanyahu, is trying to maintain Likud rule at any cost...
Q. Behind these alternative scenarios, there appear to be two very basic issues. One is Netanyahu's desperate drive to remain in power and avoid prosecution despite the law and the absence of majority backing. The other is right-wing attitudes toward Israel's Arabs as they consolidate their political clout.
A. ...by refusing to convene the newly elected Knesset, Edelstein, on behalf of Netanyahu, set off alarm bells regarding the anti-democratic lengths Netanyahu and his supporters might go...
Q. But can Gantz really form a governing coalition based on 61 MKs who include 15 from the Joint List and at least two right-wingers in Blue-White who object to a government dependent on Arab votes?
A. No...
Q. But didn't Netanyahu last Saturday night publicly offer Gantz a unity government based on parity, rotation after 18 months (first Netanyahu, of course) and some form of shared justice ministry (which could influence Netanyahu's legal proceedings)?
A. On the face of it, this offer might look pretty good...
[NOTE - This was written for Monday, March 23rd, and sadly the spread and threat to Israel from the corona-virus has increased to a level -- as of this writing 8 have died -- that a full national lock-down was implemented on Wednesday, March 25.]
Q. By US and European standards, Israel seems to be dealing fairly successfully with the virus: only one death, and a "flattened" curve that somehow enables the health system to function. Surely that, and the immensity of the global crisis, put Israel's political and corona dilemmas in a more positive light . Surely by international standards Netanyahu deserves some credit...
A. ...the corona-related problems Israel is suffering--lack of test-kits, lack of masks, unruly citizenry, financial compensation for unemployed, etc.--are shared with the rest of the world...
Read More [ [link removed] ]
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Briefing Call
"As Coronavirus spreads in Israel, who's really running the country?"
Briefing Call with Bradley Burston
Tuesday, March 31, 12 noon (Eastern) / 9 am (Pacific)
Dial-in Number: 951-797-1058; Participant Access Code: 147414
To send questions in advance, please send an email Tuesday morning to Ori Nir at
[email protected] [ mailto:
[email protected] ].
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Haaretz columnist Bradley Burston, a native of Los Angeles, moved to Israel in 1976. He took part in establishing Kibbutz Gezer, and served in the IDF as a combat medic, before turning to journalism. He covered the first Palestinian uprising as Gaza correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, and was the paper's military correspondent in the 1991 Gulf War. In the mid-1990s he covered Israeli-Arab peace talks for Reuters. In 2006, he received the Eliav-Sartawi Award for Mideast Journalism, presented at the United Nations.
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Washington Jewish Week: "Israelis and Palestinians can save each other's lives. Certainly they can solve the conflict"
*by APN Chair James Klutznick and APN Vice Chair Aviva Meyer*
The shared trauma that Israelis and Palestinians are now experiencing provides a rare opportunity for both societies to explore the empathy, understanding, compassion and forgiveness that are necessary to turn away from their trauma-dominated national narratives. It is an opportunity for both to recognize the need to stop this endless conflict by accepting the necessity of national sovereignty for both peoples.
Read More [ [link removed] ]
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APN Stands with Israeli Public; Alarmed at Breaches of Democratic Norms and Institutions
As we follow with trepidation the spread of Coronavirus in our own country and the sub-par response of our federal government to this global epidemic, our hearts and minds are also with our sisters and brothers in Israel, and extend our wishes for health and resilience to Israel's Palestinian neighbors.
...While we understand and support the vital need for public discipline to minimize the spread of the virus, we are deeply concerned at the ease with which Benjamin Netanyahu's transitional government and Netanyahu's political allies have taken some severe undemocratic measures...
Read More [ [link removed] ]
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WATCH THE SHORT VIDEO from a protest on Wednesday that Peace Now joined outside the Knesset to demand "democracy now" -- responding to the enactment of Orwellian surveillance measures, suspension of the courts, and prevention of the Legislative Branch from working.
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PeaceCast Episode #116: COVID-19 Across the Green Line with Jacob Magid
Jacob Magid covers the West Bank for The Times of Israel, and talks about how Israel and the Palestinian Authority cooperate in the fight against the coronavirus, about COVID-19 infection among West Bank settlers, and about the possible impact of the epidemic on Israeli government plans to annex parts of the West Bank.
Listen > [ [link removed] ]
Subscribe to APN's PeaceCast at iTunes [ [link removed] ] or Google Play [ [link removed] ]
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Government Relations
APN Legislative Round-Up: March 23, 2020 [ [link removed] ]
Produced by the Foundation for Middle East Peace [ [link removed] ] in cooperation with Americans for Peace Now, where the Legislative Round-Up was conceived
* Bills, Resolutions, and Letters
* Hearings
* On the Record
Read More [ [link removed] ]
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