*Please note the date change* for this upcoming *briefing call with Yossi Alpher*, who will provide analysis of the Netanyayhu-Gantz coalition agreement and related issues. Join us:
* Thursday, April 30
* 12:00 noon (EST)
* Dial-in Number: 951-797-1058
* Participant Access Code: 147414
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his opponent-turned-coalition-partner Benny Gantz agreed this week to embark on West Bank annexation procedures as early as July 1st. Their agreement is a clause in the deal they signed to form an "emergency" unity government, following long weeks of negotiations.
Yossi Alpher, an independent Israeli security analyst, former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with Israel's Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer, is the author of *Hard Questions Tough Answers*, APN's weekly analysis of Israeli and Middle Eastern strategic affairs (see below or *HERE* [ [link removed] ] for the most recent issue, and *HERE* [ [link removed] ] for the archive).
An audio recording will be posted on the APN website following the call.
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Saving Democracy, Opposing Annexation - Join in the Peace Now's (Zoom) program (in Hebrew) featuring a security expert, legal expert, and politician. Friday, April 24, 9:00 am Eastern (4:00 pm ISRAEL time). *More Information [ [link removed] ]*
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Go HERE [ [link removed] ] to read, sign, and forward APN's petition *"No to Annexation, Yes to Peace!"*
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To stay on top of the daily developments in and from Israel, be sure to *subscribe* [ [link removed] ] to APN's News Nosh.
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Hard Questions, Tough Answers with Yossi Alpher [ [link removed] ]
April 20, 2020, - If You Were Running a Strategic Think Tank Right Now [ [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.
Q. Israel's coronavirus situation looks less messy than most countries. The country still doesn't have a governing coalition, but that too is beginning to look routine. You used to run a strategic think tank. Suppose you could do so again. What would your research agenda look like in these unsettled times?
A. ...the agenda should be anything but classic...
Q. Corona? Let's start with the hottest category. What should your think tank do?
A. Here the enemy, whether a pandemic or the effects of global warming--the two are almost certainly connected, by the way--is internal...
Q. Moving on to "no peace process", there is certainly still a Palestinian issue. How would you define it for your virtual strategic think tank agenda?
A. Obviously, ways to keep Israel Jewish and democratic by dialoguing with the Palestinians should still be an agenda item...
Q. And next on the agenda?
A. The radically changing nature of Israel's neighborhood...
Q. Finally, issues of internal Israeli societal resilience and cohesion are always begging for attention.
A. Here we can't avoid getting involved in Israel's internal composition and the question of whether it has the most suitable political system...
Q. We began by noting that the absence of a governing coalition (when this was written) is beginning to look routine. Abandoning your think-tank mode of thinking into the future, what is your prognosis for the coming week of Israeli politics?
A. ...Netanyahu is willing to jeopardize everything--governance, national solidarity and the rule of law--to satisfy his own egomaniacal drive for power and immunity...
Read More [ [link removed] ]
