vjp-global

http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/opinion/idf-vet-says-israel-american-jewish-establishment-prefers-ignorance     IDF vet says American Jewish establishment pays more attention to its feelings about Israel than to facts on the ground.     Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://electronicintifada.net/content/photos-palestinian-workers-everyday-nightmare-israeli-checkpoints/12597   Eyal checkpoint was opened in 2004 after the completion of Israel's wall that completely surrounds the city of Qalqiliya. The economic effects of Israeli movement restrictions on Palestinians in this region have been particularly acute, requiring many men and women to make the tortuous journey to Israel for work. These pictures were taken between 3:45am and 7am.   …The terminals are part of an elaborate system of physical and administrative obstacles that Palestinians must navigate in order to enter Israel to work. Every Sunday thousands arrive to the terminal before sunrise to begin their workweek; for many it's the start of a 12-plus hour day which will begin and end at the same metal turnstile.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/27/exclusive-kerry-warns-israel-could-become-an-apartheid-state.html   The secretary of state said that if Israel doesn’t make peace soon, it could become ‘an apartheid state,’ like the old South Africa. Jewish leaders are fuming over the comparison.   [Sam Bahour says: So, what will the US do about it? I hold my breath, NOT. Sam: ePalestine blog]   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.upworthy.com/awful-religious-stereotypes-shattered-by-two-girls-and-one-absolutely-stunning-performance?g=2&c=ufb1   These two young women [Amina Iro & Hannah Halpern] were raised to see each as "the other." But in this powerful performance [at the Brave New Voices finals in Washington D.C.], they confront and untangle the stereotypes that have worked so hard to keep them apart. Makes me wonder how different the world might be if we all spent a little more time focusing on our similarities.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member  

http://blogs.forward.com/jj-goldberg/197073/bibis-peace-talk-halt-bad-tactic-or-bad-faith/#ixzz2zyL2kL6Z     ...It’s highly unlikely that Hamas will agree between now and the end of the year to tear up its founding platform and formally embrace the principle of a Palestine partitioned into two states for two peoples…. Some Hamas leaders have suggested such an arrangement in the past, with the understanding that if the negotiations produce an agreement and it’s approved in a Palestinian referendum, Hamas will accept the public’s will and live with it without endorsing it. It’s not such a hard arrangement to understand. After all, Netanyahu heads up an Israeli government that hasn’t approved the two-state principle he himself says he embraces. Indeed, two of his coalition’s four parties, including Naftali Bennet’s HaBayit HaYehudi-Jewish Home party and Bibi’s own Likud...

http://972mag.com/author/noams/   Any agreement without Hamas would have failed miserably. The reconciliation can be seen as a breakthrough - that is, if the Israeli government was indeed interested in ending the occupation….   ... for those truly interested in an end to the occupation and in an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, the Hamas-Fatah deal is great news, especially for supporters of the two-state solution. Here is why: In recent years, the Palestinian Authority suffered from a major problem of legitimacy. Often, critics of the process – the most notable being Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman – complained that Abbas doesn't represent even half of the Palestinian people . Of all of Lieberman's observations, this was probably the most accurate. Any agreement that Abbas would have reached was bound to leave Hamas a major opponent of the process, repeating some of the Oslo dynamic on the Palestinian si...

http://972mag.com/abbas-just-shot-the-palestinian-cause-in-the-foot/90032/   He needs the world to win independence for his nation, and in the eyes of the world, Hamas, with whom he just joined forces, is anathema….     Or maybe, at 79, Abbas is getting ready to pass the baton to a new leadership in Ramallah, and he wants to leave this unity behind; maybe this is his idea of a legacy. If that’s so, I just think he’s making a huge error in his choice of legacies. Even the Palestinian public, which wants Fatah- Hamas reconciliation very badly , isn’t impressed by this deal, according to Amira Hass. ...     Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://jstreet.org/blog/post/israeli-decision-to-suspend-talks-is-premature_1   J Street believes the Israeli government’s decision to suspend peace talks with the Palestinians over the preliminary reconciliation deal between Fatah and Hamas is premature. The reconciliation agreement has yet to be implemented, and many critical questions remain unanswered. With five days left before the deadline for Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace initiative, all involved should be searching for purposeful actions to revive the troubled process, not accelerating its demise….   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/another-stillborn-palestinian-reconciliation   ...Today, with much fanfare, leaders of Hamas and the Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed a “reconciliation” agreement in Gaza. Its terms include forming a “national unity government” headed by Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas within five weeks and elections in the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank within six months. Not so fast… Fundamental differences… Good relations with occupation… Abbas: Israel’s unshakable ally… Doomed to fail… It took only hours for Israel and its sponsor the United States to announce their opposition to the latest reconciliation deal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he would convene his “security cabinet” to discuss the matter, and declared that Abbas could choose ...

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/04/khalidi-palestinians-europe.html   Rashid Khalidi said today that the US opposition to the reunification of Palestinian parties exposes the “farce” that is the peace process. It is in fact a “bring them to the table on their knees process,” and the U.S. rejects a Northern Ireland model– in which George Mitchell negotiated among all parties to the conflict– because the Israel lobby won’t let it pursue that course...   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://wunc.org/post/new-take-diary-anne-frank While Anne Frank’s story is familiar to many, the production currently on stage at Raleigh’s Burning Coal Theatre is a bit different.  The play is directed by Abdelfattah Abusrour who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank marked by violence and oppression. Abusrour has since devoted his life to finding creative responses to such environments and runs  a community center called Alrowwad that teaches creative expression as a form of non-violent resistance.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

  http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.586924 The two Palestinian factions reportedly agree to hold elections within six months, with a unity government headed by Abbas until that time. Posted by Sam Bryan, AIME member

http://mondediplo.com/blogs/if-kerry-fails-what-then   Suppose the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, fails to cajole the Israeli and Palestinian leaders into finally ending their conflict. What would happen next? A tsunami of pent-up animosities is likely to be unleashed, with each side holding the other responsible for the failure and calling for retribution. Attempts to indict and isolate each other would gather pace and violence might return with a vengeance. The toxins let loose will inevitably have global spillover....   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.timesofisrael.com/plo-delegation-heads-to-gaza-for-reconciliation-talks/   Negotiators to discuss unity government between Fatah and Hamas, future Palestinian elections… Palestinian MP Mustafa Barghouti said that the sides would discuss the establishment of a unity government and holding future elections….The initiative is taking place as Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the United States try to revive peace talks before their April 29 deadline…. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://electronicintifada.net/content/how-latino-activists-are-standing-israel-lobby/13225 Snippet from above: This special report for The  Electronic Intifada  is the second of two. The first looked at the Israel lobby’s outreach campaign to the Latino American community. As the pro-Israel lobby’s aggressive recruitment of Latino Americans intensifies, a number of Latino and Chicano groups are pushing back by aligning themselves with the Palestinian struggle. At its March 2012 annual conference, chapter leaders of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) , a Chicano (Mexican-American) student group with a four-decade history of activism and a presence throughout the US, endorsed the call to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel for its occupation and settlement in Palestine. Posted by Sam Bryan, AIME member ...

http://whoprofits.org/sites/default/files/ahava_report_final.pdf   We learned a great deal about Ahava from Code Pink and the Electronic Intifada.   Here’s an Israeli source.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/26904704-452/a-one-state-solution-for-palestinians-and-israelis.html#.U1HRYVca28F Snippet: Twenty-one years of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians will reach a new deadline at the end of April. All signs point to the harsh reality that the current peace effort, led by U.S, Secretary of State John Kerry, will end in failure. The most important question, following what is almost certain to be another failed set of talks, is not "why do peace initiatives between the two sides keep failing" but "what should the Palestinian leadership and the Palestinian president do after this latest failure?" Posted by Sam Bryan, AIME member

http://consortiumnews.com/2014/04/16/rigging-the-game-against-palestinians/   Perhaps action needs to be taken in the name of human rights within a single state, but without discarding the goal of two states. In this regard one of the best suggestions for where things ought to go from here comes from Henry Siegman : “A two-state outcome is still possible if Palestinians were to take their fate into their own hands, rather than waiting for a deus ex machina, by shutting down institutions such as the Palestinian Authority that serve their subjugators and launching a non-violent, anti-apartheid struggle for equal citizenship in the de facto Greater Israel to which they have been consigned. Such a determined struggle may even convince Israelis to accept a two-state outcome, for the loss of their state’s Jewish identity in a single state in which Jews are outnumbered by Arabs is a price most Israelis will not pay for a ...

  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/opinion/not-the-same-old-same-old.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0 [All the players have changed since the ‘70s: Israel is more religious and the settlers are more militant.] …There is a young generation [of Palestinians] emerging that increasingly has no faith in their parents’ negotiations with the Jews, have no desire to recognize Israel as a “Jewish state” and would rather demand the right to vote in a one-state solution…. …The truth is Kerry’s mission…is America trying to save Israel from trends that will inevitably undermine it as a Jewish and democratic state…. Those in the Obama administration who think he is on a suicide mission reflect the new U.S. attitude toward the region. And those in Israel who denounce him as a nuisance reflect the new Israel…. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

jstreet.org/blog/post/j-street-deplores-new-settlement-expansion-in-hebron_1 A decision of Israel’s Ministry of Defense to allow Israeli families to take over a disputed building in Hebron is an unhelpful step which puts new pressure on the endangered Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Every expansion of an Israeli settlement in the heart of the West Bank like this one only makes reaching an agreement to end the conflict more difficult. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://electronicintifada.net/content/why-jews-must-oppose-muzzling-palestine-solidarity-activists/13309   Northeastern University’s administration recently suspended its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a recognized student group whose mission is to educate about the plight of Palestinians living under more than half a century of Israeli occupation. The administration also initially threatened some members of SJP with expulsion from the university. As a former executive director of Northeastern University’s (NEU) Hillel Foundation and its university Jewish chaplain, I am especially sensitive to issues involving NEU’s Jewish students, Israel and anti-Semitism . Not in spite of this, but because of this, I am deeply troubled by Northeastern’s actions….       Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.584596   Kerry’s remarks made clear what Jerusalem should have understood by now - there is no symmetry in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://forward.com/articles/196185/yair-lapid-backs-curbs-on-settlements-to-save-peac/ ?   Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid said he supports freezing settlement growth to help jump-start peace negotiations and vowed that his centrist Yesh Atid party would leave Israel’s governing coalition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were responsible for the collapse of the peace process.   Vows To Dump Coalition If Bibi Torpedoes Talks...   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/04/stand-firm-john-kerry-105483.html#ixzz2yPwrg2nk We commend Secretary of State John Kerry's extraordinary efforts to renew Israeli-Palestinian talks and negotiations for a framework for a peace accord, and the strong support his initiative has received from President Barack Obama. We believe these efforts, and the priority Kerry has assigned to them, have been fully justified. However, we also believe that the necessary confidentiality that Secretary Kerry imposed on the resumed negotiations should not preclude a far more forceful and public expression of certain fundamental U.S. positions: (more at link above)

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/04/why-jewish-state-demand-non-star-20144814244225761.html "The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, demands Palestinians recognise Israel as "a Jewish state" and US President Barack Obama, who used this language in his state of the union address, signalled US support for this position. This is disastrous for the prospects for peace and not something the Palestinians can or should ever accept. Here is why." Posted by AIME member, Sam Bryan

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-2557948/Israeli-settlements-face-pressure-within.html These days, when Yaakov Berg tries to sell his awa rd-winning line of Psagot boutique wines, he encounters obstacles from every direction. As a Jewish vintner in a West Bank settlement, his product is increasingly considered off-limits.   "Not just overseas, also in Tel Aviv," says Berg, 37. "So we have big problems. Actually, it's almost impossible to sell in (Tel Aviv) restaurants." With Israel mired in a struggle to combat growing calls in Europe to boycott Israeli products and businesses with ties to the controversial settlements, a quieter and more informal campaign is subtly emerging at home among Israelis themselves….   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://consortiumnews.com/2014/04/03/what-kind-of-one-state-solution/ Michael Jay Rosenberg is a well-known, sharp-minded critic of the Israeli government. But he is also a “liberal Zionist” who believes in the legitimacy and necessity of a Jewish state. This point of view has led him to attack the BDS (Boycott Israel) movement in a recent piece, “The Goal of BDS is Dismantling Israel” .   …Most of those who organize and participate in the movement to boycott Israel know that the two-state solution is dead in the water. Even if the present negotiations led by Secretary of State John Kerry produce some pale imitation of a Palestinian state, it is hard to see it amounting to anything but a Bantustan. The fact is, even now, there is only one state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and that is Zionist Israel. Having realized this, the boycotters have two choices: to give up the ...

http://electronicintifada.net/content/how-harry-truman-learned-love-israel/13274   Harry Truman opposed the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine early during his presidency, believing a state should not belong to any one people and that a religious state violated the principle of church-state separation.   In the end, however, Truman...capitulated to the pressures of a burgeoning Zionist lobby that was just beginning to flex its muscle within the Democratic Party. That is a rough summary of the thesis put forward in John Judis’ Genesis: Truman, American Jews and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict (Farrar Straus Giroux)….   Judis...ultimately neglects Cold War calculations in accounting for US support for Israel after 1948. The State and War departments initially opposed partition and the creation of a Jewish state for fear that it would alienate Arab countries and potentially jeopard...

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/04/pollard-barghouti-prisoner-release-netanyahu-abbas.html#ixzz2xqpggsFm     Jonathan Pollard should be released on humanitarian grounds, but the release of prominent Fatah member Marwan Barghouti could resuscitate negotiations with the Palestinians….   Adding Barghouti to the list of prisoners who will be returning home in the next wave of releases will provide an inestimable boost to the stature of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, especially in his struggles with his opponents in Fatah and the Hamas leadership. … Until Obama finds ways to get rid of the bizarre demand that the Palestinians define the character of the State of Israel and to prevent Netanyahu from humiliating Abbas by expanding the settlements, Deputy Minister of Defense  Danny Danon and the other Likud hawks , along with Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett and his...

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/04/palestine-un-aid-cuts-peace-talks-abbas.html# US lawmakers are threatening to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in US aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if President Mahmoud Abbas goes through with his stated intention to sign on to 15 UN treaties.   Congress sought to tie funding for the PA to preservation of the status quo at the UN in this year's omnibus spending bill. While it's not clear Abbas' decision violates the letter of the law, appropriators have made it clear they think its spirit has been trampled on.... Maen Areikat, their ambassador to Washington, said the PA agreed to put its UN applications on hold in exchange for Israel releasing 104 Palestinian prisoners, some of them accused of deadly attacks against Israelis, as called for under Kerry's peace talks framework. When Israel reneged on releasing the last batch of 26 prisoners...

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/story-jews/   In this PBS series, Jewish British historian Simon Schama covers thousands of years of Jewish history around the world.   Some of the highlights:   --The Jewish dream of integration and acceptance during the Enlightenment shattered by the Dreyfus Affair in France and the resurgence of anti-Semitism leading to the Holocaust.     --The British Empire and World War I produce both the Balfour Declaration and aid for the Arab Revolt against Turkey.   In a striking moment, Shama analyzes and reads from Prince Faisal’s 1919 letter welcoming Jews, who are the Arabs’ “cousins,” to Palestine—Lawrence of Arabia and early Zionism come together.   --Israeli Independence Day is simultaneously the Nakba (The Catastrophe), and the time of the departure of Jews from Arab countries.   Schama looks unflinchingly at the ruins ...

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117214/republicans-and-democrats-part-ways-israel   …this week, CAP [Center for American Progress] will be hosting a conference in Jerusalem with Molad , a new left-center Israeli think tank. It was founded by Avner Inbar and Assaf Sharon, two peace activists from the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement, which has been protesting the eviction of Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Inbar and Sharon have tried to do for Israel’s opposition in the Labor Party and Meretz what CAP’s founders originally tried to do for the out-of-power Democrats: build a political infrastructure for the opposition to challenge prevailing government policies. The conference will focus on the peace process and on U.S. and Israeli relations with Iran. The session on the peace process promises a “critical assessment” of the negotiations, which, judging from the panelists , is likely to be critica...

http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Shin-Bet-West-Bank-terror-attacks-more-than-doubled-in-2013-339522   Israel Security Agency releases annual terror statistics showing jump in attacks, most of which were firebomb, stone-throwing attacks.   …In 2013, there were some 1,271 attacks in Judea and Samaria, as opposed to 578 in 2012, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said. Of these attacks, 1,042 took place in Judea. In addition, of the six Israelis killed in terror attacks in 2013, five were killed in the West Bank – as opposed to 2012, when all of the 10 Israeli fatalities from terror attacks took place inside the Green Line. Of those killed, three were civilians and three were members of the security forces.