vjp-global

https://972mag.com/kerrys-parameters-force-israelis-to-take-a-hard-look-in-the-mirror/124070/ John Kerry's speech this week clearly and rationally explained why the status quo will not enable Israel to maintain its Jewish and democratic character.    Are Israelis paying attention? Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/five-takeaways-what-the-un-security-council-resolution-means/123897/   The key here is timing…The [Israeli] government is advancing a law to retroactively legalize the theft of Palestinian land. Senior ministers are declaring the end to the two-state era. Annexation of certain Israeli settlements is being seriously discussed . This was the Obama administration's — and the international community's — way of saying that it still cares. .. In response to the threat of European (and American) pressure over settlements and Israeli policy in the West Bank, Israeli leaders have in recent years suggested that Israel does not need Europe —  that it can build alternative partnerships and alliances with non-Western countries like Russia, China, India, and certain African states…One perceivable consequence of the Security Council resolution is that it might embolden the International Criminal Court prosecutor to decide to open a formal investigat

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/world/middleeast/israel-settlements-un-vote.html?action=click&contentCollection=Middle%20East&module=RelatedCoverage&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article   Defying extraordinary pressure from President-elect Donald J. Trump and furious lobbying by Israel , the Obama administration on Friday allowed the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution that condemned Israeli settlement construction….While the resolution is not expected to have any practical impact on the ground, it is regarded as a major rebuff to Israel, one that could increase its isolation over the paralyzed peace process with Israel's Palestinian neighbors, who have sought to establish their own state on territory held by Israel…Minutes after the Security Council vote was announced, Mr. Trump made his anger known in a Twitter posting , saying: "As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th." Posted by Judith Ferster, AI

https://972mag.com/author/haokets/ The severed ties between Arab-Jewish culture and the wider history and culture of Judaism and the Arab world are being repaired by a groundbreaking new university degree in Israel. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

https://972mag.com/author/haokets/ The severed ties between Arab-Jewish culture and the wider history and culture of Judaism and the Arab world are being repaired by a groundbreaking new university degree in Israel. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/world/middleeast/donald-trump-united-nations-israel-settlements.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news   …Mr. Trump called on the president to use the United States' veto in the United Nations Security Council to block the Arab-sponsored resolution, which condemned the "construction and expansion" of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Obama administration, which vetoed a similar resolution in 2011, had withheld judgment over the latest measure.   With the United States' position publicly in doubt, the resolution was pulled by its sponsor, Egypt, on Thursday morning, hours before the Council was scheduled to vote, and it was unclear when or even if it would be brought back up. But Mr. Trump's forceful insertion into the matter reflected an unusual public split between in

https://972mag.com/photos-jews-arabs-march-on-settler-highway-to-protest-the-occupation/123751/ [Around 400] Palestinians and Israelis participate in a joint demonstration to protest the occupation, marching along a settler highway to an Israeli checkpoint... Israeli and Palestinian activists from Combatants for Peace gave speeches at the end of the march, as did Joint List MK Ahmed Tibi. He told the marchers: "You are the response to hatred, colonialism, repression, exclusion and aggression," and said they were a message of "peace and hope and a different future for our sons and daughters.." Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774488   Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, said that Israelis began working on a road servicing the outpost of Shvut Rachel, encroaching on Palestinian lands south of the Palestinian village of Jalud. Daghlas added that the road would lead to the seizure of dozens of dunams of agricultural land in Jalud, and contribute to the expansion of settlements in the West Bank…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/opinion/a-dangerous-choice-for-ambassador-to-israel.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0   Mr. Friedman has doubted the need for a two-state solution, under which Israelis and Palestinians could live side by side in peace. Ignoring international law and decades of policy under Republican and Democratic administrations, he has endorsed continued Israeli settlement of occupied territory in the West Bank...Mr. Friedman has gone so far as to endorse even the annexation of some of that land, where Palestinians hope to build a state of their own…He has accused President Obama of anti-Semitism, absurdly, and called supporters of J Street — a liberal American Jewish organization that has lobbied for a two-state solution and the Iran nuclear deal — "far worsehan kapos — Jews who turned in t

  http://prospect.org/article/last-thing-netanyahu-wants-say-annexation   Facing an Israeli court deadline and a possible Security Council resolution on settlements, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to avoid admitting what his real policy is. Waiting for Trump is easier…the Netanyahu Doctrine will remain the same: to delay, to postpone, to put things off—and to hope that the world is distracted enough by problems elsewhere to ignore creeping annexation…. Update: Late Wednesday night, the Amona settlers rejected the compromise offered by the Israeli government, and prepared to resist evacuation…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://forward.com/opinion/356510/the-anti-semitism-awareness-act-is-the-opposite-of-what-jews-and-muslims-ne/   I was pleased to see Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, gallantly tweet that he would "register as a Muslim" in the event that such a registry were created. But despite this initial gesture, actions that the organization has since taken are less encouraging.…ADL has also repeated unproven allegations about links to terror groups overseas against Muslim civil rights organizations doing important grassroots work in Muslim communities, such as the Council on American Islamic Relations , where I once worked. ADL also placed the Muslim Public Affairs Council , an important player in Muslim-Jewish relations, on its 2013 "List of Top Anti-Israel Organizations," which still appears on its website…. [I]in this era, we need a new approach, and ADL needs to go much further than it has… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME me

http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/356330/germany-bluntly-urges-israel-to-drop-illegal-settlement-land-grab-bill/?attribution=home-breaking-news-headline-1&attribution=home-breaking-news-headline-1   Germany urged Israel in unusually strong language on Wednesday to scrap legislation that would legalize Israeli settlement homes built on private Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, saying this would break international law.   Germany tends to be more reserved than other European nations in its criticism of Israel due to the legacy of the Nazi Holocaust, but it has objected in the past few years to Israeli settlement expansion on land Palestinians want for a state… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-gaza-2-wounded-as-hamas-clashes-with-hardliners/   A police officer and a youth were hospitalized on Tuesday after Hamas forces clashed with hard-line Islamists in the Gaza Strip, a medical source and witnesses said. Both men suffered bullet wounds during an attempt by Gaza security forces to arrest two men from a Salafist group, followers of an ultra-conservative form of Islam, a witness said...   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774281   Israeli authorities denied the entry of a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) activist into the country at the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Monday, in what Israeli media reported was "the first time" the country "officially" denied entry to a foreign national who supports the movement for Palestinian rights. Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that activist Isabel Phiri, a Malawi national, landed at the airport on Monday afternoon, but was denied entry as a tourist "on the basis of her activism for the World Council of Churches (WCC) group which supports the BDS movement."…     Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/01/magazine/we-are-orphans-here.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0   [Baha Nababta the writer's host and guide, a charismatic community organizer] said he was nervous. He said he'd been threatened. Also in my notes, this:   Baha says, two types   1. Those who want to help make a better life   2. Those who want to destroy everything. And in parentheses: (Arms trade. Drugs trade. Construction profits. No oversight wanted.…The next day, Baha had meetings to attend to try to solve the water problem. I spoke to Hiba about their kids. She asked me at what age [the writer's son] Remy started his piano lessons. "I want music lessons for the girls," she said. "I think it's very good for their development." As she said it, more machine-gun fire erupted from the roof of a nearby building. &quo