With his nomination of attorney David Friedman as the new United States Ambassador to Israel, President-elect Donald Trump has sent a very clear message that he intends to shift U.S. policy away from its decades-long commitment to ending the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 and establishing an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. That commitment represents not only a strong American political consensus, but an overwhelming international consensus as well. Read more at Facts on the Ground, FMEP’s blog.
Posted in United States | Tagged Beit El, David Friedman, Donald Trump | 1 Comment »
In the wake of the United States’ elections, the waning weeks of 2016 are being defined by despair for progressives. That despair is at its thickest when considering 
the prospects for ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
The questions that are troubling everyone concerned with resolving the conflict are existential: Is there any possibility of a Palestinian state anymore? How can we even keep hoping in the aftermath of the election in the United States? Is there any path forward? Yet, as troubling as the current situation is, hope and opportunity remain. Read more at The Times of Israel
Posted in Israel, Palestine, Two-State Solution, United States | Tagged Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, Mahmoud Abbas, Two-state solution | 1 Comment »
It still hasn’t sunk in for me. The notion that this country is going to be led by Donald Trump is tough to digest. But the fact is, he is our next president. Like so many 
of us, I’m left asking “how the hell did this happen?”
I am no different than a lot of other so-called experts and pundits who were confident that Trump couldn’t win. In my case, I don’t think I underestimated how much racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism or xenophobia there is in the United States. Rather I underestimated how many people were so disgusted with the Washington political elite that they would vote for Trump over Clinton despite Trump’s personification of all those traits in abundance.
This is a time for liberals, progressives, and all manner of those who consider themselves to be on the left to look inward. The one silver lining that I can see right now is that the lessons of this election are so stark that there is good reason to hope they will be learned and that a very new and different Democratic Party will be the result. Read more at Medium
Posted in United States | Tagged 2016 Election, Bernie Sanders, Democrats, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Politics | 1 Comment »
On Sunday the Israeli cabinet unanimously passed a bill that would legalize settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank that were built on privately owned
Banner reads “Every house that is demolished is a victory for Hamas.” This refers only to Jewish-owned houses in settlements.
Palestinian land. If passed by the Knesset, the law could potentially be used to raise the status of many outposts all over the West Bank to those of settlements that are legal under Israeli law. That would be a tremendous setback to the already dimming prospects of an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, and to the two-state solution. Read more at FMEP’s blog, Facts on the Ground
Posted in Settlements | Tagged Avigdor Liberman, Benjamin Netanyahu, Habayit Hayehudi, international law, Israel, Jewish Home, Knesset, Naftali Bennett, outpost, Settlements, West Bank | 1 Comment »
The shocking victory of Donald Trump in the American presidential election will reverberate around the world. One place where those reverberations will be felt 
particularly keenly is Israel. The biggest problem is that no one knows what they will look like. Read more at Haaretz
Posted in Uncategorized, United States | Tagged 2016 Election, Chuck Schumer, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Israel | 1 Comment »
Earlier today, Likud Knesset Member, David Bitan, who chairs the governing faction in the Knesset, stated on an Israeli talk show that he would try to find a way to strip the citizenship of Hagai 
El-Ad , executive director of B’Tselem. Bitan described El-Ad’s testimony to a special session of the United Nations Security Council on Israeli settlements as “explicit breach of trust by an Israeli citizen against the state, and as such he should find himself another citizenship.”
Zehava Gal-On, the Chairwoman of the Meretz party, described Bitan’s comments as “dangerously close to incitement to murder.” That characterization is important considering right wing efforts over the past two years to incite violence against peace and human rights activists in Israel. Read more at Facts on the Ground, FMEP’s blog
Posted in B'Tselem, Democracy | Tagged B'Tselem, Benjamin Netanyahu, David Bitan, democracy, Hagai El-Ad, Likud, Meretz, UNSC, Zehava Gal-On | 1 Comment »
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- Nominee For US Ambassador to Israel Should Raise Alarm Bells For Everyone
- How Peace Can Survive Trump and Bibi
- Prospects for Peace: Obama’s Last Stand and Opportunities in the New Administration
- Can A New Democratic Party Rise From the Ashes of Clinton’s Defeat?
- FMEP Policy Brief: Israel’s “Formalization” Law
