For months APN has been working to get President Barack Obama to step up his efforts in support of peace for Israel. We've called on him to be prepared to confront Israel, the Palestinians, or the Arab states when they fail to play ball.
Last week the Obama administration did just that.
Following the Israeli
announcement of new settlement plans in East Jerusalem, Vice President
Joe Biden spoke out loudly and clearly while visiting Jerusalem and
Ramallah. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to task in a 45 minute phone call. David
Axelrod and other administration officials spoke about the problem on
the Sunday morning talk shows.
There are some, however, who are trying to cut President Obama's efforts off at the knees. AIPAC issued a statement voicing "serious concern" with the administration's statements. ADL's Abe Foxman said he was "shocked and stunned" by the American "gross overreaction."
We need your help to show our fellow Americans that AIPAC and ADL do not speak for us. Click here to send letters to the editors of your local papers.
Israel publicized the approval of a plan to build 1600 new housing units in East Jerusalem just after the Obama administration announced that indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would begin. While the Israeli government later apologized for the timing of the announcement, it never addressed the heart of the matter: the massive expansion of a settlement in territory over which Israel committed to negotiate undermines the prospects for peace.
Americans are not stupid. We know that peace for Israel is more important than the expansion of settlements. We also know that America's interests are directly tied to Middle East peace and to Israel.
Peace talks will not succeed without genuine, sustained American leadership. All sides must know that there will be a price to pay for frustrating peace efforts. Our role, today, is to show Washington that President Obama enjoys a groundswell of support when he demonstrates such leadership.
Stand for peace for Israel. Click here to send letters to editors of your local papers.
There are some, however, who are trying to cut President Obama's efforts off at the knees. AIPAC issued a statement voicing "serious concern" with the administration's statements. ADL's Abe Foxman said he was "shocked and stunned" by the American "gross overreaction."
We need your help to show our fellow Americans that AIPAC and ADL do not speak for us. Click here to send letters to the editors of your local papers.
Israel publicized the approval of a plan to build 1600 new housing units in East Jerusalem just after the Obama administration announced that indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would begin. While the Israeli government later apologized for the timing of the announcement, it never addressed the heart of the matter: the massive expansion of a settlement in territory over which Israel committed to negotiate undermines the prospects for peace.
Americans are not stupid. We know that peace for Israel is more important than the expansion of settlements. We also know that America's interests are directly tied to Middle East peace and to Israel.
Peace talks will not succeed without genuine, sustained American leadership. All sides must know that there will be a price to pay for frustrating peace efforts. Our role, today, is to show Washington that President Obama enjoys a groundswell of support when he demonstrates such leadership.
Stand for peace for Israel. Click here to send letters to editors of your local papers.
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Hear we go again. Calling for Isreal to give up their land to the Arabs. Did this not happen in 2005. As soon as Isreal did this, and gave them this land. Do you remember what happened? The Prime Minister at the time forced the Jews to move, and forced the inhabitants to move out, and some were moved physically, and their houses were torn down. This is when Hamas started a war with the Jews, and they kidnapped one of the Jewish soldiers and murdered him. Isreal did what they(Hamas) or any other country would have done; they started a holy war.The whole world watched in terror and thought the world was coming to an end;it should have, because we are to stay out of their affairs. God gave this land to the Jews, and this is their land. There will be no peace UNTIL GOD SIT AT THE CONFERENCE TABLE!
Israel killed close to 1500 Palestinians in Gaza back in December 2008 dropping bombs and firing on innocent civilians while they lost only 13 soldiers. How does that equal out? Their soldiers shoot Palestinian boys in the head on the Gaza border for throwing stones. The Arabs lived on that land side by side with the Jews in harmony in ancient times. After the Balfour Declaration and the Holocaust, the British permitted the Jews to settle in the area which was formerly known as PALESTINE occupied by Arabs. The Jews began kicking the Arabs out of their homes forcefully making them live in the West Bank and Gaza. A situation similar when the Europeans came to America and killed the Native American Indians who were on the continent first and forced them to give up their land and live on reservations when they used to be able to roam free and go where they please. Right now what is going on in Israel is APARTHEID similar to South Africa. Palestinians have to go thru hundreds of checkpoints, they live behind a wall and cannot visit their relatives on the other side of the wall. The Arabs have no rights at all and people continue to sympathize with Israel. That is a joke and you do not know your history at all or comprehend what is really going on there!
Where is Ms. Swan getting her facts. Remember to check your sources.
#1) Palestine is the name of the land of Israel, so named by the Roman's after the Jewish revolt to insult them as it is named after the Jews' arch enemies the Philistines. There was no palestinian arabs until after 1967.
#2) Jordan annexed the West Bank and Egypt the Gaza strip after they conquered the lands. Jews were kicked out of these lands and from other sovereign Arab states.
#3) Aparthied is not happening in Israel because that is not the definition of that term. Apartheid is the suppression of citizens' rights because those citizens belong to a certain ethnic or religious group. In South Africa, the minority controlled the majority. In Israel, Arabs are given equal rights if they are CITIZENS. West Bank and Gaza Arabs have never chosen to be Israeli citizens. Therefore it is not Apartheid.
#4) Checkpoints and walls are there to stop terroism against innocent civilians. It has worked except when America tells the Israelis to lift the checkpoints.
#5) Christian Arabs are being persecuted and human rights violations are occuring every day at the hands of both Fatah and Hamas. Christians are being forced to leave Bethlehem, Nablus, and we are almost all out of GAZA because of the beating and rapes. America fails to come to our aid!
#6) This is not a joke it is war. And you should read the Palestinian Liberation Organizations 1972 Covenant if you don't believe me. They want Gaza and West Bank to reverse the Naqba and through the Jews and Christians into the sea.
#7) Imagine if Hamas stopped buying and firing weapons and used the infrastructure the Israelis withdrew from -- like the state-of-the-art greenhouses to produce and prosper. If they had done that there would not have been 1500 dead.