...for the weeks ending March 20 & 27, 2009
 
1.  Bills and Resolutions
2.  APN Commentary on New Israeli Government (blog posting)
3.  APN Op-Ed:  "Where Is Abba Eban When We Need Him?" (Baltimore Sun)
 
Note: There was no Round-Up last week due to APN's bringing Brigadier General (Ret.) Ilan Paz to Washington March 19-20.  General Paz met with Members of Congress and staff, Administration officials and journalists.  He also participated in a public briefing co-sponsored by Middle East Progress (a project of the Center for American Progress) and the American Task Force on Palestine. 
 
An audio interview (podcast) that APN did with General Paz is available HERE.  A video of the public event can be viewed at:  http://www.middleeastprogress.org/?p=3912&preview=true.
 
1.  BILLS AND RESOLUTIONS
 
(EGYPT-ISRAEL PEACE) H. Res. 282:  Introduced 3/24/09 by Reps. Fortenberry (R-NE) and Ellison (D-MN), and currently having 26 cosponsors, "Recognizing the 30th anniversary of the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel."   Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.  APN strongly supports this timely and constructive measure and is urging all members of Congress to sign on.  To take action in support of this resolution, please see our Action Alert:  http://capwiz.com/peacenow/issues/alert/?alertid=13011521.
 
(ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE FUND) HR 1605: Introduced 3/19/09 by Rep. Crowley (D-FL) and no cosponsors, "To seek the establishment of and contributions to an International Fund for Israeli-Palestinian Peace, and for other purposes."  Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.  APN strongly supports HR 1605.  For more details about this initiative and related efforts, see: http://www.allmep.org/.
 
(IRAN) S. 613:  Introduced 3/17/09 by Sen. Brownback (R-KS) and no cosponsors, "to prohibit the use of Federal funds to approve certain biologics license applications by the Food and Drug Administration."  The bill stipulates that licenses be denied to any entities that in the past 2 year period have "marketed, sold, or distributed that product in the Islamic Republic of Iran" or "provided select agents or toxins to institutions in the Islamic Republic of Iran, including to the Pasteur Institute in Tehran and Tehran University" or  have been the "subject of an investigation by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of Treasury, the Bureau of Industry and Security of the Department of Commerce, or the Department of Justice for potential violations of the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996."  Referred to Senate the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. 
 
NOTE:  The brilliant Mike Amitay at the Open Society Institute offers the following insight into the likely background to this bill:  "This seems an attempt to avoid scenario in 1980s when US agencies and commercial firms shipped various bio-agents, including anthrax and other toxins, to Iraqi academic and commercial sources.  These were actually used to start Iraq's bioweapons programs.  In 1994, Senator Riegle (D-MI) conducted an astonishing investigation into these shipments and related health effects of the weapons produced on US service personnel in the Gulf War I.  For summary, see http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9804E5DF1538F933A25751C0A962958260."
 
(IRAN) HR 1327:  Introduced 3/5/09 by Rep. Frank (D-MA) and currently having 34 cosponsors, "To authorize State and local governments to direct divestiture from, and prevent investment in, companies with investments of $20,000,000 or more in Iran's energy sector, and for other purposes."  On 3/12/09 the House Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade held a hearing on the bill.
 
(IRAN) H. Con. Res. 36: Introduced 2/3/09 by Rep. Wexler (D-FL) and currently having 26 cosponsors, "Calling on the President and the allies of the United States to engage with officials of the Government of Iran to raise the case of Robert Levinson at every opportunity, urging officials of the Government of Iran to fulfill their promises of assistance to the family of Robert Levinson, and calling on the Government of Iran to share the results of its investigation into the disappearance of Robert Levinson with the Federal Bureau of Investigation."  Reported out of committee 3/25/09 by unanimous consent.
 
(MITCHELL - Update)  H. Res. 130:  This resolution, introduced 2/4/09 by Rep. Delahunt (D-MA) and strongly supported by Americans for Peace Now, has now attracted 93 cosponsors.  The new cosponsors are: Fudge (D-OH), Kucinich (D-OH), Altmire (D-PA), Moore (D-KS), and Wu (D-OR).
 
2. APN COMMENTARY ON NEW ISRAELI GOVERNMENT (BLOG POSTING)
 
APN's blog (blog.peacenow.org) features periodic analysis and commentary from APN, along with occasional links to articles and translations from the Israeli press.  Today's blog includes commentary from APN spokesman (and longtime Israeli journalist) Ori Nir:
 
Bibi "Partner for Peace"? Hold him to his Words!
March 27, 2009, posted by Ori Nir
 
Many have predicted in recent days that Binyamin's Netanyahu's premiership - he is expected to be sworn in shortly - means the end of the peace process. How can a prime minister who refuses to utter the phrase "two-state solution" pursue a meaningful peace process with the Palestinians, they ask.
 
The answer is vigorous encouragement. Encouragement from within Israeli society, which is still solidly supportive of the two-state solution, from within the American Jewish community - also solidly supportive of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, as recent polls have shown - as well as from the Obama administration and the international community.
 
Netanyahu, justifiably predicting international pressure, this week said that his government will be a "partner for peace" and that he will "negotiate with the Palestinian Authority for peace."

The New York Times, in a bold editorial today suggests holding Netanyahu to his words. It gives several suggestions to Netanyahu, including this: "If Mr. Netanyahu is serious about being a partner for peace, he will not get in the way of the militant group Hamas entering a Palestinian unity government with the rival Fatah faction - as long as that government is committed to preventing terrorism and accepts past agreements between Israel and the Palestinians."
 
This recommendation echoes APN's recent policy statement on the importance of forming a Palestinian national unity government, which could be a credible partner for Israel and the international community, representing most, if not all Palestinians in the West Bank and in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
 
President Obama signaled this week that he intends to push for peace, regardless of who leads Israel. He also seemed to be alluding to the possibility of a future Palestinian national unity government.
 
At a White House press conference, Obama was asked how he was going to pursue an Israeli-Palestinian peace process with a hawkish Israeli government and split Fatah-Hamas Palestinian governments. "It's not easier than it was, but I think it's just as necessary," Obama said, describing the difficulty of negotiating peace under such circumstances. "We don't yet know what the Israeli government is going to look like, and we don't yet know what the future shape of Palestinian leadership is going to be comprised of. What we do know is this: that the status quo is unsustainable, that it is critical for us to advance a two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in their own states with peace and security." He continued: "And by assigning George Mitchell the task of working as special envoy, what we've signaled is that we're going to be serious from day one in trying to move the parties in a direction that acknowledges that reality."
 
Netanyahu will be in Washington early may for AIPAC's annual policy conference. That will be the first public manifestation of whether and how Netanyahu and Obama will cooperate toward Israeli-Palestinian peace.
 
3. APN OP-ED:  "Where is Abba Eban When We Need Him?" (Baltimore Sun)
 
Where is Abba Eban When We Need Him?"
By Ori Nir, March 18, 2009
 
Remember Abba Eban?
 
As Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to (again) become the prime minister of Israel, as hate-monger Avigdor Lieberman prepares to be sworn in as Mr. Netanyahu's foreign minister, and as security hawk extraordinaire Moshe Yaalon prepares to take over the defense ministry, I really miss Abba Eban. I miss Israel's quintessential diplomat, who fought so eloquently and effectively to portray to the world a just, moral and peace-seeking Israel in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
 
Mr. Netanyahu cannot bring himself to utter the words "two-state solution." Mr. Lieberman is a serial provocateur who has called for the execution of Arab members of parliament, compared Israeli peace activists to Nazi collaborators and reportedly was a member of the Israeli terrorist, racist Kach movement before it was outlawed in Israel and the U.S. He will now be Israel's face to the world. Mr. Yaalon believes that peace between Israel and the Palestinians is impossible and undesirable from a security perspective. One can only imagine what Mr. Eban - who once quipped that an opponent's "ignorance is encyclopedic" - would have said had he known that a government like this would one day lead Israel, had he known that someone like Mr. Lieberman would one day be Israel's global advocate.
 
Mr. Eban was a pragmatist. He understood that Israel's existence depended on a historic compromise with its Palestinian neighbors. Once, at a time of a hawkish Israeli government, Mr. Eban said that by rejecting such a compromise, Israel was "tearing up its own birth certificate" and that "Israel's birth is intrinsically and intimately linked with the idea of sharing territory and sovereignty." Mr. Eban's vision for Israel was clear: a democratic Jewish state, securing its survival not only by defending itself militarily but by also pursuing peace with its neighbors.
 
This is not the vision that the Netanyahu-Lieberman-Yaalon government is offering.
 
Mr. Netanyahu may have an outlook, a worldview, but not a long-term plan per se. Certainly not a vision. He talks more about what he opposes than about what he endorses in terms of Israel's future relations with the Palestinians.
 
What Mr. Netanyahu refuses to endorse is a two-state solution. He talks about "final status arrangements" with the Palestinians but does not say what these arrangements will be. He says he will work to improve the economic situation in the West Bank while talking with the Palestinian Authority, but offers no political horizon. He calls it "economic peace."
 
Mr. Lieberman actually does have a detailed, structured vision. In his 2004 book My Truth, he offered a "peace plan" of sorts. The necessary first step, Mr. Lieberman wrote, is "defeating" the Palestinians. Defeating how? Mr. Lieberman wrote that Israel should "make clear to our neighbors that we, colloquially speaking, have decided to go berserk, that we are pulling all the stops." He added, "Putting an end to the conflict, even at the price of a regionally unprecedented flare-up, is the ultimate Israeli interest." Once they are defeated, the Palestinians would be less likely to reject the "unilateral solution imposed by Israel." The West Bank and Gaza would then become separate, autonomous areas with no physical connection through Israeli territory, according to Mr. Lieberman's plan.
 
Mr. Yaalon's vision can only be characterized as one of perpetual conflict. Two years ago, before he joined Likud, I interviewed Mr. Yaalon for a newspaper profile. This, in a nutshell, was how he depicted Israel's future: Because it would not be able to trust the Palestinians for generations to come, Israel is destined to hold on to the West Bank in perpetuity. It must therefore accept that the ongoing armed conflict with the Palestinians simply comes with the West Bank's territory. Israel, therefore, must accept its being a garrison state, a "battle society" that lives by its sword. Israeli leaders should tell their public: "Folks, this is our situation; we're in for the long haul," Mr. Yaalon said.
 
Most Israelis - and American Jews - were proud of Abba Eban's vision: a democratic state that welcomed peace with all its neighbors. Few Israelis - or American Jews - can be proud of the vision put forth by this group of Israeli leaders: a garrison state that rebuffs Arab peace advances and undermines such efforts from the international community; an Israel that chooses settlements over security; an Israel that places a higher value on land than on peace, and is ready to sacrifice Israeli democracy in the process; an Israel that is well on its way to "tearing up its own birth certificate."
 
The coming years will apparently supply Israel and its friends overseas with many opportunities to not only miss Abba Eban but to fight for the Israel of which they are proud.  
 
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Americans for Peace Now promotes Israeli security through the peace process and supports the Israeli Peace Now movement.   For more information, contact Lara Friedman, APN Director of Policy and Government Relations, at 202/728-1893, or at lfriedman@peacenow.org.