J Street works to promote an open, honest and rigorous conversation about Israel. The opinions reflected in articles posted in the News Roundup do not necessarily reflect J Street’s positions, and their posting does not constitute an endorsement from J Street.
AIPAC and All Pro-Israel Leaders Must Oppose Netanyahu’s Disastrous Settlement Plans In And Around East Jerusalem, J Street
“Announcing these projects — specifically in this most significant and consequential of areas — signals a clear intent to demolish the chances of diplomatically resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and of creating a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.”
Netanyahu says he’s ordered 3,500-home project in contentious E1 West Bank area, Times of Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that he had ordered the promotion of a plan for some 3,500 homes in a contentious West Bank area that has long been frozen due to objections from governments around the world supportive of a two-state solution.
In Defense of Progressive Values at the World Zionist Congress, Tablet Magazine
Kenneth Bob and Karen Shapiro write, “By building the most diverse slate and bringing a broad range of new voices into the World Zionist Congress process, the HATIKVAH slate is poised to use this opportunity to build power, to represent the voice of the majority of American Jews, and to turn our values into action.”
A beginner’s guide to Israel’s unprecedented third election in the past 12 months, JTA
“Israeli politics are famously tumultuous, but this is beyond unprecedented: Israel has never held two successive elections, let alone three with no end in sight. And it’s never held an election with the sitting prime minister about to go on trial for corruption.”
Israeli embassies told to disinvite top Iran expert who opposes gov’t policy, Times of Israel
The Foreign Ministry has asked Israeli embassies in Canada, Russia and Bulgaria to cancel lectures by a top Israeli expert on Iran due to his criticism of Israel’s support for a maximum pressure policy against Tehran, Channel 13 news reported Tuesday.
Israel’s Netanyahu seeks settlers’ votes with annexation pledge, Reuters
“Rest assured that we will not stop claiming every single inch of this land when Netanyahu, please God, is elected,” said Daniella Weiss, a settler leader from Kedumim who helped establish the nearby settlement outpost of Har Hemed.
Carnival that showed Jews as vermin ‘not anti-Semitic,’ Jewish Belgian MP says, Times of Israel
Michael Freilich, Belgium’s only Orthodox lawmaker, says fewer than 50 of 6,000 participants presented anti-Jewish displays, compares Aalst procession to Israeli Purim parades.
Facebook Removes Fake Accounts Aiming to Suppress Arab Voters in Israeli Election, Haaretz
The user profiles were identified in an investigation conducted by the Democratic Bloc nonprofit organization. The researchers, headed by Morshed Bebar, identified 32 accounts they suspected were fake, and after they reported them to Facebook, 30 were removed.
AIPAC Has Bigger Problems Than Sanders’ Snub – and It Could Define Its Future, Haaretz
Amir Tibon writes, “A major clash between Sanders and AIPAC won’t just hurt the organization’s bipartisan bona fides in the short run. It could also come to define AIPAC for an entire generation of young American voters.”
Israel is trying to ‘break’ this East Jerusalem village — with brutal results, +972 Magazine
Judith Sudilovsky writes, “Malek is the latest child in occupied Issawiya to lose an eye from a rubber bullet as Israeli police intensify repression of Palestinian residents.”