Rewriting the history of the peace process

What We’re Reading

Opinion: Rewriting the history of the peace process,

“[Former US special envoy on Israel-Palestine Martin] Indyk is claiming that the Clinton Parameters were accepted by the Israelis without reservations while suggesting the Palestinians did not accept them, with or without reservations,” writes Mehdi Hassan. “This is factually inaccurate.”

US-Israel relations

How the 2016 election is upending pro-Israel orthodoxies,

“When it comes to Israel, Democrats and Republicans simply do not see eye to eye, and for all their love of Zion, evangelicals will turn out for a candidate who is less than 100 percent on the issue,” writes Ron Kampeas. “Welcome to the 2016 presidential election, when the conventional pro-Israel wisdom has been turned upside down.”

Occupation/Human rights

Heartbeat, BDS, and the Politics of Making Music,

Aaron Shneyer describes Heartbeat, which brings together young Israeli and Palestinian musicians.

French FM: New peace initiative necessary to stop deterioration of Israeli-Palestinian conflict,

An international peace process is necessary to stop the deteriorating Israeli-Palestinian conflict, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters on Sunday after separately briefing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on his country’s initiative to jump-start direct talks.

Israel Prize winner on why he's giving prize money to Ta'ayush,

Prof. David Shulman won Israel’s most prestigious prize. He’s giving the prize money to one of Israel’s most dedicated — and persecuted — activist groups. Here’s why.

Israeli politics

Herzog: Will Consider Joining Netanyahu's Coalition Only if Given Mandate to Pursue Two-state Solution,

Responsibility for fight against boycott movement, negotiations with Palestinians over statehood among demands listed by Zionist Union chairman in Facebook post.

Herzog faces increased in-house hostility over coalition talks ,

Labor members fighting the possibility that the party will join the coalition took an increasingly antagonistic tone against opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) on Saturday.

Opinion: Saving Bougie,

There isn’t a single politician who could claim that having the Zionist Union enter the government isn’t political suicide,” writes Sima Kadmon.

Israeli Textbook Authors Yank Names in Protest of Right-Wing Bias,

“Usually, the mere mention of high school civics class is enough to make eyes glaze over. Yet the release of a new textbook critics — including some of the book’s own authors — are calling deeply ideological has put civics instruction at the center of a massive controversy in Israel,” writes Naomi Zeveloff.

Gaza

Gaza farmers dodge bullets to harvest crops,

Although the truce that ended the 2014 Gaza war is still in force, the Israeli army has recently escalated its actions against farmers in the buffer zone between the Strip and Israel.