Recording of our October 29th, 2024 webinar with Joshua Leifer. This conversation was hosted by Maxxe Albert-Deitch and Karen Paul.

We spoke with Joshua Leifer about Tablets Shattered, his lively and personal history of the fractured American Jewish present. Formed in the middle decades of the twentieth century, the settled-upon pillars of American Jewish self-definition (Americanism, Zionism, and liberalism) have begun to collapse. The binding trauma of Holocaust memory grows ever-more attenuated; soon there will be no living survivors. After two millennia of Jewish life defined by diasporic existence, the majority of the world’s Jews will live in a sovereign Jewish state by 2050. Against the backdrop of national political crises, resurgent global antisemitism, and the horrors of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Leifer provides an illuminating and meticulously reported map of contemporary Jewish life and a sober conjecture about its future.

Joshua Leifer is a journalist whose essays and reporting have appeared widely in international publications, including The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Haaretz, and elsewhere. He is currently pursuing a PhD in history at Yale University.

In this episode of PeaceCast, Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by APN's President and CEO, Hadar Susskind, for a discussion about recent events in the Middle East, the October 7th anniversary, and the past year of conflict. The discussion covers Israel's recent military incursion into southern Lebanon as well as Iran's bombing attack in Israel. 

Recording of our September 24th, 2024 webinar with Sarit Michaeli. This conversation was hosted by Madeleine Cereghino.

Gaza and the Occupied Territories in general are at the forefront of conversations around the world– horrific medical scenarios, inhumane treatment of Palestinian civilians, and utterly abhorrent forms of abuse taking place in Israeli prisons and on the ground in Occupied land. B’Tselem is among the leading organizations serving as a resource for facts, figures, and personal stories and putting together the picture of just how dire the circumstances have become. To discuss the “humanitarian disaster zone” of the current Israel-Gaza war, we spoke with Sarit Michaeli, the International advocacy lead for B'Tselem. 

Sarit has been at B’Tselem since 2004 and coordinates the organization’s work with international policymakers, diplomats, and civil society. Prior to her current role, Sarit was B’Tselem’s media spokesperson and director of public outreach. Sarit documents demonstrations in the West Bank, with a focus on Israeli security forces and misuse of crowd control weapons, and is active in Israel’s anti-Occupation movement. Sarit has an MA (Distinction) in Gender Studies from Birkbeck College, University of London, and a BA in graphic design from Camberwell College of Art, the London Institute. Prior to joining B’Tselem, Sarit worked as a journalist, graphic designer, and translator in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, London, and New York.

Recording of our September 16, 2024 webinar with Amir Tibon. This conversation was hosted by Hadar Susskind and Maxxe Albert-Deitch.

We spoke with author Amir Tibon about his new book, The Gates of Gaza, as well as his experience as a journalist in Israel over the last 11 months. This webinar was coordinated in partnership with our colleagues at Canadian Friends of Peace Now.

About the book: In The Gates of Gaza, Amir Tibon tells the harrowing story of his family’s survival on October 7th at Kibbutz Nahal Oz. He describes his family's ordeal—and the bravery that ultimately led to their rescue—alongside the histories of the place they call home and the systems of power that have kept them and their neighbors in Gaza in harm’s way for decades. Woven throughout is Tibon's own expertise as a longtime international correspondent, as well as more than thirty original interviews: with residents of his kibbutz, with the Israeli soldiers who helped to wrest it from the hands of Hamas, and with experts on Gaza, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the peace process. More than one family's odyssey, The Gates of Gaza is the intimate story of a tight-knit community and the broader saga of war, Occupation, and hostility between two national movements—a conflict that has not yet extinguished the enduring hope for peace.

More about the book: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/amir-tibon/the-gates-of-gaza/9780316580960/?lens=little-brown

Recording of our August 21, 2024 webinar with Dr. Gershon Baskin. This conversation was hosted by Madeleine Cereghino.

It is clear that people around the world– and the mediators sent to the table in Doha– want an agreement to stop the violence in Gaza and to bring the Israeli hostages home. But the general understanding of how to get from point A (calling for a deal) to point B (getting the Israeli government and Hamas to agree to a deal) remains murky. To shed some light on the circumstances surrounding this round of negotiations, we sat down with Dr. Gershon Baskin, a veteran peace activist and longtime researcher of the Israel/Palestine conflict and peace process.

Recording of our August 7, 2024 webinar with Lior Amihai. This conversation was hosted by Madeleine Cereghino.

Our Director of Government Relations, Madeleine Cereghino, sat down with Lior Amihai, the executive director of our sister organization, Shalom Achshav. Our colleagues there recently released a report detailing what they call the Israeli government’s “Annexation Revolution.” 

Since October 7th, the Israeli government has launched a massive annexation effort– displacing Palestinians, expanding existing settlements, and doubling the resources available to settlements– “legalizing” more than 70 illegal outposts along the way. Under Netanyahu and Smotrich’s governance, emboldened settlers have essentially been granted carte blanche for land seizure, crop and livestock destruction, and violent altercations with Palestinians– all with minimal consequences. 

Lior Amihai is the executive director of Peace Now. Before taking on this position, he was Executive Director of Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organization that focuses on violations of Palestinians’ human rights in the West Bank. Prior to that, he was the co-director of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch project.

In this episode of PeaceCast, Maxxe Albert-Deitch is joined by APN's Director of Government Relations, Madeleine Cereghino, for a discussion of PM Netanyahu's DC visit. The discussion covers PM Netanyahu's address to a joint session of Congress, that speech's implications, and the general optics of the PM's DC visit. 

Recording of our July 25, 2024 webinar with Rebecca Abou-Chedid. This conversation was hosted by Hadar Susskind.

Hadar Susskind and Rebecca Abou-Chedid analyze Netanyahu’s visit to DC (and his address to Congress on July 24th). They delve into the impact on American and international politics, the American Jewish community, and the Arab American community.

Rebecca Abou-Chedid serves on the board of directors of the IMEU Policy Project, Anera, the Foundation for Middle East Peace, and SEED for Change. Rebecca also served for five years as co-chair of the board of directors of Just Vision. She is a partner in the Projects group at Norton Rose Fulbright and previously served as a law clerk in the Executive Office for Immigration Review at the US Department of Justice, as National Political Director at the Arab American Institute, and the Director of Outreach at the New America Foundation’s Middle East Task Force. 

Ten brave New Story Leadership alumni -  Muslim, Jewish, and Christian -  from Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, decided to move forward together in the aftermath of October 7th. First, the group negotiated and crafted a joint statement calling for an immediate ceasefire and hostage release. But they also realized that this was not nearly enough.

After months of research, discussion and an intense week together in Geneva, these alumni-- the Phoenix Ten-- negotiated and drafted the Phoenix Plan. In this episode of PeaceCast, we spoke with some of these peacebuilders about what the plan is and what their vision for a peaceful future looks like.

Learn more about NSL and the Phoenix Plan: https://www.newstoryleadership.org/

Make a contribution to APN: https://peacenow.org/donate

Recording of our June 20, 2024 webinar with Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon. This conversation was hosted by Hadar Susskind and Maxxe Albert-Deitch.

Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon feel the loss and pain of October 7th and the carnage in Gaza that has followed especially keenly: both have lost family to the conflict.

Since October 7th, the two have appeared on various international forums regarding their partnership in establishing peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Most recently, they traveled together to Verona, Italy to meet Pope Francis and share their vision for the future: one where Israelis and Palestinians can move forward and live side by side. 

Aziz Abu Sarah is a Palestinian peacebuilder, entrepreneur, and international speaker. He is the co-founder of InterAct International and MEJDI Tours, and the former executive director of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University.

Maoz Inon is an Israeli social entrepreneur and peace activist. He has founded several tourism initiatives in Israel and in the Middle East, including the Fauzi Azar Inn and Abraham Hostel and Tour brands.

Harvey Price is the founder of the Peace Drums Project, an organization that connects children of multiple faiths by having them play together in a steel drum band. In this episode of PeaceCast, Maxxe Albert-Deitch speaks with Harvey about steel drums as an instrument of peace and the logistics of running a people-to-people music-oriented peacebuilding program in Israel and Palestine in the current challenging times.