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Europe, Israel, and the Middle East: A Conversation with Yair Lapid, Head of Israel's Yesh Atid Party
The AJC Transatlantic Institute hosted Yair Lapid, head of Israel's Yesh Atid party and Member of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, for a dicussion on the crisis in the Middle East, the West's struggle against terrorism, and the crucial European-Israeli partnership.
Daniel Schwammenthal. Director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute, gave opening remarks.
The talk was moderated by Laurence Norman, Brussels Foreign Affairs Correspondent, The Wall Street Journal.
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Europe, Israel, and the Middle East: A Conversation with Yair Lapid, Head of Israel's Yesh Atid Party
The AJC Transatlantic Institute hosted Yair Lapid, head of Israel's Yesh Atid party and Member of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, for a dicussion on the crisis in the Middle East, the West's struggle against terrorism, and the crucial European-Israeli partnership. Daniel Schwammentha l. Director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute, gave opening remarks. The talk was moderated...Read more
European Commission President Vows to Strengthen Ties with Israel and Fight Antisemitism at AJC Global Forum
Addressing thousands of participants worldwide at AJC Global Forum 2021, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to strengthen ties with Israel, “a vitally important country for the European Union, not only because of our common past, but also because of our common future,” and underlined the EU’s commitment to fight rising antisemitism across the continent.
French President Macron Pledges Commitment to Israel’s Security and Fight against Anti-Jewish Hatred at AJC Global Forum
"France's profound attachment to Israel's security [...] has never wavered," declared French President Emmanuel Macron to an international audience at AJC Global Forum 2021. Stressing France’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism in December 2019, President Macron reiterated his commitment to combat hatred and extremism across the country.
TFI Chair Mandl: Israel Defends Itself and Civilizational Values
Brussels, 18 May 2021 - “Heavily-armed terror organizations unscrupulously fire rockets at civilian residential areas. Children, women and men are traumatized by this rocket fire and other acts of terror and are ultimately the victims of these terrorists,” says Lukas Mandl, speaker on foreign...
Hamas Is Dedicated to Killing Jews
Some have attempted to apply logic to the onslaught of rockets fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip. But in this Newsweek op-ed, Avi Mayer, AJC Managing Director of Global Communications, explains that this conflict is about Hamas and its dedication, in word and deed, to destroying the Jewish state and murdering Jews.
Gaza Media Rules
Rule Number 1: Don’t report the facts. In this must-read satire column for New Europe, Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute, offers a 10-point reporter’s guide for gullible journalists who are covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and want to demonstrate that they don’t know what they’re talking about.
AJC Joins European and North American Lawmakers in Affirming Support for Israel
13 May 2021 - Brussels – The AJC Transatlantic Institute hailed the outpour of support for Israel in a statement signed by over 50 European and North American lawmakers from 20 countries in response to indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israeli civilians by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The...
Israel and Gaza: Moral Clarity, Moral Fog
In this forceful column for The Times of Israel, AJC CEO David Harris issues a powerful call for moral clarity. “Hamas celebrates death, something too few outside observers can truly understand,” he writes. “Israel celebrates life... And it is determined to defend life — as it should, as it must.”
HRW Defames Israel - AJC Reacts
Last week Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Israel of pursuing a policy of “apartheid and persecution.” AJC Director for Diplomatic Affairs Aaron Jacob exposes the HRW report’s most glaring biases, including the organization’s attempt to portray the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as racial in nature when, in fact, it is “a political conflict between two peoples with competing national goals – and should be addressed as such. Attempts to transform it into a racial or religious conflict make it much more difficult to resolve. By embracing the two-state solution and making generous peace overtures, Israel has made it abundantly clear that it does not want to rule the Palestinians.”
How the Biden Administration Can Further Arab-Israeli Peace
Both the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords and the bipartisan Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership for Peace Act - signed into law earlier this year – have the potential to advance the economic conditions needed to provide a foundation for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Benjamin Rogers, AJC Director for Middle East and North Africa Initiatives, writes in this op-ed in The Hill that the $250 million allocated by Congress over five years to expand peace and reconciliation programs and bolster the Palestinian economy through private sector engagement could be transformational: “While each instrument is revolutionary, the full power of the Abraham Accords and the Lowey Fund will emerge when applied together, unleashing their potential as a catalyst for the future of an integrated, symbiotic Middle East.”
Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) Discuss NATO-Israel Ties
Over 70 legislators, diplomats, and officials from Europe, North America, and Israel gathered for an exclusive online discussion on the burgeoning NATO-Israel ties co-organized by the Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) and the Mission of Israel to the EU and NATO. Co-hosted by TFI members MP Attila Mesterházy, NATO Parliamentary Assembly Vice President, and Canadian MP James Bezan, Vice Chair of the House of Commons National Defence Standing Committee, the panel discussion featured H.E. Aharon Leshno-Yaar, Ambassador of Israel to the EU and NATO, Colonel Nir Omer, Military Representative to NATO and to the EU, former NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges Dr. Jamie Shea, and AJC Jerusalem Director Lt Col (res.) Avital Leibovich as moderator.