OUR POLICIES

The American policymaking process on Palestine and Israel is broken. If it wasn’t clear before, the events over the last few years have shown that America’s longstanding policy has been a disaster that has mired our nation in a regional conflict, implicated the United States in catastrophic violations of international law, caused death and suffering to Palestinians, and has only undermined Israel’s security.

A New Policy supports policies that reflect American values and end the current suffering, while laying the foundation for sustainable coexistence in Palestine and Israel on the basis of liberty, equality, and human rights.

FOUNDATIONAL
PRINCIPLES

01.

Advance American National Interests
U.S. policy toward the Middle East should advance American national security and foreign policy interests, and should, as such, contribute to peace and prosperity for all Americans.

02.

Reflect American Values
U.S. policy toward the Middle East should reflect American political ideals, including freedom, equality, and human rights, and should enhance the health, security, welfare, and prosperity of all peoples.

03.

Comply with American International Law
The United States should apply its laws, regulations and policies governing the provision of security assistance or transfer of arms equally to all countries in the Middle East, including Israel.

OUR PRIORITIES

  • A New Policy supports Palestinian freedom, equality and human rights, and believes that the Government and Congress of the United States should support the Palestinian right to self-determination. Fundamental to the right of Palestinian freedom is an end to Israel’s occupation. A New Policy supports an end to U.S. support for illegal settlements in any form. Consistent with international law and longstanding stated U.S. policy, the United States should impose strict sanctions on all individuals, companies, governments, or other entities that support the settlement enterprise, and ensure that U.S. laws reflect our international legal obligations.

    The U.S. should ensure its role in any future diplomatic or state building process is conflict-sensitive in terms of both Israeli-Palestinian and internal Palestinian political dynamics, and does not, whether intentionally or unintentionally, create incentives for the use of violence.

  • The U.S. government should enforce and strengthen its own laws that restrict the provision of U.S. assistance to countries and units that violate human rights, and where they occur within those restrictions, A New Policy will push to condition all U.S. arms transfers on Israeli compliance with human rights laws. When it does provide arms or military assistance, the U.S. should use its leverage by conditioning U.S. financial support and weapons transfers to Israel on an end to Israeli laws, policies and practices that create obstacles to a just and lasting peace, and which violate Palestinian human rights. The U.S. should also consider whether the amount of military support that it provides to Israel annually is in line with America’s global foreign policy priorities and reflects the best use of hard-earned taxpayer dollars from the pockets of American workers.

  • A New Policy works to prevent the enactment of laws or issuance of policies that run counter to the American national interest and undermine the prospects for a lasting peace. That work starts at home, where efforts to repress free speech, to prevent accountability, and to limit Americans’ abilities to exercise their constitutional freedoms have proliferated in the past year.

    The U.S. should ensure its role in any future diplomatic or state building process is conflict-sensitive in terms of both Israeli-Palestinian and internal Palestinian political dynamics, and does not, whether intentionally or unintentionally, create incentives for the use of violence.