With Speech in Egypt, Obama Calculates Risk of Alienating Israel
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In Fox News - June 3, 2009 - 12:00am

As President Obama prepares to depart for the Middle East to promote improved U.S. relations with Muslim nations, he has reaffirmed Iran's right to develop nuclear energy and met with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. The president is not headed to Israel on his five-day tour, one of the most important trips of his fledgling presidency. Instead, he will arrive in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and deliver a speech at Cairo University in Egypt on Thursday. He then travels to France and Germany for D-Day commemorations.

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President Obama arrives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to kick off his highly anticipated Mideast tour (1) (10) (11). Speculation continues regarding the issue of a potential Israeli settlement freeze (3) (4) (5). Before leaving for the Mideast, President Obama joins a White House meeting between National Security Advisor Jim Jones and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak (15). Israeli police remove a West Bank settler outpost and two roadblocks in Ramallah (17).

This is Zionism?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Week
by Sidney Schwarz - (Opinion) June 3, 2009 - 12:00am

It had been at least 20 years since I was in New York for a Salute to Israel Parade. But it was a happy coincidence. I was scheduled to be in New York on Monday for a meeting of the board of Rabbis for Human Rights-North America. I came into the city a day early with my wife and 20 year old daughter to enjoy the parade. My daughter marched with a delegation from the University of Maryland Hillel. My wife and I enjoyed being part of the crowd, hearing the Israeli music and watching the floats and delegations of students from synagogues and schools from all around the area.

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Growth and narratives, natural and unnatural
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - (Blog) June 2, 2009 - 12:00am

There are some hypocrisies so grand, so utterly defiant of awareness of the world and of oneself, that it takes days -- sometimes weeks -- for we mere mortals even to discern them. That's my excuse anyway. I've been following the issue of "natural growth" in the settlements with mixed feelings: I know people who live in the settlements, and whatever one thinks of their politics (and not all of them necessarily hew to a rigid political view) squeezing them out because they want to add a room for a new baby seems unconscionable.

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Israelis growing increasingly anxious about Obama policies
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from McClatchy News
by Cliff Churgin - June 2, 2009 - 12:00am

Sirens blared across Israel on Tuesday as the nation carried out its biggest-ever "doomsday" drill meant to simulate a catastrophic attack. The faux fears, however, were overshadowed by deepening anxiety in Jerusalem that Israel is heading for an unavoidable political showdown with President Barack Obama over the center-right government's refusal to stop building Jewish homes in the predominantly Palestinian West Bank. Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's largest daily newspaper, carried a front-page story Tuesday bluntly titled: "The American Threat."

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Groups silent in face of Obama calls for settlement freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Eric Fingerhut - June 2, 2009 - 12:00am

Even as it publicly stakes out a hard-line position against Israeli settlement expansion, the Obama administration is avoiding serious criticism from most U.S. Jewish groups and pro-Israel Democratic lawmakers. Key pro-Israel Jewish Democrats have backed the president on the importance of an Israeli settlement freeze while also suggesting there is room for a compromise between the Netanyahu government and the White House.

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US-Israeli relationship takes new direction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Jeffrey Heller - June 3, 2009 - 12:00am

After George W. Bush’s terms of endearment for Israel — a country he once described as a “light unto nations” — a different terminology is being used to describe its cloudy relationship with his successor, Barack Obama. At odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Palestinian statehood and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the new US president will try to patch ties with the Muslim world in an address he will deliver in Egypt tomorrow.

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Arab States Cool to Obama Pleas for Peace Gesture
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Michael Slackman - June 3, 2009 - 12:00am

President Obama starts his much anticipated Middle East tour on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, where he is expected to press the Arab nations to offer a gesture to the Israelis to entice them to accelerate the peace process.

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West Bank outpost, roadblocks removed
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hanan Greenberg - June 3, 2009 - 12:00am

Illegal West Bank outposts are still up and running despite the American demand, but on Wednesday morning the security forces once again destroyed several improvised buildings in the Binyamin area. Also Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces removed two roadblocks in the Ramallah area in a bid to ease the restrictions on the Palestinian population, and issued an order preventing left-wing activists from entering sensitive areas in checkpoints near Nablus.

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Much Awaited Visit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Opinion) June 3, 2009 - 12:00am

US President Barack Obama’s Middle East visit is certain to stir interest in many quarters, and definitely much more of it in this conflict-ridden part of the world. His much-anticipated speech in Cairo has been prefigured by laymen and pundits alike. The president, they say, will announce his administration’s idea on how the Arab-Israeli conflict can be managed to finally bring about peace in the region and put an end to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian problem.

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