Bad Faith in the Holy City ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Affairs by Rashid Khalidi - (Opinion) April 21, 2010 - 12:00am The Israeli government’s announcement in March that it would further expand East Jerusalem settlements was just the latest in a decades-old series of calculated slights to the United States. » Read more

Trading Sanctions for Settlements ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Affairs by Bret Stephens - (Analysis) April 21, 2010 - 12:00am When Joe Biden touched down in Tel Aviv on March 8, there was no indication that his visit would set off the most serious crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations in decades. The U.S. vice president arrived carrying the text of an effusively pro-Israel speech that was meant to assure skittish Israelis that the Obama administration would remain as committed as any of its predecessors to their security. » Read more

Palestinian armed factions grave threat to Lebanon's security - Ban ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Patrick Galey - April 21, 2010 - 12:00am The continued presence of Palestinian armed factions in Lebanon constitutes a serious threat to national and regional security, according to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The alleged transfer of Syria-exported Scud missiles to Hizbullah is also a major cause of international concern, the UN chief said. In his latest interim report on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, seen by The Daily Star on Tuesday, Ban encouraged Lebanese leaders to exert pressure on groups possessing arms outside of state power. » Read more

Emanuel: No U.S. peace plan for now ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) April 20, 2010 - 12:00am The time is not ripe for a U.S.-promoted Middle East peace plan, President Obama's chief of staff said. "A number of people have advocated that," Rahm Emanuel said Monday on the Charlie Rose show on Bloomberg Television. "That time is not now," Emanuel said. The "time now is to get back to the proximity talks, have those conversations that eventually will lead to direct negotiations, start to make the hard decisions to bring a balance between the aspirations of the Israelis for security and make that blend with the aspirations of the Palestinian people for their sovereignty." » Read more

Palestinian village and Israeli town build rare partnership across line ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Sue Fishkoff - April 21, 2010 - 12:00am Mohammed Mansara, a 70-year-old farmer who goes by the name Abu Mazen, indicates with a sweep of his arm the fruit trees and vegetables he grows on his small plot of land in this Palestinian village in the West Bank, population 1,200. Then he points to a small green hill on the western side of the village topped by a tidy cluster of red-roofed homes. That is Tzur Hadassah, an Israeli community of about 5,000 Jewish residents. “Tzur Hadassah has such nice people,” he says in Hebrew. “They are great neighbors.” » Read more

Jewish leaders caught between criticizing, defending Obama ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ron Kampeas - April 20, 2010 - 12:00am With anxiety over the White House’s Middle East policy mounting in some pro-Israel circles, several Jewish organizational leaders have found themselves in a discomfiting position: criticizing the Obama administration in public while stridently defending the president in private against the most extreme attacks. It's an upside-down version of what pro-Israel groups usually do: lavishing praise on the U.S. government of the day for sustaining the "unbreakable bond" while making their criticisms known quietly, behind closed doors. » Read more

IDF drafts pre-intifada pullback plan ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Irish Times by Yaakov Katz, Tovah Lazaroff - April 21, 2010 - 12:00am The army has drawn up plans to withdraw to pre-intifada lines in the West Bank, if ordered to do so by the government, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Such a withdrawal was one of the demands that US President Barack Obama made to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during their meeting at the White House last month. The demand refers to the positions the IDF held when the second intifada erupted in late 2000, before the army swept into all the Arab towns and cities in the West Bank. It maintains a presence on the outskirts of many of them today. » Read more

Campaign against New Israel Fund boosts donations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yitzhak Benhorin - April 21, 2010 - 12:00am Donations to the New Israel Fund (NIF) have increased by 35% since Zionist student group Im Tirtzu launching a campaign accusing the fund of direct responsibility for the UN’s Goldstone Report on the IDF’s offensive in Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009.. Im Tirtzu published a report according to which 92 percent of the Goldstone document’s allegations criticizing the IDF’s conduct came from 16 Israeli NGOs that received some $7.8 million from the NIF in 2008-2009 alone. » Read more

IDF: Settlers crossed red line, again ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Hanan Greenberg - April 21, 2010 - 12:00am The IDF on Wednesday continued to condemn the settler attack on a soldier near Yitzhar. During Tuesday evening's clashes, settlers from Yitzhar beat and lightly wounded a solider. The IDF said the settlers also hurled stones and slashed the tires of a military vehicle. Officers in the Central Command said the Jewish settlers had "crossed a red line" once again and urged the leaders of Jewish communities in the West Bank to act with resolve against outlaws. » Read more

Fayyad: 'Security gains' will foster state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ali Waked - April 21, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told Ynet he hoped to create a "positive reality" by the summer of 2011, which would help his people with the establishment of a Palestinian state. Security? Army says escalation in West Bank violence unacceptable, taking measures to contain demonstrations against security barrier. 'A stone can be deadly,' senior IDF officer says » Read more