Diplomacy | The American Task Force on Palestine

Exaggerated US-Israel Tensions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Linda Gradstein - (Opinion) September 16, 2012 - 12:00am

If you believe the Israeli and some of the US press, American-Israeli relations are at their lowest point ever. The New York Times accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “trying to browbeat President Obama into a pre-emptive strike (on Iran).” Israeli press this week ran banner headlines trumpeting the rift.

In Israel, we speak Republican
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yossi Verter - (Opinion) September 15, 2012 - 12:00am

In January 2009, on the eve of the Israeli general elections, and before the newly elected U.S. president, Barack Obama, was sworn in, the leading candidate for the premiership, Benjamin Netanyahu, met with his then-adviser and former consul general in New York, Alon Pinkas. Netanyahu asked Pinkas, who was close to the leaders of the Democratic Party, to help him build a bridge to the new administration.

Slain US envoy 'understood Palestinian situation'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by George Hale - September 14, 2012 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian negotiators on Thursday remembered US ambassador Christopher Stevens as fair-minded and described his death in Libya as a major loss for American foreign policy. Stevens, who was killed with three colleagues late Tuesday in an attack on US institutions in Benghazi, served years earlier as a political officer at the US consulate in Jerusalem.

The two sides of the Holy Land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Lauren Gelfond Feldinger - September 14, 2012 - 12:00am

With a Palestinian Muslim guide and an Israeli Jewish guide, it wasn't a typical Jerusalem tour. Aziz Abu Sarah, 32, grew up in East Jerusalem throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, the only Jews he had ever met. Student Shira Nesher, 24, had toured East Jerusalem as a military tour guide during her national service, teaching soldiers about the Arab enemy. On this summer afternoon in Jerusalem, they stood together in front of 28 tourists - Israelis, foreigners and two Palestinians - to describe what they had learned in the years since.

Liberman calls Abbas a 'liar, a coward and a wimp'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - September 13, 2012 - 12:00am

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman kept up his campaign against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, calling him a "liar, coward and wimp" who would quit if he had any modicum of self-respect. Liberman, who last month sent a letter to the Quartet calling for Abbas' replacement, said at a briefing with reporters that the PA leader neither represents anyone nor controls anything. He repeated his charge in the letter to the Quartet that Abbas was engaged in diplomatic terrorism, which he said was even worse than conventional terrorism.

In Israel's Tel Aviv, missiles seem like a distant notion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Anat Shalev - September 13, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, Sep. 13 (Xinhua) -- Nobody seems to be thinking about a nuclear Iran or a possible missiles attack on the streets of Tel Aviv, Israel, this week. Everything seems normal, and mundane urban life seems to continue its daily routine in the " city that never stops." However, there is still a tangible threat of a looming war with Iran. Or at least, that is what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have tried to signal over the past few months: prepare for war.

The abandonment
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Charles Krauthammer - (Opinion) September 13, 2012 - 12:00am

There are two positions one can take regarding the Iranian nuclear program: (a) it doesn’t matter, we can deter them; or (b) it does matter, we must stop them. In my view, the first position — that we can contain Iran as we did the Soviet Union — is totally wrong, a product of wishful thinking and misread history. But at least it’s internally coherent.

Israel on the Ballot
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
(Editorial) September 13, 2012 - 12:00am

It’s difficult to recall a time when an Israeli prime minister has inserted himself into a presidential election campaign in the way that Benjamin Netanyahu has. It’s even harder to recall a time when a trusted ally openly urged the American president to undertake a questionable, unpopular and highly risky war. We sure hope Netanyahu knows what he’s doing, because the stakes for him — and for the two nations he professes to care about the most — could not be higher.

Israel: Learn the power of words, not just might, in the new Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Rachel Shabi - (Opinion) September 13, 2012 - 12:00am

It’s pretty hard to combine schadenfreude with escalating panic, but when it comes to regional pronouncements, Israeli commentators have a special talent. Witness this incongruous cocktail in the analysis of Egypt’s new leadership – the gist of so much of which is: The Muslim Brotherhood in power is horrifying for Israel, but at the same time terrible news for Egyptians, who really shouldn’t be experimenting with the democracy to which they, being Arabs, clearly aren’t suited.

U.S. and Israel need mutual diplomacy, not recriminations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Daniel Kurtzer - (Opinion) September 13, 2012 - 12:00am

The United States and Israel do many things well together. We do strategic cooperation, security planning, intelligence sharing, economic and trade relations, and cultural interaction. Every day, scores of official and unofficial interactions take place between our governments and our two peoples, and for the most part, they are extraordinarily productive and mutually beneficial.

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