Internal American Politics | The American Task Force on Palestine

Hoyer: Abbas, Fayyad sent mixed messages on UN bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - August 11, 2011 - 12:00am

PA prime minister tells visiting US lawmakers no final decision yet made on statehood bid, while Abbas talks as if deal is done. The Palestinian leadership sent mixed messages to a Democratic Congressional delegation visiting Ramallah, with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad saying that no decision on the UN bid in September has been finalized, while PA President Mahmoud Abbas gave the impression that going to the UN was a done deal.

Question of Birth Becomes One of President’s Power
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Adam Liptak - July 25, 2011 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON — Menachem Zivotofsky was born in Jerusalem. But was he born in Israel? Congress says yes. In 2002, it directed the State Department to “record the place of birth as Israel” in passports of American children born in Jerusalem if their parents ask. President George W. Bush signed that bill about three weeks before Menachem was born. But Mr. Bush also said he would not obey it.

Jews Want Obama To Do More for Mideast Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Week
by Douglas Bloomfield - (Analysis) July 24, 2011 - 12:00am

Jews give President Obama a higher overall job approval than most other voters although they're still unhappy with his handling of the economy and don't think he's doing enough to broker Middle East peace. But that doesn't mean they're ready to vote for someone else next year, according to a survey of 800 Jews earlier this month for J Street.

J Street poll: Obama's Jewish support tops Republicans
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Hilary Leila Krieger - July 21, 2011 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama handily defeats his current Republican presidential opponents among Jewish voters, according to a poll put out by J Street Thursday. At the same time, the majority of American Jews disapproves of his handling of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the poll found. Obama currently enjoys 63 percent of the American Jewish vote, compared to 24% for Mitt Romney and 67% when facing-off against Michele Bachmann, who received 19% support,according to the poll.

Elliott Abrams' Complaint
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Henry Siegman - (Editorial) July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

Following President Barack Obama's May 19 speech on the Middle East at the Department of State, The New York Review of Books (NYRB) published a letter that had been presented to the president this past January by a number of prominent, former, senior, U.S. government officials. The signatories to the letter urged the president to present to the parties in the Israel-Palestine conflict clear parameters to frame negotiations for a two-state peace agreement, and it suggested six key components for such a framework.

Obama: U.S., Israel Must Assess Mideast With 'Fresh Eyes' Read more: http://forward.com/articles/138918/#ixzz1Q15JCYRh
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
June 21, 2011 - 12:00am

President Obama told Jewish donors to his reelection campaign that Israel and the United States must assess the new Middle East with “fresh eyes.” “Both the United States and Israel are going to have to look at this new landscape with fresh eyes,” Obama said Monday night at an event in Washington that charged a minimum $25,000 a couple. “It’s not going to be sufficient for us just to keep on doing the same things we’ve been doing and expect somehow that things are going to work themselves out. We’re going to have to be creative and we’re going to have to be engaged.”

Congressional initiatives target P.A.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
June 17, 2011 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A number of initiatives are circulating in Congress targeting the Palestinians in the wake of their diplomatic tensions with Israel.

Blueprint for future Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adel Safty - (Opinion) June 6, 2011 - 12:00am

Last week US President Barack Obama reiterated and clarified his earlier statement endorsing the 1967 borders as the basis for negotiated permanent borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted furiously to the statement and promptly rejected the idea saying that the 1967 borders were indefensible, and vowed that a Palestinian state would not be founded “at Israel’s expense”.

Don’t Make Us Choose
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
(Editorial) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint meeting of Congress May 24, his first audience was the assembly of federal lawmakers and other government dignitaries seated before him. His second audience was President Obama, who was off hobnobbing with the Queen of England, but who only days earlier had set out his vision for achieving a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And his third audience was the American Jewish community.

For Obama, Bibi tensions subside, political problems begin
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - (Analysis) May 24, 2011 - 12:00am

That Israel problem President Obama had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Old news. That Israel problem Obama has with Congress? And with his party? That's just beginning. In two successive speeches -- one to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Monday and another to a joint meeting of Congress the following day, Netanyahu had nothing but praise for the U.S. president.

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