US plotting strategy to have Goldstone report withdrawn
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Hilary Leila Krieger - April 8, 2011 - 12:00am

The US is consulting with allies at the United Nations to work to end any consideration of the Goldstone Report by the international body, US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said on Thursday. The US has long been opposed to the report’s accusations that Israel intentionally targeted civilians in its war just over two years ago against Hamas, but has added momentum in its push to see the report shelved since its presiding jurist Richard Goldstone last Friday reconsidered his findings.

»

Rumsfeld: No Clemency for Pollard
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
March 31, 2011 - 12:00am

Former U.S. Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld said Jonathan Pollard should not be granted clemency. Rumsfeld, who served under Presidents Gerald Ford and George W. Bush, said during an interview on Israel’s Channel 10 that granting Pollard early release would send the wrong message. Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) this week became the first Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives to back the latest push for clemency for Jonathan Pollard. Earlier in March, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) became the first active Republican politician to join the recent calls for Pollard’s release.

»

Palestinian incitement letter garners 27 senators
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
March 30, 2011 - 12:00am

A bipartisan slate of 27 U.S. senators signed on to a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to press the Palestinian Authority to address incitement. The letter, sent Tuesday but initiated two weeks ago by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), focuses on the March 11 massacre of five members of a Jewish family in Itamar, a settlement in the northern West Bank, and suggests that the Palestinian Authority, under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, has not done enough to stem incitement.

»

Why J Street speaks to us
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Logan Bayroff, Jesse Rothman - (Opinion) March 21, 2011 - 12:00am

On the heels of J Street’s Second National Conference, there have been a series of predictable – but still saddening – verbal and written attacks from the Right. Given these attacks, it would be reasonable to ask: Why did 500 students – a great number of whom, like us, grew up in youth movements, Jewish summer camps, are active in our Hillels and hang Israeli flags on our dorm room walls – travel to Washington to participate? Here’s why: because we’re tired of the relationship we were told we had to have with Israel. And we’re forging a new one.

»

New Jerusalem bill circulating House
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
March 16, 2011 - 12:00am

Top Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are circulating a bill that would strip the president of his power to waive a law requiring him to move the embassy to Jerusalem. The bill, launched March 10 and sponsored by Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), the chairman of the House's Europe Subcommittee, is also backed by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), the chairman of the House Middle East Subcommittee -- all but guaranteeing its passage in the Foreign Affairs Committee and referral to the full House.

»

Obama taps top foreign policy aide as ambassador to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Peter Nicholas - March 9, 2011 - 1:00am

President Obama is nominating a top foreign policy aide, Daniel B. Shapiro, as ambassador to Israel — tapping for the sensitive diplomatic post a Hebrew-speaking Middle East specialist who has been in charge of outreach to the American Jewish community. If he wins Senate confirmation, Shapiro, whose nomination was announced Wednesday, will replace James Cunningham, a George W. Bush appointee who will be rotating out of the job later this year.

»

In Berkeley, California, US Jews argue fiercely over Israeli policies
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Sharmila Devi - March 3, 2011 - 1:00am

It has a history of anti-war and pro-civil rights activism unmatched anywhere in the United States, yet not even this bucolic city nestled above San Francisco Bay in California is immune from the slings and arrows that accompany the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Berkeley is home to the top-ranked University of California, bookshops, cafes and wide leafy boulevards with imposing houses for professors and professionals from San Francisco's high-tech sector.

»

J Street aims to have 2,000 at weekend conference in DC
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Hilary Leila Krieger - February 25, 2011 - 1:00am

More than 50 members of Congress are expected to attend J Street’s second-annual conference here this weekend, with 200 offices receiving the progressive group’s lobbyists during its visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, according to the organization. The number of federal lawmakers coming to the conference gala on Monday night are slightly more than the 44 who came last year, but well under the 148 lawmakers who served as a host committee at the last conference. This year J Street has no host committee.

»

U.S. judge dismisses defamation lawsuit by former AIPAC official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - February 24, 2011 - 1:00am

A Washington D.C. Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit against AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, on Wednesday, for allegedly defaming its former foreign policy boss when they publicly attributed their firing of him to what they described as his sub-standard performance. Judge Erik Christian determined that the comments about Steve Rosen made by an AIPAC spokesperson and published in the New York Times did not constitute grounds for a defamation lawsuit.

»

Three Years Old, J Street Still Struggles For Acceptance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - February 2, 2011 - 1:00am

Several recent setbacks for J Street are refocusing attention on the dovish Israel lobby’s ongoing struggle to gain acceptance both in Washington and within the broader Jewish community.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017