International Community | The American Task Force on Palestine

The Old Peace Is Dead, but a New Peace Is Possible
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ari Shavit - March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

HERE is the bad news: the Old Peace is dead. It was first wounded in 1994 when, a year after the Oslo accords, Israel let Yasir Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, return to the West Bank, and a result was a deadly bus bombing in central Tel Aviv.

The three issues that could torpedo Obama's visit to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Eric H. Yoffie - March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

During President Obama’s upcoming visit to Israel, the reactions of the average American will range from mild interest to indifference. Most Americans are not very concerned about foreign policy. Still, they have good feelings about Israel and will likely see the trip positively.

The apartheid libel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
(Editorial) March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

Israel Apartheid Week kicked off this year in Europe on February 25 and runs through March 17 in South Africa. Events include mock checkpoints, replicas of the security barrier, the screening of documentary films critical of Israel and meetings with the “victims” of the “occupation.” Organizers are united by their belief that the situation in the West Bank is comparable to the systematic racial segregation and discrimination that South Africa’s white minority instituted against the black majority.

UN agency joins petition against Israeli infiltration law
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) joined a petition filed by human rights organizations to the Supreme Court against the Israeli law of infiltration and asked to revoke it, local media reported Tuesday. The UNHCR's unprecedented move is an attempt to overturn a law which it claims "wrongly stigmatizes and penalizes those seeking refuge."

Egypt stops screening of film on Jewish community
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Sarah El Deeb - March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

Egyptian security agencies have stopped the screening of a documentary on the Egyptian Jewish community a day before it was due to debut in local cinemas, the film producer said in a statement Tuesday. He said no reasons were given. The "Jews of Egypt", a documentary that follows the lives of the Egyptian Jewish community in the first half of the 20th century until they left under duress in large numbers in the late 1950s, was screened in Egypt last year in a private film festival and had been approved by censorship, a regular procedure in Egypt.

Israel's Peres tells Europe to do more to pressure Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

Israeli President Shimon Peres urged the European Union on Tuesday to step up pressure on Iran over its ballistic missile programme, as well as trying to curb its nuclear ambitions. In a speech to the European Parliament that touched on the Jewish state's foreign policy goals, the Nobel peace laureate sought to persuade European lawmakers to act quickly on Iran, which Israel regards as an existential threat.

Israel releases tentative Obama schedule
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
March 11, 2013 - 12:00am

Israel released a tentative itinerary for President Obama's visit to Israel and the West Bank. The March 20-22 visit, according to the schedule released Monday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, will include visits to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, as well as visits to the graves in Jerusalem of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, and Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish extremist.

Hamas’s Desengaño With Morsi
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) March 11, 2013 - 12:00am

English has by far the largest vocabulary of any language, but there are still times when we have to look beyond its confines to convey a particular meaning. There is a Spanish word, desengaño, which connotes a combination of disappointment, disenchantment, disillusionment and despair, for which we have no precise English equivalent. And this, surely, best sums up the current attitude of the Hamas rulers in Gaza towards Egypt's new government.

Is Hamas Considering Recognition Of Israel?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Shlomi Eldar - (Analysis) March 11, 2013 - 12:00am

Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority are busy preparing for President Barack Obama’s visit, but as it turns out, Hamas is also keeping a close watch on the American president’s visit.

Egypt arrests Israeli citizen in Sinai
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 11, 2013 - 12:00am

The Egyptian authorities on Sunday arrested an Israeli citizen due to sneaking into South Sinai governorate, local security sources told Xinhua. "The Israeli man, identified as Gabriel Abu Shlomo, 29, did not have any identification papers or a passport," the security sources said. According to the sources, Abu Shlomo traveled from Israel's Eilat to the Egyptian city of Taba and crossed the boarder on Saturday evening.

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