International Community | The American Task Force on Palestine

Israel Didn't Kill Arafat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Yossi Melman - (Opinion) July 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Al Jazeera’s English-language TV service released a new documentary that reveals evidence suggesting that Yasser Arafat was poisoned by a radioactive element, polonium-210. Many who followed Arafat’s death believe that Israel took a byproduct of its nuclear program and used it to turn Arafat into a sickly, weak man, leading to his death in November 2004.

Netanyahu to discuss legal status of West Bank settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
July 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said he will discuss a recent report stating that settlements in the West Bank are not illegal. "This report, in my opinion, discusses the question of the legality and legitimacy of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria on the basis of the facts and claims that merit serious examination," said a statement sent by the prime minister's office. "I will submit this report to the Ministerial Committee on Settlement Affairs I established and we will discuss it and make a decision," Netanyahu said.

How Not to Host a Summit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) July 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Twelve years ago this week, U.S. President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat gathered at Camp David to launch a historic bid to put an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

BDS Loses by Losing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Jon Haber - (Opinion) July 10, 2012 - 12:00am

The Rumplestilskins of the BDS “movement” have had to work overtime to spin the soiled straw of defeat within the Mainline Protestant Churches into gold. But what can you expect from a “movement” that can keep a straight face when writing headlines such as “Pro-Divestment Presbyterians Win by Losing.” (The response to my piece on Open Zion by Alex Kane was one such example—albeit without such a tell-tale headline.)

Wrong Time for New Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
(Editorial) July 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Palestinian hopes for an independent state are growing dimmer all the time. Israel is pushing ahead with new settlements in the West Bank and asserting control over new sections of East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as their capital. Meanwhile, peace talks — the best guarantee of a durable solution — are going nowhere.

Israel’s Occupational Hazard
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg
(Editorial) July 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu might have gotten what he wanted from the committee he named to explore ways to legalize unauthorized Jewish settlements in the West Bank. After all, its chairman, retired Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, had previously made clear that he rejects the term “occupied territory” to describe the West Bank’s status.

The Anti-Balfour Declaration
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) July 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Wonder what it feels like to have inadvertently put yourself between a rock and a hard place? Just ask Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Monday the Levy Committee, which he appointed last January, issued its report that was supposed to examine the question of Israeli “state lands” in the occupied Palestinian territories, but has far exceeded its mandate. The most significant aspect of the report is its blunt assertion that Israel is not “the occupying power” in the occupied territories.

The Anti-Balfour Declaration
In Print by Hussein Ibish - The Daily Beast (Opinion) - July 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Wonder what it feels like to have inadvertently put yourself between a rock and a hard place? Just ask Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Monday the Levy Committee, which he appointed last January, issued its report that was supposed to examine the question of Israeli “state lands” in the occupied Palestinian territories, but has far exceeded its mandate. The most significant aspect of the report is its blunt assertion that Israel is not “the occupying power” in the occupied territories.

How to Advance Transition to a Post-Assad Future
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
by Michael Herzog - (Opinion) July 10, 2012 - 12:00am

In this paper, the former chief of staff to Israel's minister of defense argues that, in addition to the moral imperative to help the Syrian people, there are also strong strategic reasons for the West and various regional states to be more proactive in bringing about the end of the Assad regime. Speeding up the process of the regime’s collapse would avert the destabilising consequences of a lengthy civil war, as well as dealing a blow to the radical, Iran-led alliance in the region.

There. It's finally done. Israel has ended the occupation. Tick. Tick. Tick.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) July 10, 2012 - 12:00am

I thought the occupation would end differently. I thought that when the occupation finally ended, Palestinians would flood into the streets in delight and relief and weeping at their newfound freedom, a sudden intoxication of rights, their lifelong hopes for independence made concrete. I thought the end of occupation would be deafening and terrifying and liberating and wholly new. I thought that when the occupation ended, we would know.

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