American Jews Rethink Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Nation
by Philip Weiss - October 14, 2009 - 12:00am

This year has seen a dramatic shift in American Jews' attitudes toward Israel. In January many liberal Jews were shocked by the Gaza war, in which Israel used overwhelming force against a mostly defenseless civilian population unable to flee. Then came the rise to power of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, whose explicitly anti-Arab platform was at odds with an American Jewish electorate that had just voted 4 to 1 for a minority president.

»

The Third Mideast Option
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Ephraim Sneh - October 14, 2009 - 12:00am

The difficulties surrounding preparations for the Obama-Netanyahu-Abbas meeting in New York last month should bring the U.S. administration to one conclusion: There is no sense in pressing for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks now. That is not because there is no urgent need of a negotiated agreement -- there certainly is. It is because the political constraints of both leaders, the Palestinian Authority's Mahmoud Abbas and Israel's Binyamin Netanyahu, prevent any progress at the negotiation table.

»

Palestinian PM fears Israeli offer of 'Mickey Mouse' state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
October 14, 2009 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said on Wednesday he feared Israel intended to create a "Mickey Mouse" Palestinian state on only limited parts of the occupied West Bank.   "You cannot but wonder what it is that Israel has in mind when it talks about a Palestinian state," Fayyad told a press briefing in the West Bank town of Ramallah. "By all appearances, it looks like they have a Mickey Mouse state in mind, and that is not what we are looking for."

»

The 'no peace now' camp
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Petra Marquardt-Bigman - (Opinion) October 13, 2009 - 12:00am

It was a good example for bad timing: just shortly before the news broke that President Obama had been awarded the Nobel peace prize, Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, made headlines when he declared in an interview on Israeli radio that in his coming meeting with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, he would explain that "there was no chance of reaching a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians for many years". Lieberman will probably be suspected by many of doing his best to make sure he is proven right – after all, he never had the reputation of a peacemonger.

»

U.S. to Egypt: Fatah-Hamas deal undermines Israel-PA talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - October 13, 2009 - 12:00am

The United States sent a message to Egypt stating it does not support the proposed reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas as it would undermine negotiations with Israel, Haaretz has learned. George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, met on Saturday night in Cairo with the chief of Egyptian intelligence, Gen. Omar Suleiman, and told him the United States would not support an agreement not aligned with the principles of the Quartet.

»

The return of 1948
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Shlomo Ben-Ami - (Opinion) October 13, 2009 - 12:00am

The United Nations conference commemorating the 60th anniversary of UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) could not come at a better moment. The restitution of lands occupied in 1967 will obviously continue to be indispensable to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it is the legacy of the 1948 war that both parties to the conflict have now put at the centre of the debate.

»

New negotiations will test Netanyahu's commitment
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) October 13, 2009 - 12:00am

Yasser Arafat was enticed to attend a meeting with Ehud Barak at Camp David during the summer of 2000 with the promise that he would not be blamed if it turned out to be a failure. It did, and he was. Last month the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was invited to attend a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York without any such promise. He was not blamed and the meeting was not a failure.

»

New negotiations will test Netanyahu's commitment
In Print by Ziad Asali - The Daily Star (Opinion) - October 13, 2009 - 12:00am

Yasser Arafat was enticed to attend a meeting with Ehud Barak at Camp David during the summer of 2000 with the promise that he would not be blamed if it turned out to be a failure. It did, and he was. Last month the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was invited to attend a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York without any such promise. He was not blamed and the meeting was not a failure.

»

Livni accuses Netanyahu of 'humiliating Palestinians'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Amnon Meranda - October 12, 2009 - 12:00am

Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni on Monday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being responsible for the uproar created by the United Nations report into the Israeli operation in Gaza. She hinted that Israel was the one who revealed that the Palestinians had deferred a Human Rights Council vote on the report, because the prime minister "had to boast of his performance." Livni, who spoke during the opening ceremony of the Knesset's winter session, was interrupted several times by Likud Knesset members.

»

Netanyahu: Our leaders won't be prosecuted in Hague
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Amnon Meranda - October 12, 2009 - 12:00am

The Knesset opened its winter session Monday, amid its members' promise for a stormy winter. The Knesset's factions are set to spend the next several months debating settlement freeze, the forming of a biometric database, a reform in the Israel Land Administration, a controversial budget cut and a referendum bill, to name a few. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dedicated most of his speech to a harsh attack on a United Nations report on the Israeli operation in Gaza, which accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes in Gaza.

»


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