Security | The American Task Force on Palestine

For Obama and Netanyahu, Wariness on Iran Will Dominate Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - March 1, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Nearly four years ago, when Senator Barack Obama was running for president and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was head of the opposition, they met here in what aides described as a warm atmosphere. President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the Oval Office last July, will meet again on Monday. “Senator,” Mr. Netanyahu said to Mr. Obama, “as president, many things will cross your desk, but the most important, by far, will be stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.”

Peres Says U.S. Must Put All Iran Options on Table
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Jodi Rudoren - March 1, 2012 - 1:00am

Days before Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, was to meet with President Obama, Mr. Peres said on Thursday that the United States must make clear to Iran that “all options are on the table,” but he acknowledged that there was disagreement over where to draw the “red line” that would set off military intervention. President Shimon Peres says the White House must be resolute or Israel may have to go it alone.

Polls: Most in U.S. See Iran as Threat; Majority of Israelis Against Iran Strike
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
March 1, 2012 - 1:00am

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A poll showed 87 percent of registered American voters believe that Iran’s suspected illegal nuclear weapons program is a threat to the United States. The poll commissioned by The Israel Project also found that 88 percent of respondents believed that Iran is a threat to Israel.

PA controlled office in Gaza ransacked
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 1, 2012 - 1:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Unidentified assailants raided the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority-controlled Civil Administration building in the northern Gaza Strip overnight Wednesday. Headquarters chief Maher Abu al-Quf told Ma'an that the Israeli side of the office alerted them to an attempted robbery at 11.30 p.m. on Wednesday evening. Personnel rushed to the site but the suspects had left the scene after damaging the offices and ransacking its contents. It is the 11th time such an incident has taken place, Abu al-Quf said. Hamas police have opened an investigation.

PA: No Decision on Security Coordination
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 29, 2012 - 1:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- The the Palestinian Authority's minister of civil affairs, denied on Tuesday that the government had decided to end security coordination with Israel. Hussein al-Sheikh told the PA's Voice of Palestine radio that all options were under consideration, but decisions will wait until the president returns from abroad. The minister was responding to reports that the PA is planning to reconsider its security, political and economic agreements with Israel in the coming days, as a PLO official said Sunday.

Report: Israel’s Security Situation Worst in Decades
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Oren Kessler - February 29, 2012 - 1:00am

The Arab revolts and an emboldened Iran have created the most precarious security situation for Israel since the end of the Cold War, according to a study released this week. The report, “The 2011 Arab Uprisings and Israel’s National Security,” was released by Bar-Ilan University’s Begin- Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and authored by the center’s director, Prof.Efraim Inbar.

Israeli Forces Clash With Worshippers at Al-Aqsa
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 24, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces clashed with Palestinians in Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Friday, exchanging a volley of tear gas and rocks. Israeli troops entered the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Compound) after the Friday noon prayer, and fired tear and and sound grenades, causing confusion amongst the large crowds who worship at the holy site on Fridays, a Ma'an correspondent said. Palestinian youth threw rocks at the forces, witnesses told Ma'an, adding that high security measures were imposed throughout Jerusalem.

Israel faces strategic uncertainty over Syrian uprising
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Hassan Barari - (Opinion) February 23, 2012 - 1:00am

The unfolding events in Syria have posed a question that Israelis still grapple with: How should Israel react to the crisis in Syria? The public debate in Israel with regard to the best scenario that can happen in Syria is far from conclusive. While, Israelis on the whole find Syria under President Bashar Assad a hard nut to crack, yet his demise is not necessarily in the best interest for Tel Aviv for the short run.

Airport security can't treat Arab Israelis like suspicious objects
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) February 17, 2012 - 1:00am

Yara Mashour wanted to return to her home in Israel. A natural-born citizen and the editor of a popular Israeli weekly, she arrived at an El Al counter in a Milan airport this week, her passport and an airline ticket in hand. What happened next is what happens to almost every Arab Israeli traveler: She was singled out, put through rigorous security checks, asked ridiculous, humiliatingly intimate questions and had her baggage thoroughly searched. But when it reached the stage of a body search, Mashour, a proud citizen, refused, choosing instead to give up her flight.

Nablus Village at the Center of Settler Violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Charlie Hoyle - February 17, 2012 - 1:00am

ASIRA AL-QIBLIYA (Ma'an) -- A drive along the northern section of route 60 paints a telling picture of the physical geography of settlements and settler violence in the West Bank. Winding through picturesque Nablus countryside, the main north-south highway acts as a boundary between Israeli settlements on one side and Palestinian villages on the other. Overlooked by these illegal hilltop residences, local Palestinians are all too familiar with the disadvantages of the neighborly proximity, especially given that the Nablus district experienced the majority of settler violence in 2011.

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