Settlements | The American Task Force on Palestine

Washington Watch: The sound of one hand clapping
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Douglas Bloomfield - February 23, 2011 - 1:00am

There were no winners in last week’s UN vote on the Arab resolution to condemn Israeli settlement policy. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas looked like he wanted an excuse to avoid making peace, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s preference for building settlements over negotiating only further deepened Israel’s international isolation and President Barack Obama showed he had little influence with either side, and few clear ideas about how to advance a peace process he insists is an administration priority.

Pressing Israel in U.N. remains a U.S. taboo, veto on settlements resolution shows
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
February 22, 2011 - 1:00am

In the run-up to last week's U.N. Security Council vote on a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal, the Obama administration faced a dilemma. The administration views Jewish settlements in the West Bank as illegitimate, and has made few bones about saying so, but it also rejects the notion that the place to settle the matter is the United Nations, with its long tradition of anti-Israel resolutions.

The UN is ripe for advancing the Palestinian agenda
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shlomo Shamir - (Editorial) February 22, 2011 - 1:00am

A new era has dawned at the United Nations with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From this point on, new, different rules will characterize discussions of the conflict in the Security Council. The most important and, from Israel's standpoint, alarming change is this: In the one UN body that has the authority to forcibly enforce resolutions, a new alignment of forces is rapidly taking shape, and a new distribution of influence is emerging between the United States and the other four members of the exclusive club of states with permanent membership and veto power.

Plans to expand Har Homa rejected
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ronen Medzini - February 21, 2011 - 1:00am

Jerusalem Municipality's local planning and construction committee announced Monday it would not approve plans to expand the Jewish Har Homa neighborhood in east Jerusalem. The announcement came just a few days after the US vetoed a UN vote to condemn construction in settlements, causing speculation that the plans were not approved due to political pressure.

Novelist Ian McEwan criticizes Jewish settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
February 20, 2011 - 1:00am

Renowned British novelist Ian McEwan has accepted an Israeli literary prize in Jerusalem with harsh criticism of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. At an acceptance ceremony for the Jerusalem Prize, McEwan praised Israel's technological and artistic advances but asked: "Where is Israel's political creativity?" He criticized Israel's 1967 annexation of east Jerusalem, the part Palestinians claim as the capital of a future state. McEwan is the author of the best-selling book Atonement and has won numerous literary prizes for his books.

Israeli committee mulls bill to thwart future settlement freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
February 20, 2011 - 1:00am

Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation debated Sunday a bill that would make it nearly impossible for defense chief to impose a freeze on settlement construction, local media reported. According to The Jerusalem Post, the committee discussed the bill that calls to apply Israeli law to Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which are currently subject to military rule.

With settlement resolution veto, Obama has joined Likud
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gideon Levy - (Editorial) February 20, 2011 - 1:00am

This weekend, a new member enrolled in Likud - and not just in the ruling party, but in its most hawkish wing. Located somewhere between Tzipi Hotovely and Danny Danon, U.S. President Barack Obama bypassed Dan Meridor and Michael Eitan on the right and weakened their position. The first veto cast by the United States during Obama's term, a veto he promised in vain not to use as his predecessors did, was a veto against the chance and promise of change, a veto against hope. This is a veto that is not friendly to Israel; it supports the settlers and the Israeli right, and them alone.

Accepting Jerusalem Prize, McEwan slams Israeli policies
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by David Green - February 19, 2011 - 1:00am

British novelist Ian McEwan, this year's recipient of the prestigious Jerusalem Prize, used the opening of the the 25th Jerusalem International Book Fair last night to sharply criticize Israel's policies of "confiscation, land purchases, and expulsion in East Jerusalem," and a national policy that grants a "right of return to Jews but not to Arabs."

UN set to vote on settlement resolution; U.S. set to veto
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya, Barak Ravid - February 18, 2011 - 1:00am

The UN Security Council is expected to vote today on a resolution brought by the Arab states and the Palestinian Authority declaring the Jewish settlements in the West Bank illegal and an obstacle to a two-state solution. The United States is expected to veto the resolution, its first such action since President Barack Obama took office two years ago.

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