Jordan King: Israel's long-term future is in jeopardy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
April 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Jordanian King Abdullah has warned that Israel's long-term future would remain in jeopardy unless a permanent solution to the Middle East conflict was achieved, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "I think the long-term future of Israel is in jeopardy unless we solve our problems," Abdullah told the paper in an interview that appeared online Tuesday. The Jordanian monarch, who is scheduled to arrive to Washington on Saturday to attend President Barack Obama's Nuclear Security Summit, cautioned against "wasting too much time" in resolving the conflict in the region.

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Blogger Visits ATFP Office
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
(Blog) April 5, 2010 - 12:00am

This past Saturday my husband Jaffar and I had a delightful visit with Dr. Ziad Asali the founder of the American Task Force on Palestine, his fascinating wife Naila, and the brilliant Hussein Ibish, having arranged to stop by to see their 7th floor offices in Washington DC and to have a chat.

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Ex-US diplomats meet with Hamas officials
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yitzhak Benhorin - April 2, 2010 - 12:00am

Former US government officials, some of whom are in contact with the current administration, have met in the past months with Hamas leaders, one of the officials who participated in the talks confirmed in a conversation with Ynet on Friday.

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Israel says it’s planning new gestures
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz, Hilary Leila Krieger - April 2, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel has formulated a new list of potential gestures towards the Palestinians, Defense Ministry sources said Thursday, as a top Palestinian Authority minister visited Washington for talks with Obama administration officials. The office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and the Defense Ministry recently compiled new proposals for easing restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank, according to Defense officials.

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Likud MK: Not even 'Hussein Obama' will remove us from Hebron
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Charles Levinson, Natasha Mozgovaya - April 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Thousands of Israelis gathered Thursday at the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron to celebrate the addition of the location to Israel's list of national heritage sites, a move initiated by the Land of Israel caucus in the Knesset. "The masses that have come here, including the 40 members of the Land of Israel caucus, are a guarantee and proof that no one will move us from the Cave of the Patriarchs, not even Hussein Obama," MK Ayoob Kara (Likud) told the crowd.

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ATFP Senior Fellow Examines Obama and Bush Mideast Policies at Pace
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - March 31, 2010 - 12:00am

Pres. Obama's administration has reconceptualized the nature of strategic and political dynamics in the Middle East and the broader Islamic world, ATFP Senior Fellow Hussein Ibish told an audience of over 100 at Pace University on Thursday, March 25, 2010. He said that during the Bush administration and traditionally, the United States has viewed strategic relations in the Arab and Islamic worlds as a series of discrete problems and challenges to be dealt with on bilateral or trilateral bases.


When Israel and France Broke Up
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Gary J. Bass - (Opinion) March 31, 2010 - 12:00am

IN the face of rising tensions between the United States and Israel over housing construction in East Jerusalem, the Obama administration has rushed to reassert what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently called the “unshakable bond” between the two countries. No doubt, that relationship rests on enduring foundations, including broad American public sympathy for a besieged democracy, a mutual strategic interest in resisting Arab extremism and a sense of moral duty to preserve the Jewish people after the Holocaust.

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PNA approves 3.9-bln-USD budget for 2010
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 30, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) cabinet on Monday approved its budget for 2010, which amounts to 3.9 billion U.S. dollars. The cabinet, which is chaired by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, said in a statement after it held its weekly meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah that around 50 percent of the PNA budget was devoted to the Gaza Strip, ruled since 2007 by the Islamic Hamas movement, President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party's rival.

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US judge to reconsider ruling in terror case
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
March 30, 2010 - 12:00am

A federal appeals court said a judge must hear arguments on whether the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority can be forced to pay more than $116 million for a Hamas terrorist attack that killed a US citizen and his wife. The 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals said US District Judge Ronald Lagueux in Rhode Island should have taken more factors into account before deciding last May to uphold the default judgment against the PLO and the Palestinian Authority. The court sent the case back to Lagueux for more arguments.

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Ministers Reaffirm Jerusalem Stance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - March 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Senior Israeli ministers have publicly rejected American demands for curbs on building in Jewish areas of East Jerusalem and other concessions to the Palestinians, indicating no imminent end to the rift between Israel and the United States. Benny Begin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner cabinet — which has met twice since Mr. Netanyahu returned from Washington last week — said Monday on Israel Radio that the status of East Jerusalem should be resolved in direct negotiations with the Palestinians, not in advance.

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