U.S.-Israel Relations | The American Task Force on Palestine

U.S. Believes Arab States Won’t Scuttle Mideast Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Mark Landler - October 7, 2010 - 12:00am

The Obama administration believes it has persuaded Arab states not to scuttle the fledgling Middle East peace negotiations, officials said Thursday, despite the Israeli government’s refusal to freeze Jewish settlements and a vow by the Palestinians to walk away if Israel did not. With the Arab League’s meeting on Friday expected to deliver a pivotal decision on the future of the talks, the United States has appealed to Jordan and other Arab nations to stop short of pushing the Palestinians to break off the negotiations.

A key back channel for U.S., Israeli ties
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - October 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Dennis Ross, a longtime Middle East expert, has emerged as a crucial, behind-the-scenes conduit between the White House and the Israeli government, working closely with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's private attorney - and also Defense Minister Ehud Barak - to discreetly smooth out differences and disputes between the two governments.

Washington Watch: Israel needs a real foreign minister
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by D. Bloomfield - (Opinion) October 6, 2010 - 12:00am

It appears that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will once more be dragged kicking and screaming to the peace table. In exchange for briefly extending the settlement moratorium, he is expected to get a generous package of American military aid, weapons systems, security guarantees, and political backing for years.

New US consulate to open in west Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Melanie Lidman - October 5, 2010 - 12:00am

After six years of construction, the American Consulate in Jerusalem will open its new facility for consular services on Rehov David Flusser in the southern Arnona neighborhood next Tuesday. The office that previously dealt with consular services, located on Nablus Road in east Jerusalem, will remain open for consulate programs, along with the facility in west Jerusalem on Rehov Agron, and America House, a cultural outreach center in east Jerusalem.

Risks and Advantages in U.S. Effort in Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Mark Landler - October 5, 2010 - 12:00am

When President Obama reopened face-to-face talks between the Israelis and Palestinians last month, he pledged that his administration would hold their hands but warned, “The United States cannot impose an agreement, and we cannot want it more than the parties themselves.” With the negotiations deadlocked over the issue of Jewish settlements, several veterans of Middle East peacemaking said Mr. Obama’s warning had come true — only weeks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, agreed to sit down.

For Netanyahu to accept new freeze, U.S. might have to sweeten the deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Leslie Susser - (Analysis) October 5, 2010 - 12:00am

Following reports of an unprecedented U.S. offer of a host of assurances in return for a 60-day extension of the freeze on building in West Bank settlements, some political analysts are wondering why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not grabbed the deal with both hands. According to the reports, President Obama is offering Netanyahu pledges that the United States will: * Not ask for additional extensions on the partial ban on settlement building, which expired Sept. 26;

Obama faces humiliation over Middle East talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Simon Tisdall - (Opinion) October 4, 2010 - 12:00am

Barack Obama has barely a week to save the Middle East peace process from collapse, only months after he relaunched it amid optimistic predictions that a solution would be reached within a year. The consequences of failure will be serious for the US president; for the region and the wider world, they are potentially disastrous.

Defining 'Jewish state': For many, term has different meanings
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - October 2, 2010 - 12:00am

Nine years ago, then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell delivered a speech on the Middle East in which he briefly called on Palestinians to recognize Israel as a "Jewish state." Powell doesn't recall how the phrase ended up in his speech, but David Ivry, then the Israeli ambassador to the United States, says he persuaded an aide to Powell to slip it in.

Commentary: Instant diplomacy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Press International (UPI)
by Arnaud De Borchgrave - (Analysis) October 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Along with instant coffee, instant soup, instant oven cleaners, instant Viagra, instant pain relief from four-hour Viagra, it was only a matter of time before instant diplomacy made its debut on the nation's comedy channels. Some foreign leaders have concluded American youth -- and many older Americans, too -- have tuned out serious news and tuned in comedians who make fun of everything from the nuclear ambitions of superannuated Iranian mullahs to Osama bin Laden's air-conditioned deluxe cave in the Hindu Kush.

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