Public Diplomat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Gal Beckerman - August 19, 2010 - 12:00am

A week after Israel’s fatal raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, which left nine dead, Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, appeared on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report.” It was not an easy assignment. Stephen Colbert plays a satirical version of a right-wing television host who regularly and mercilessly mocks his guests. In introducing Oren, he had already feigned sympathy for the raid by saying that it was tragic, but “you can’t make a challah without breaking a few eggs.”

»

Harvard insists Israeli shares sale not driven by boycott
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ewen Macaskill - August 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Harvard University has sold millions of dollars in shares in Israeli companies, a move that it insists is purely financial but which has already been claimed by a pro-Palestinian group as a victory in its boycott and divestment campaign against Israel. Groups sympathetic to the Palestinians have been pressing universities in the US, the UK and elsewhere to end investment in Israel and to boycott Israeli academics.

»

Direct Mideast talks set to resume
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Paul Richter - August 16, 2010 - 12:00am

After months of quiet U.S. diplomacy, Israeli and Palestinian leaders appear poised to announce a resumption of direct peace talks, perhaps as early as this week. Nearly two years after the last round of talks broke off, U.S. and allied officials in recent days cleared the final hurdle by persuading Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to take a seat at the negotiating table, officials say.

»

Israel's Barak approves U.S. F-35 fighters purchase
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ori Lewis - August 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak approved in principle on Sunday the purchase of 20 U.S.-built radar-evading stealth fighters in a deal worth $2.75 billion, defence ministry officials said. The F-35 warplanes are expected to be delivered between 2015 to 2017, an Israeli defence official said. Israeli leaders have spoken of arch-foe Iran potentially developing a nuclear weapon by mid-decade, suggesting that the F-35s would not be used for any preventive action, but rather to bolster the country's deterrence.

»

Netanyahu, the anti-Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by George F. Will - August 12, 2010 - 12:00am

Two photographs adorn the office of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Together they illuminate a portentous fact: No two leaders of democracies are less alike -- in life experiences, temperaments and political philosophies -- than Netanyahu, the former commando and fierce nationalist, and Barack Obama, the former professor and post-nationalist.

»

US officials optimistic about direct talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - August 10, 2010 - 12:00am

The White House's Mideast envoy failed Tuesday to secure Palestinian agreement to go to direct talks with Israel, but U.S. and Palestinian officials said a possible solution to the standoff is emerging. The U.S. has been calling for a speedy resumption of face-to-face negotiations, with officials citing Sept. 1 as a target date.

»

Strategic acumen dictates Abbas' return to direct talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adel Safty - August 9, 2010 - 12:00am

There is something preposterous in the question that seems to characterise the current stage of the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: To talk or not to talk directly. The final settlement of conflicts necessarily requires intense and sustained negotiations between the parties to the conflict. And this intensity and sustainability are evidently lacking in the so-called proximity talks in which the parties relay messages to each other through a third party.

»

Obama Administration Presses Palestinians To Enter Direct Talks With Israel
Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In The Jewish Daily Forward - August 5, 2010 - 12:00am

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley strove hard to hit the right note August 2 in describing the Obama administration’s recent effort to push the Palestinians into direct peace talks with Israel.

»

Obama’s carrots and sticks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Eytan Gilboa - August 4, 2010 - 12:00am

With his policy on the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process currently focusing on exerting massive pressure in a bid to launch direct talks, US President Barack Obama aims to rectify the grave mistakes he made thus far. However, there is no certainty that he drew all the lessons from his failures and from the experience of his predecessors. Obama is determined to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and through this secure a comprehensive solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict. He earmarked this objective as one of the most important ones among his foreign policy’s priorities.

»

Price for a potential Israeli strike on Iran? A Palestinian state.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Robert Dujarric, Andy Zelleke - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am

Against the backdrop of new sanctions on Iran and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upbeat Oval Office visit in July, neither Washington nor Jerusalem can be eager to add another war to the long list of hot and warm conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Korea, and Gaza. But with the American intelligence community judging Iran to be on track to have nuclear weapons within two years, a clash with Tehran may soon be deemed unavoidable – in Jerusalem, if not in Washington.

»


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