Orly Taitz: Obama policies are 'clear and present danger to Israel'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Benjamin L. Hartman - August 18, 2009 - 12:00am

U.S. President Barack Obama's domestic and foreign policies pose "a clear and present danger to Israel," says the driving force behind the campaign to prove Obama was not born in the United States and therefore ineligible to serve as president.

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Israeli envoy to visit U.S. for settlement freeze negotiation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 17, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's envoy to negotiations with the Obama administration will depart on Sunday for meetings with U.S. officials in an attempt to negotiate a possible future settlement freeze, local daily Ha'aretz reported on its website. Yitzhak Molcho, the envoy, is expected to meet with White House officials and with the staff of U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, preparing the ground for a meeting between Netanyahu and Mitchell that is due to take place on Aug. 26 in London, according to the report.

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Oren navigates waters among Israel, U.S. government and American Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - August 17, 2009 - 12:00am

Tweeted, a diplomat’s job would look something like this: Explain home abroad, explain abroad home. In recent weeks, it’s seemed as if the job description for Israeli envoys would encroach on the 140-character limit: Explain home abroad, explain abroad home, explain Jews abroad home, explain home to Jews abroad, explain, explain, explain. Michael Oren, the new Israeli ambassador to Washington, has had a busy six weeks, and he acknowledges that some of his difficulties have had to do with a debate within his government about whether to even engage with liberal American Jews.

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Israelis sour on Rahm Emanuel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Kenneth P. Vogel - August 17, 2009 - 12:00am

As the Obama administration presses Israel to cease settlement expansion as part of a renewed push for a Middle East peace deal — a course of action that many Israelis have interpreted as evidence of the president’s favoritism towards Palestinians — Israelis have increasingly focused their disappointment not on Obama, but rather on his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

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Obama's America is not delivering the goods
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) August 14, 2009 - 12:00am

With great sorrow and deep consternation, we hereby declare the death of the latest hope. Perhaps rumors of its death are greatly exaggerated, to paraphrase the famous quote by Mark Twain, but the fears are being validated day after day. Barack Obama's America is not delivering the goods. Sharing a glass of beer with a racist cop and a pat on the back of Hugo Chavez are not what we hoped for; wholesale negotiations on freezing settlement construction are also not what we expected.

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Obama is right not to spoil Israel in the same way that Bush did
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) August 14, 2009 - 12:00am

Alarm bells have been ringing around the neighborhood pretty much nonstop since July 13, when President Barack Obama sat down to talk Middle East policy at the White House with a pack of leaders from a dozen American Jewish organizations. The meeting was supposed to help buff up Obama’s relationship with the Jewish community, which is bubbling lately with resentment at the president’s aggressive peace-processing. By reaching out to the community’s customary spokesmen, he hoped to build rapport and perhaps recruit a few backers for his policies.

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Israel toughens entry for foreigners with West Bank ties
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - August 13, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel has recently been putting up more obstacles for foreign nationals who enter the country if they have family, work, business or academic ties in the West Bank. It now restricts their movements to "the Palestinian Authority only." The people concerned are citizens of countries that have diplomatic ties with Israel, mainly Western countries. In imposing such restrictions, Israel is in breach of the Oslo Accords.

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Is Boston consul-general's assessment correct?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Hilary Leila Krieger - August 13, 2009 - 12:00am

Boston Consul-General Nadav Tamir set off a media firestorm last week when he sent a diplomatic cable to the Foreign Ministry warning that the government's public opposition to the Obama administration's policies were diminishing US popular support for Israel and causing American Jews to feel torn between the two countries. Amid the brouhaha, which resulted in Tamir being summoned to Jerusalem, swirling questions of the propriety of drafting such a letter and rampant speculation on who was behind its leaking, a more fundamental issue arises: was Tamir's assessment correct?

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Israel could push too far
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Marwan Al Kabalan - (Opinion) August 13, 2009 - 12:00am

In his last days as US president, George W. Bush seemed almost oblivious to most of the key problems in the Middle East. As a result, during the 75-day interval between the end of his administration and the commencement of Barack Obama's presidency, key regional powers took up the slack and sought to fill the void. Attempts were made through multilateral mediation to reduce the tension that had resulted from the Israeli offensive on Gaza.

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Lieberman urges Boston consul to resign for rebuking Israel policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - August 10, 2009 - 12:00am

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday called on Israel's Consul-General in Boston Nadav Tamir to resign his post over a confidential memo in which he criticized the government for harming ties with the U.S. last week. "Any official who can't abide by policy dictated by the elected government - must resign," Lieberman declared at a Foreign Ministry meeting.

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