A New Plan for Mideast?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Khaleej Times
by Claude Salhani - (Opinion) May 14, 2009 - 12:00am

There has been much chatter in recent days that Middle East peacemakers are on the verge of a major breakthrough with some predicting that there may be an announcement when Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanhayu comes to Washington on May 18 to meet with President Barack Obama.

»

Obama To Offer Broader Regional Thaw for Israeli Nod to Statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - May 13, 2009 - 12:00am

President Obama will seek to revive the moribund Middle East peace process in his first official meeting with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, offering a new regional initiative that aims to bridge increasing differences between the new governments in Washington and Jerusalem. The new approach takes the 2002 Arab peace initiative another step forward by making clear that normal ties between Israel and the wider Arab world need not await the end of negotiations on the Palestinian issue.

»

Obama’s Jewish Backers May Be in the Middle as U.S.-Israel Tensions Rise
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - May 13, 2009 - 12:00am

As tension builds between the new Obama administration in Washington and the new Netanyahu government in Jerusalem, two of President Obama’s closest Jewish allies may find themselves increasingly in the middle. Lee Rosenberg, who campaigned on behalf of Obama, was confirmed as president-elect of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee at its recent national conference. And Alan Solow, an early Obama supporter, was recently elected chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

»

Will Netanyahu lead or be dragged in Washington?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gidi Grinstein - (Opinion) May 12, 2009 - 12:00am

On October 23, 1998, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed the Wye River Memorandum, thus bringing about the end of his first government. He did this with his own mouth: After being perceived as undermining the Oslo Accords, and after declared that any withdrawal from more than nine percent of the West Bank would harm Israel's security, he ratified the acccords and sought a 13-percent withdrawal. His term was rife with conflicts with the United States president, and he made both the right and left heartily sick of him. A decade later, Netanyahu is at a similar juncture.

»

An Agenda for Mr. Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
(Editorial) May 11, 2009 - 12:00am

President Obama has set clear and appropriate priorities ahead of the visit to Washington on May 18 by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Speaking to Jewish-American activists last week, Vice President Joseph Biden conceded, “You’re not going to like my saying this,” and then he laid out the administration’s list.

»

Michael Oren, Ambassador, or, this is how the occupation ends
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) May 11, 2009 - 12:00am

I was reading an Etgar Keret book of gently hallucinatory short stories when I got the news. It fit right in. The Foreign Minister, who was now Avigdor Lieberman - himself nothing if not an Etgar Keret invention - had approved the choice of Michael Oren as Israel's next ambassador to Washington.

»

Taboo broken in US Middle East offensive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Harvey Morris - May 10, 2009 - 12:00am

A period of high-level diplomacy on the Middle East opens in New York on Monday, promising further insights into an emerging strategy from Barack Obama’s administration that is already raising concerns among Israel’s supporters. On Monday, King Abdullah of Jordan said the US was promoting a “57-state solution” in which the entire Muslim world would recognise Israel. But he also warned that the new US administration had little time, before fresh violence erupted, to promote a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

»

Jerusalem worried over breakdown of U.S.-Israel cooperation under Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn, Barak Ravid - May 8, 2009 - 12:00am

Senior officials in Jerusalem expressed concern recently over the sharp decline in the coordination between Israel and the United States on security and state affairs since President Barack Obama's entered the White House and especially since the formation of Israel's new government. Senior White House officials told their Israeli counterparts that Obama will demand Netanyahu completely suspend construction in the settlements, the officials said.

»

Good cop, bad cop
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yitzhak Benhorin - (Analysis) May 8, 2009 - 12:00am

Under the auspices of AIPAC’s annual conference this week, we got the first hints as to what is going through the minds of President Obama and his aides. At a time when Pakistan is burning and the economy is slumping, White House officials went to great lengths in order to free up precious time for three meetings between Peres and the American president, his VP Joe Biden, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

»

ATFP Senior Fellow Debates Israeli Diplomat on LA Public Radio
Interview with - - December 31, 1969 - 8:00pm

President Obama met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House this morning, seeking to ease tension between the United States and Israel. Diplomatic relations strained after Vice President Biden’s trip to Israel was upstaged by the announcement of new settlements in Gaza in March, and were further complicated by the Israeli military’s raid on a flotilla carrying people and aid to Gaza in May. Beyond a photo op, what did the two leaders accomplish? Has Israel insinuated a new tone toward Palestinians?

»


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