Has Support for Israel Hurt U.S. Credibility?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Michele Dunne, Daniel Gordis, Rashid Khalidi, Daoud Kuttab, Richard Land, Aaron David Miller, Dylan J. Williams - (Opinion) August 23, 2012 - 12:00am

he president of Israel is resisting calls for a unilateral strike against Iran, but it’s just the “unilateral” part that he finds troubling: “It is clear to us that we have to proceed together with America.” Even if this is just posturing, the statement shows one reason the U.S. struggles to make allies in the Arab world: Israelis and Arabs alike assume that the U.S. will take a side in Mideast conflicts, and that the U.S. will side with Israel. Are they right?

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Obama’s 2nd term and the Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Uri Savir - (Opinion) August 23, 2012 - 12:00am

In November, we will know if there will be four more years in the White House for the first African-American president, Barack Obama, or if the party of George Bush Sr. and Jr. will succeed in propelling Mitt Romney into the Oval Office. According to recent polls, it seems that while Americans are concerned with the economic situation, unemployment and healthcare costs, they tend to believe, by a margin of 5 percent- 10%, that Obama rescued the American economy after the historic crises of the 2008 recession.

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Ex-AIPAC Flack to Head The Israel Project
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - (Opinion) August 22, 2012 - 12:00am

The Israel Project, one of the country’s fastest-growing pro-Israel advocacy groups, is on the brink of new leadership and a revised set of goals. Founded a decade ago to influence journalists and other media professionals by connecting them with timely, pro-Israel information, The Israel Project announced on August 22 that Josh Block, a former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, will be its new CEO. He will succeed the group’s founder and president, Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, who stepped down earlier this year.

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US Scholars: Designate Israeli Extremists as Terrorists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Laura Rozen - August 22, 2012 - 12:00am

Amid a rising spate of Jewish extremist violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank, two prominent US Middle East scholars are urging the United States to officially designate as terrorists those Israeli extremists who perpetrate terrorist violence against Palestinian civilians, Israeli citizens and even moderate elements of the settler movement.

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U.S., Israeli navies hold joint Med maneuvers in tense times
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 19, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli and American naval counterparts spent the last week holding a joint search-and-rescue exercises in the Mediterranean Sea, which included live fire and seaborne helicopters landings. The "Reliant Mermaid" drill also tested the U.S. Navy's destroyer-mounted Aegis-missile defense system, which, theoretically, could defend Israel against Iranian missiles.

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Gentlemen, America is telling you 'no'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Eitan Haber - (Opinion) August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

Many years ago, the US ambassador to Israel requested an urgent meeting with the defense minister. The ambassador (I'm fairly certain it was Thomas Pickering) sat opposite Yitzhak Rabin, took out a piece of paper from his pocket and read from it.

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Paul Ryan, Meet Dr. Lewis and Mr. Bernard
In Print by Hussein Ibish - The Daily Beast (Opinion) - August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

Mitt Romney's vice presidential nominee pick, Congressman Paul Ryan, doesn't have a lot of foreign policy experience. But neither does Romney himself, nor did President Barack Obama when he was nominated by the Democratic Party four years ago. Romney's selection confirms the conventional wisdom that, barring unforeseen developments, this will be an election almost entirely fought over domestic policy issues, particularly the economy.

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Why the world can't tolerate a preemptive Israeli attack on Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by L. Michael Hager - (Opinion) August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

Now that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program are at an impasse, we are once again hearing that Israel, with or without US participation, is about to bomb Iran.

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Obama's Last Chance Before Israel Bombs Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Benny Morris - (Opinion) August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

There is only one thing that can prevent an Israeli assault on Iran’s nuclear installations before the US presidential elections—and that, short of an attack by America itself, which is seen as extremely unlikely, is an iron-clad guarantee by President Obama that he will destroy the Iranian installations soon after his prospective re-election if the Iranian do not desist under the impact of the ongoing economic sanctions

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Obama Has Been Great for Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Colin H. Kahl - (Opinion) August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

A recent Mitt Romney campaign commercial takes U.S. President Barack Obama to task for not visiting Israel during the first three-and-a-half years of his presidency. The television ad, complete with footage of the former Massachusetts governor thoughtfully contemplating the Western Wall in Jerusalem, declares that Romney "will be a different kind of president -- a strong leader who stands by our allies." A similar spot by the Emergency Committee for Israel, an advocacy group that backs Romney, charges that Obama has "traveled all over the Middle East.

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