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

Israel asks US for $700 million in military aid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ron Ben-Yishai - April 4, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel has asked the United States for assistance estimated at $700 million in order to produce more Iron Dome and Magic Wand missile and rocket defense batteries, sources told Ynet on Wednesday. The Iron Dome is designed to intercept rockets fired from a relatively short range, while the Magic Wand intercepts missiles fired from a range of at least 70km, including cruise missiles and missiles with ballistic warheads such as the Squd, Shihab and Sejil.

Playing the Holocaust card
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) April 4, 2012 - 12:00am

When Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu waved copies of the 1944 exchange of letters between the World Jewish Congress and the Roosevelt State Department and said the United States rejected Jewish pleas to bomb Auschwitz, he was drawing a parallel between the Islamists who rule Iran and the Nazis who controlled Germany seven decades ago. He wanted to leave no doubt about his willingness to attack Iranian nuclear facilities because he is convinced that country is building weapons to carry out its threat to wipe the Jewish state off the map, and he doesn’t care what anyone says.

Israel is not the threat, Mr. Obama. Iran is
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by John Bolton - (Opinion) April 3, 2012 - 12:00am

The Obama administration appears to be conducting an organized campaign of public pressure to stop Israel from attacking Iran’s well-developed nuclear-weapons program. So intense is this effort, and so determined is President Obama to succeed, that administration officials are now leaking highly sensitive information about Israel’s intentions and capabilities into the news media.

Oppose church divestment from Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Noam E. Marans - (Opinion) April 3, 2012 - 12:00am

NEW YORK (JTA) -- As Christians and Jews gather during their respective Easter and Passover holidays, we should recall all that Jews and liberal Protestants in America share and have accomplished together. But pride in the past should not blind us to the danger that this relationship could be derailed by pernicious responses to the Arab-Israeli conflict within certain churches.

The U.S. can meet Israel halfway on Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by David Makovsky, Dennis Ross - (Opinion) April 2, 2012 - 12:00am

Dennis Ross, a counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, was a special assistant to President Obama on the Middle East and a senior director on the National Security Council staff from July 2009 to December 2011. David Makovsky is a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute and director of its Project on the Middle East Peace Process.

J Street's Blind Spot Is Class
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Jay Michaelson - (Opinion) April 2, 2012 - 12:00am

I’m not one for political conventions. Good policy is subtle, but effective politics is broad — and I, for one, prefer the former. When friends of mine returned from the AIPAC conference in early March, inspired by (in the words of one of them) “thousands of Jews all united by a love of Israel,” I felt nauseated. I don’t want to be in a crowd of thousands of people united by anything.

Obama Won’t Pressure Israel If He Wins Second Term
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Peter Beinart - (Opinion) April 2, 2012 - 12:00am

In the wake of President Obama’s “hot mike” admission to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that “after my election, I have more flexibility” to make concessions on missile defense, conservatives are insisting that once sworn in for a second term, Obama will unveil the Michael Moore–esque foreign policy he’s been concealing these last three years. Especially on Israel.

Peter Beinart Targets 'The Crisis of Zionism'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Barbara Slavin - (Interview) April 1, 2012 - 12:00am

In a provocative new book published this week, “The Crisis of Zionism,” Peter Beinart bemoans the trajectory of the State of Israel and of American Jews. His suggestions for saving both include a boycott of products from Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a plan that has aroused a torrent of criticism.

Who Speaks for Israel?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
(Editorial) March 30, 2012 - 12:00am

The back-to-back national policy conferences of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and J Street — the Jewish version of March Madness for Israel advocates — have now concluded. The subtext of these gatherings is a desire to represent American Jewish opinion in the halls of Congress, the inner sanctum of the White House and the broader public square. Are you pro-Israel à la AIPAC? Or in the J Street mold?

Book review: ‘The Crisis of Zionism,’ by Peter Beinart
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Alana Newhouse - (Book Review) March 30, 2012 - 12:00am

Many books have been written on the Israeli-Palestinian struggle — by reporters, elected officials, diplomats, novelists, poets, human rights workers, Nobel laureates and ordinary citizens. But Peter Beinart’s “The Crisis of Zionism” stands out not least for the avalanche of attention it has received even before publication. It is also unusual because it offers little in the way of personal reporting on the Israelis or the Palestinians themselves.

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