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

Peter Beinart's Big Zionist Experiment
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Gal Beckerman - (Book Review) March 29, 2012 - 12:00am

The Crisis of Zionism By Peter Beinart Times Books, 304 pages, $26

The Ghost of Conferences Past
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Elisheva Goldberg, Raphael Magarik - (Opinion) March 29, 2012 - 12:00am

The left of the American Jewish world likes to complain about how hard it is to be pro-peace and pro-Israel. At the J Street conference this weekend, I ran into an older rabbi who reminded me that, well, it could be a whole lot worse. Before U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis embraced Zionism and legitimized the American call for a Jewish homeland in Palestine, it was tough to be a Zionist in America, AP Photo

Israel's plan to attack Iran put on hold until next year at the earliest
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amir Oren - (Opinion) March 29, 2012 - 12:00am

At 8:58 P.M. on Tuesday, Israel's 2012 war against Iran came to a quiet end. The capricious plans for a huge aerial attack were returned to the deep recesses of safes and hearts. The war may not have been canceled but it has certainly been postponed. For a while, at least, we can sound the all clear: It won't happen this year. Until further notice, Israel Air Force Flight 007 will not be taking off.

Open Letter to Peter Beinart: Boycotting the settlements will not save the two-state solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) March 28, 2012 - 12:00am

Dear Peter Beinart, I read your book The Crisis of Zionism with as much interest as I read your New York Review of Books Essay two years ago. Both struck a deep chord in me, because you and I share a set of basic values: ethical universalism and a firm belief that the lesson of Jewish history and Jewish suffering is that only an uncompromising defense of human rights for everybody, anywhere, can prevent the type of horrors that the Jewish people went through.

Peter Beinart's problematic 'Zionist BDS' proposal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Jane Eisner - (Opinion) March 28, 2012 - 12:00am

Peter Beinart deserves credit for continually testing how big the Jewish tent really is. His new and controversial proposal for a targeted boycott of products from Israeli settlements in the contested West Bank is only the latest case in point. The tent is a euphemism for acceptable discourse in the often fractious conversation about Israel among American Jews. We don't merely argue about the fraught issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We argue about who has the right to argue about it.

J Street Swims Upstream in Election Year
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - March 28, 2012 - 12:00am

Washington — In this election year, even liberal Democrats are seeking to protect their flanks by touting hawkish credentials on Israel. For J Street, the dovish pro-Israel lobby whose annual Washington conference wrapped up recently, that makes 2012 a year for swimming upstream. The group is targeting its message where it believes it will have the most impact: Jewish Democrats who support President Obama.

What’s the capital of Israel? Don’t ask the U.S. State Department
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - March 28, 2012 - 12:00am

The status of Jerusalem has long been a controversial issue – even in the U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland echoed that fact this week while answering a question about Israel's capital. Earlier this week, the Department of State issued a routine statement announcing the visit of the Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Kathleen Stephens to the Middle East. The statement said that Stephens was "to meet with a broad cross-section of government officials, students, NGOs, and exchange program alumni".

Jesus for Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Shmuel Rosner - (Opinion) March 28, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Last week on Monday morning, in the busy dining room of the Inbal hotel, Tim Burt, an associate pastor at Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, told me a story of mistrust. Several years ago, his church held its first “Night to Honor Israel” — an opportunity, said Burt, for Christians “to demonstrate their love and support for Israel and the Jewish people.”

A settlement boycott can work
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) March 27, 2012 - 12:00am

Peter Beinart’s recent call in the New York Times for Jewish Americans to boycott Israeli settlement goods has been met with angry responses from many Jewish Americans. This includes some who are opposed to the settler movement. The most important of these objections hold that a boycott cannot work because Jewish Americans won’t go along with such a program and there isn’t much to boycott anyway. Both arguments hold little water.

Israelis Fear Blame For US-Iran War
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Barbara Slavin - (Opinion) March 27, 2012 - 12:00am

A thread of anxiety ran through a conference of liberal American Jews and Israelis Sunday [March 25]. The worry: that Israel would bear the blame for any military confrontation between the United States and Iran. Retired brigadier general Shlomo Brom, a former director of strategic planning for the Israeli Defense Forces General Staff, told an audience at the J-Street convention that he had participated in talks with the George W. Bush administration before it attacked Iraq in 2003.

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