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

J Street is like the 'Bizarro World' of AIPAC
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chemi Shalev - (Opinion) March 27, 2012 - 12:00am

The rhetorical question posed in the Book of Amos “would the two go together unless they have agreed” was answered in Washington on Monday night when former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared as the keynote speaker at the gala dinner of the leftist Jewish lobby J Street. Olmert and J Street, after all, have at least two important common denominators: both strongly support a two-state solution and both desperately seek public legitimacy.

A settlement boycott can work
In Print by Hussein Ibish - NOW Lebanon (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.

Jewish Americans Embrace Israeli Leaders, US Identities
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Yedioth Ahronoth
by Sever Plocker - (Opinion) March 27, 2012 - 12:00am

A Jewish American intellectual was interviewed recently and asked how he would respond if Israel would be annihilated — wiped off the map. His answer was, “I would not feel like a complete Jew.” Something would be missing from the fellow’s identity if and when Armageddon comes to the holy land and Israel disappears off the face of the earth.

The Quest for a 'Land for Peace'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Gilad Halpern - (Opinion) March 26, 2012 - 12:00am

It was 1969. Israel had just come jaw-droppingly victorious out of the Six Day War, where it had dealt a swift and fatal blow to three Arab armies and occupied territories that were three times its size. The United Nations Security Council had subsequently passed Resolution 242, which would pave the way to a settlement of the Israeli-Arab conflict, coining the famous phrase "land for peace." Israel was about to see one of the underlying principles of Zionism realized: a Jewish state living in peace with its neighbors.

Justices Decline to Say if Jerusalem-Born Americans Can Claim Israeli Birthplace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by John H. Cushman - March 26, 2012 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday ordered a lower court to decide whether Congress has the authority to allow Americans born in Jerusalem to claim Israel as their birthplace on their passports. The decision postpones resolution of a long-running dispute between Congress and the executive branch over the power to set foreign policy, in this case the highly fraught issue of whether to formally recognize Israel’s claim that Jerusalem is its capital.

Translating U.S. pro-Israel advocacy for Jewish communities abroad—and taking care about context
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - March 25, 2012 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- It takes more than a translator to translate American-style pro-Israel activism for foreign audiences. Nearly a decade after an effort by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to replicate its model overseas collapsed in acrimony, a range of Jewish organizations are helping smaller Diaspora Jewish communities enhance their advocacy. They have found receptive audiences. In recent years, pro-Israel initiatives in a number of countries have taken on a higher profile.

Christians Called To Serve Jewish Settlers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Jeffay - March 25, 2012 - 12:00am

Psagot, West Bank — It is a typical, even stereotypical, West Bank settlement scene: bearded young men pruning vines while enthusing about the Chosen People’s God-given right to this region. But in this case it is Jesus, and not Jewish identity, that animates these tillers. For years, Westerners have flocked to the Israeli-occupied West Bank to help Palestinians with their olive harvest, as part of left-wing activist groups like the International Solidarity Movement. Among other things, the activists seek to resist efforts by settlers to disrupt the Palestinians’ reaping.

Stop the excuses, boycott the settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Lara Friedman - (Opinion) March 25, 2012 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Peter Beinart’s recent New York Times article advocating a settlement boycott has sparked a spectacular public display of Jewish angst. Apparently for many who view themselves as the judges, advocates and juries of what is “kosher” progressive Jewish activism, his suggestion is beyond the pale. They agree that settlements are a problem, even a shonda, but boycott fellow Jews? Heaven forbid. And even if it weren’t Jewishly distasteful, it wouldn’t work anyway, so don’t go there.

An Interview With Jeremy Ben-Ami on Settlements, Beinart, Obama, the Whole Nine Yards By Jeffrey Goldberg
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Atlantic
by Jeffrey Goldberg - (Interview) March 23, 2012 - 12:00am

In what seems to have become an annual tradition here at Goldblog, I interviewed Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder and major domo of J Street, the left-leaning pro-Israel lobbying group, in advance of his organization's annual conference, which takes place in Washington this weekend.

Pieces on the board
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Hirsh Goodman - (Opinion) March 23, 2012 - 12:00am

At the AIPAC conference in Washington earlier this month, US President Barack Obama said that it was time to become more tight-lipped on the Iranian nuclear issue and the military options surrounding it.

Video: Inside ATFP Gala 2013

Photo Gallery: ATFP Gala 2013

Recent News