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

Six Big Lies about How Jerusalem Runs Washington
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) March 21, 2012 - 12:00am

Several years after leaving government, I wrote a piece in the Washington Post titled "Israel's Lawyer." The article was an honest effort to explain how several senior officials in U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration (myself included) had a strong inclination to see the Arab-Israeli negotiations through a pro-Israel lens. That filter played a role -- though hardly the primary one -- in the failure of endgame diplomacy, particularly at the ill-fated Camp David summit in July 2000.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Warns of Retaliation if Israel or U.S. Strikes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Emily Alpert, Ramin Mostaghim - March 20, 2012 - 12:00am

REPORTING FROM TEHRAN -- Iran will strike back with equal force if the United States or Israel attacks it over its nuclear program, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned in an address from the eastern city of Mashhad in observance of Nowruz, the Persian new year. "The holy Koran states that if an enemy attacks you first, the enemy will certainly be defeated," he said. “This is divine law. We are not thinking of attacks and aggression, but we are attached to the existence and identity of the Islamic republic."

Peter Beinart calls for a ‘Zionist BDS,’ but he’s not finding many takers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - (Opinion) March 20, 2012 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Should Jews shun other Jews? And should they shun Jews who call on Jews to shun other Jews? Peter Beinart’s call in Monday’s New York Times for a boycott of goods manufactured in West Bank settlements reignited a debate not just about what works and doesn’t when it comes to advancing a two-state solution, but also about what should and should not be said during the debate. Beinart, a journalist and essayist whose book “The Crisis of Zionism” is about to come out, tried to cast his call in pro-Israel terms.

Answering My Critics on Zionist BDS
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Peter Beinart - (Blog) March 20, 2012 - 12:00am

My New York Times op-ed proposing that American Jews boycott the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) and instead spend their money inside the green line has prompted three basic right-wing critiques. (There are plenty of left-wing ones too, but I’ll have to answer them later).

J Street Hopes To Return Focus to Peace at Annual Conference
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - (Opinion) March 20, 2012 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON — As J Street, the self-styled pro-peace, pro-Israel lobby, opens its annual conference this year, it does so at a time of unparalleled growth for the group, and serious setbacks for its cause. With talk of war with Iran dominating Israeli–American discourse, the dovish lobby is working hard to return the Palestinian issue to center stage.

The Curse of the Straw Man: Reflections on How we Argue About Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Shalom Hartman Institute
by Tal Becker - (Analysis) March 20, 2012 - 12:00am

What would we do without the straw man, without the ability to make a caricature of the position we want to argue against? How many op-eds, debates and political speeches count on the ability to present a dumbed-down version of the position we contest, and then revel in knocking it down?

Iran already started a war, a cold one between Israel, U.S.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Sefi Rachlevsky - (Opinion) March 20, 2012 - 12:00am

Who said the home front isn't protected? People who have spoken in recent years with Defense Minister Ehud Barak know he's well aware of the suggestion that he take care of two things before a war with Iran: The return of Gilad Shalit and the sale of his home in the luxury Akirov Towers.

When 'pro-Israel' means comparing Israel to the Nazis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Blog) March 20, 2012 - 12:00am

Question: What do you call a foreign-based activist organization which compares Israeli security policies to those of Nazi extermination camps? What do you call a not-for-profit organization that denounces Israel for its policies in Jerusalem's holiest shrine, voicing outrage that the devout endure humiliation, discrimination, draconian bars to religious expression, oppressive denial of access to holy sites, physical mistreatment, enforced thirst, arrests and beatings at the hands of Israeli police?

Does America and Iran's mutual mistrust mean war is inevitable?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Edward Stourton - (Opinion) March 19, 2012 - 12:00am

n late 2004, in an atmosphere of frenzied speculation about war with Iran, Jack Straw - then Britain's Foreign Secretary - told the BBC that military action was "inconceivable." "If I'd not done so, in my view we would have been involved in a firestorm inside the Labour government." For the United States and Britain had recently invaded Iraq. "It was impossible for any British government, but particularly a Labour government given what had happened in Iraq, to contemplate or have any dalliance with the idea of military action in Iran," he now recalls.

U.S. War Game Sees Perils of Israeli Strike Against Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Mark Mazzetti, Tom Shanker - March 19, 2012 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON — A classified war simulation held this month to assess the repercussions of an Israeli attack on Iran forecasts that the strike would lead to a wider regional war, which could draw in the United States and leave hundreds of Americans dead, according to American officials. The officials said the so-called war game was not designed as a rehearsal for American military action — and they emphasized that the exercise’s results were not the only possible outcome of a real-world conflict.

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