U.S. Backers of Israel Pressure Obama Over Policy on Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Mark Landler - March 3, 2012 - 1:00am

WASHINGTON — On the eve of a crucial visit to the White House by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, that country’s most powerful American advocates are mounting an extraordinary public campaign to pressure President Obama into hardening American policy toward Iran over its nuclear program.

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The campaign against JNF is misplaced
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Russell Robinson - (Opinion) March 2, 2012 - 1:00am

The Jewish National Fund plants trees, builds a nation and unifies a people. As a child growing up in a small town in Texas, I dropped my coins in the Blue Box in Hebrew school. My parents and grandparents raised me on the importance and the power of the Blue Box. My grandfather would say to me, “If only we had been stronger and more unified, we could have bought more land and had a place for 6 million Jews to go home to.”

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Calm Israel, Contain Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Barbara Slavin - (Analysis) March 2, 2012 - 1:00am

Foreign policy experts and politicians will be scrutinizing US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week for signs of disagreement as they sequentially address the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington. Will Obama sound sufficiently hawkish to placate the audience at the annual conclave of the Israel lobby, or will he leave a gap that will frustrate some Israeli supporters and be exploited by US Republican presidential candidates?

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Netanyahu and Obama play high-stakes poker over Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - (Opinion) March 2, 2012 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming trip to Washington will be the most important one in his long career as ambassador, politician and national leader. On Monday, Netanyahu will meet President Barack Obama in the White House for a game of diplomatic poker, where the greatest gamble of all will be right on the table: an attack on Iran's nuclear installations. Each of the two players will try to push the other to act. Netanyahu would prefer to see the American superpower, with its vast range of military capabilities, pulverize Iran's nuclear project.

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Israel is becoming a footnote in the eyes of the U.S.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yoel Marcus - (Opinion) March 2, 2012 - 1:00am

1. President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will both be visiting Washington at the same time. Each of them will speak separately with U.S. President Barack Obama, each of them will march proudly on red carpets, and journalists will swoop down on them separately or together. They will be interviewed on television, and Sara Netanyahu will be a star with her finery and her smiles. Although we didn't win the Oscar, there's no question that we are gradually managing to become a footnote in the eyes of the U.S. administration.

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War talk on Iran forces the issue: Is Israel a formal US ally?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
(Editorial) March 2, 2012 - 1:00am

According to polls, Americans remain wary of supporting the idea of either Israel or the United States – or both together – attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities. Perhaps one reason for this hesitancy is the fact that Israel, in a historic choice to rely on itself for defense, has never become an official US ally. America has no treaty obligation to come to Israel’s defense as it does with many countries in Europe and Asia. This little-known fact may loom large in a meeting Monday between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Israel on a dangerous course
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) March 2, 2012 - 1:00am

President Barack Obama appears likely to win a second term since his Republican competitors seem, if nothing else, hopelessly disjointed. Regrettably, however, he remains treading softly on the Middle East, obviously fearing that any pronouncement on any of the key issues in this region — Iran, Syria, Israel and the Palestinians — might tip the balance against him in the nine months before the presidential election, in November.

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U.S. has military plan should Iran conflict erupt, says air force chief
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
March 1, 2012 - 1:00am

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz said Wednesday that Washington has prepared military options to strike Iran's nuclear sites should conflict erupt, Bloomberg reported. Just four days before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's scheduled meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington, Schwartz told reporters that military options are being prepared in the event of a conflict. “What we can do, you wouldn’t want to be in the area,” Bloomberg quoted Schwartz as telling reporters in Washington on Wednesday.

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Jerusalem, Washington, and the Iranian bomb
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ari Shavit - (Opinion) March 1, 2012 - 1:00am

The view from Washington: We went into an unnecessary, awful war in Iraq. We're in a complicated, depressing war in Afghanistan. Our economy is finally beginning to recover from the worst crisis it has known since World War II. In November we have elections. So we don't have the slightest intention of doing anything that could entangle us in a third war and a renewed economic recession. By no means will we attack Iran and we won't let Israel attack either. By no means will we impose a maritime blockade on Iran or collapse its central bank.

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For Obama and Netanyahu, Wariness on Iran Will Dominate Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - March 1, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Nearly four years ago, when Senator Barack Obama was running for president and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was head of the opposition, they met here in what aides described as a warm atmosphere. President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the Oval Office last July, will meet again on Monday. “Senator,” Mr. Netanyahu said to Mr. Obama, “as president, many things will cross your desk, but the most important, by far, will be stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.”

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