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

Panetta is right to criticise Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
(Editorial) December 5, 2011 - 1:00am

It is rare for a US Secretary of Defence to rebuke Israel in any way at all, and even rarer to do so publicly. So it was very welcome to hear Leon Panetta criticise Benjamin Netanyahu's government for its increasing isolation in the Arab world, and its failure to do more to restart peace talks. We have to hope that this new tone from the Defence Department is also reflected in the thinking of the State Department, but that remains unlikely, since the White House rarely succeeds in getting these two behemoths to coordinate their ideas.

U.S. Jews, use your influence to stop Israeli incitement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) December 5, 2011 - 1:00am

An uproar in the "holy city" of New York. An Israeli Absorption Ministry campaign - using the slogan "Before Hanukkah turns into Christmas, it's time to return to Israel" - has convulsed the offices of Jewish professionals in the city. How dare those Israeli beggars patronize us? Who has ever heard of such chutzpah: delegitimizing Jews in America?

Israeli ministers criticize remarks attributed to Clinton about Israeli democracy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Associated Press - December 4, 2011 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Israeli Cabinet ministers on Sunday criticized Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton over remarks attributed to her in which she expressed concerns over Israel’s democracy. Clinton made the comments at a closed-door session over the weekend at the Saban Forum, a Mideast policy seminar sponsored by the Brookings Institution think tank.

After American Jewish Outcry, Israel Ends Ad Campaign Aimed at Expatriates
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - December 2, 2011 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — One video advertisement shows a Jewish elderly couple distraught that their Israeli granddaughter in the United States thinks Hanukkah is Christmas. Another shows a clueless American boyfriend who does not get why his Israeli expatriate girlfriend is saddened on Israel’s memorial day. A third shows a toddler calling “Daddy! Daddy!” to his napping Israeli expatriate father, who finally awakens when the child switches to Hebrew: “Abba!”

Israel Faces $250 Million Slash in Aid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - December 2, 2011 - 1:00am

Washington — The failure of the supercommittee appointed by Congress to reach a deficit-reduction deal on the federal budget could cost Israel a cool $250 million a year. For the first time in decades, Israel could be facing a reduction in United States aid, due to automatic across-the-board budget cuts scheduled to take effect in January 2013 as a result of the supercommittee’s failure.

Defense Chief Says Israel Must Mend Arab Ties
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Tom Shanker - December 2, 2011 - 1:00am

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta spoke sternly on Friday to America’s closest ally in the Middle East, telling Israel that it is partly responsible for its increasing isolation and that it now must take “bold action” — diplomatic, not military — to mend ties with its Arab neighbors and settle previously intractable territorial disputes with the Palestinians.

At last, ‘Occupation Zionists’ and Israel-loathing U.S. Jews can agree
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Blog) November 29, 2011 - 1:00am

We're a people that can appreciate nasty, us Jews. Chalk it up to survivor guilt or oppressor guilt, put it down to a legacy of Talmudic and tribal disputation, to a legacy of abuse, or to a tradition of stand-up, the evidence is clear: Two Jews, Three Zingers – barbed, caustic, and intentionally so.

Republicans and Israel: Too much love can kill you
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chemi Shalev - (Opinion) November 28, 2011 - 1:00am

In the first Gulf War in 1991 and once again in the war against Iraq in 2003, Israel was asked by the U.S. administration to maintain a “low profile," in order to avoid the perception that America was fighting with Israel, or on its behalf. Both George Bushes, senior and junior, considered it prudent to relegate Israel to the sidelines – even when it was under direct attack, as was the case in 1991 - in order to help establish international coalitions and to maintain public support for the war, especially in the Muslim world. In both cases, Israel complied.

Israel apologizes for treatment of NYT journalist
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
(Analysis) November 28, 2011 - 1:00am

Israel's Defense Ministry apologized Monday for the treatment of a pregnant American news photographer who said she was strip searched and humiliated by Israeli soldiers during a security check. Lynsey Addario, who was on assignment for the New York Times, had requested that she not be forced to go through an X-ray machine as she entered Israel from the Gaza Strip because of concerns for her unborn baby.

StandWithUs Draws Line on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - November 27, 2011 - 1:00am

Washington — A decade ago, during the height of the second intifada, Roz Rothstein, a family therapist and child of Holocaust survivors, watched the news coming from Israel from her home in Los Angeles with growing frustration. Feeling that Israel was not getting the backing it deserved in the United States, she and her husband, Jeremy, set up their own small group, with a stated mission of “supporting people around the world who want to educate others about Israel.”

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