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

Top pro-Israel figures dismiss claim that Obama is bullying Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Greg Sargent - (Blog) June 15, 2011 - 12:00am

It’s the latest chapter in the right’s Obama-hates-Israel storyline: A top Obama adviser allegedly told Jewish leaders on a private conference call that the administration is pressuring Israel to negotiate with the Palestinians in a manner that’s at odds with Obama’s public position on the conflict. But I’ve now spoken to two major figures in the Jewish community who were on the call — both of whom are widely regarded to have impeccable pro-Israel credentials — and they tell me that the claim is false.

Alleged 'spy' in Egypt is US citizen, IDF paratrooper
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz - June 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Ilan Grapel, the alleged Mossad agent arrested on Sunday in Egypt, is an American citizen who served in the IDF Paratrooper’s Brigade during the Second Lebanon War and interned last summer at the Israeli Supreme Court. Grapel, originally from New York, moved to Israel after graduating from John Hopkins University in the US and enlisted in the IDF.

With Netanyahu, the world is always against us
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) June 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu really is no man's fool. Why should he miss a rare opportunity to remind the people of Israel that the world is against us and that we have to "join hands" in the struggle against delegitimization?

Choose wisely, Mr. Prime Minister
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Colette Avital - (Opinion) June 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Israelis were glued to their televisions last month, listening to a torrent of eloquent speeches from Washington, DC. With his rich language, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu won over both houses of Congress – which couldn’t seem to cheer loudly enough – as well as his hard-Right base at home. Most Israelis, however, were left cold. When you’ve lived with an unresolved, violent conflict for this long, the cheers of Congress do not help. What matters is that we find a way to get past rhetoric and take our country’s future back into our own hands.

How about an Arab lobby?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Aijaz Zaka Syed - (Opinion) June 10, 2011 - 12:00am

Pundits are still debating Benjamin Netanyahu's little circus in US Congress. And it seems it's not just us, distant observers and sympathisers of the Palestinians who were appalled by the US lawmakers repeatedly throwing themselves at the Israeli premier's feet. Many a US commentator has been troubled by the craven subservience and sycophancy of their politicians. The lawmakers cheered even when the ‘guest' standing in the highest body in the land continually derided their president and rubbed his nose in.

Israel, White House send signals on new peace talks plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Yahoo News
by Laura Rozen - June 10, 2011 - 12:00am

In a call with Jewish leaders today, new White House Middle East adviser Steve Simon laid out the state of play in the current U.S. effort to re-launch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks along the principles President Obama laid out in a series of speeches last month. According to notes from the call provided to The Envoy, the United States has received a mostly positive response to the U.S. proposal from the Palestinians and the Europeans, but is still waiting to see whether Israel will accept the framework for negotiations.

The Republicans Heart Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Eric Alterman - (Opinion) June 8, 2011 - 12:00am

When a group of student radicals took over the Columbia University administration building in 1968, they issued a series of demands having to do with university policies. The administration wisely ignored these demands, however, because it understood that, in actuality, they were not terribly relevant to the problem it had on its hands. As radical student leader Mark Rudd had explained even then, these were mere excuses for the group’s violent power grab.

Preventing Israel’s final solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Osama Al-Sharif - (Opinion) June 7, 2011 - 12:00am

This year’s marking of the anniversaries of Al-Nakba, the birth of Israel on usurped Palestinian land, and Al-Naksa, the Six-Day War which resulted in the occupation of the remainder of historical Palestine by Israel, have underlined one clear fact; that 63 years since the creation of Israel and 44 years after the fall of Jerusalem and other territories, the Palestinians have not given up on their rights. It’s an important element in the ever-evolving conflict which remains unresolved to this day.

Netanyahu’s conundrum
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Times
by Arnaud De Borchgrave - (Opinion) June 7, 2011 - 12:00am

When a joint session of the U.S. Congress gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 29 standing ovations - four more than President Obama received for his last State of the Union message - there was little doubt that Israel is an integral part of the American body politic. It was a hard-line speech by an Israeli on the right of the Israeli spectrum that firmly rejected Mr. Obama's proposal for Mideast peace: The pre-1967 war frontier with minor land swaps for both sides.

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