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

Parties See Obama’s Israel Policy as Wedge for 2012
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Jackie Calmes, Helene Cooper - May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

Few issues in American politics are as bipartisan as support for Israel. Yet the question of whether President Obama is supportive enough is behind some of the most partisan maneuvering since the Middle East ally was born six decades ago, and that angling has potential ramifications for the 2012 elections.

In speech to Congress, Israel's Netanyahu offers few concessions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Paul Richter - May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a joint session of Congress he was prepared to make "painful compromises" for peace but he offered few of the concessions that President Obama has sought as a way to revive moribund Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Ending a tumultuous five-day visit to Washington, Netanyahu said Tuesday he was willing to give up "parts of the ancestral Jewish homeland" in negotiations to create a separate Palestinian state. But he set requirements that varied only slightly from his previous views, and he did not address many specific Palestinian demands.

Israelis See Netanyahu Trip as Diplomatic Failure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel returned from Washington on Wednesday to a nearly unanimous assessment among Israelis that despite his forceful defense of Israel’s security interests, hopes were dashed that his visit might advance peace negotiations with the Palestinians. One of the widely articulated goals of his trip, where he met with President Obama and addressed Congress, was to find a way to lure the Palestinians back to direct negotiations, thereby preempting their plan to approach the United Nations in September for recognition of statehood within the pre-1967 lines.

Congress applause of Netanyahu 'pathetic'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

The warm reception of the Israeli prime Minister at the US Congress was "pathetic," President Abbas' secretary-general At-Tayyib Abdul-Rahim said Wednesday. Benjamin Netanyahu entered Congress to applause the day before, and received more than 25 standing ovations during a speech in which he ruled out international demands to return to the 1967 borders or share Jerusalem, and called on Mahmoud Abbas to "tear up" the reconciliation agreement his Fatah party signed two weeks ago with rival faction Hamas.

Parsing Netanyahu's Washington talking points
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog
by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israeli Embassy in Washington helpfully sent their allies in Washington a set of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's talking points in relation to his speech in Congress yesterday and to AIPAC at the weekend, which were published by Ben Smith of Politico. They are the following: Netanyahu's vision of peace: 1) Mutual Recognition of the Jewish state and the Palestinian State 2) A Palestinian state that is independent and viable 3) A Palestinian state that will be fully demilitarized, with an Israeli military presence along the Jordan River.

Netanyahu visit deepens Israeli-Palestinian impasse
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg - May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s tumultuous visit to Washington has left Israeli and Palestinian officials facing each other across a deepening abyss, raising concerns that the impasse in peace efforts could prompt a renewed slide to violence. “When all is said and done, the question remains, where do we go from here?” wrote Sima Kadmon, a columnist in Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s most widely read newspaper.

Where Netanyahu fails himself and Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Fareed Zakaria - (Opinion) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

Conventional wisdom is fast congealing in Washington that President Obama was wrong to demarcate a shift in American policy toward Israel last week. In fact, it was Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who broke with the past — in one of a series of diversions and obstacles Netanyahu has come up with anytime he is pressed. He wins in the short run, but ultimately, he is turning himself into a version of Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, “Mr. Nyet,” a man who will be bypassed by history.

As Bibi Slouches Toward September
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward
by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu had ample reason to congratulate himself on a job well done as he headed home from his five-day visit to Washington, D.C. He received thunderous hero’s welcomes from Congress and the pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which greeted him with its biggest-ever display of muscle. All this will serve him well at home. True, he had an ugly head-butt with President Obama at the White House, but this just reinforces his street cred, solidifies his coalition and dispirits his critics.

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