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

Obama Sees ’67 Borders as Starting Point for Peace Deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Stefanie Marsh, Steven Lee Myers - May 19, 2011 - 12:00am

President Obama, seeking to capture a moment of epochal change in the Arab world, began a new effort on Thursday to break the stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, setting out a new starting point for negotiations on the region’s most intractable problem.

Netanyahu Responds Icily to Obama Remarks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - May 19, 2011 - 12:00am

President Obama’s endorsement on Thursday of using the 1967 boundaries as the baseline for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute — the first by an American president — prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to push back testily and the Palestinian leadership to call an urgent meeting.

Obama’s Mideast peace gaffe
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jackson Diehl - (Opinion) May 19, 2011 - 12:00am

President Obama’s State Department speech Thursday has prompted a fevered debate among Middle East policy wonks about whether he has changed past U.S. policy on the terms for Palestinian statehood — not to mention a wave of inflated and mostly erroneous rhetoric from Republican presidential candidates. The basic question is this: By saying that a division of territory between Israel and Palestine should be “based on” the “1967 lines” between Israel and the West Bank, with agreed “swaps” of land, did Obama move beyond the previous U.S. position on the subject?

State Department statement separates J’lem from Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - May 19, 2011 - 12:00am

On the eve of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s trip to Washington, the State Department issued a bland announcement of a visit to the region by US Deputy Secretary of State, James Steinberg, in which it distinguished between Israel, Jerusalem and the West Bank. In a “media note” to the press on Wednesday, the State Department released a two paragraph statement on “Deputy Secretary Steinberg’s visit to Israel, Jerusalem and the West Bank.” The wording, however, led some to wonder: Isn’t Jerusalem inside Israel, and does this odd wording presage a subtle change of US policy?

The speech that signals a Washington-J'lem collision
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - May 19, 2011 - 12:00am

US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu seemed on a collision course following Obama’s speech Thursday night where the president called for a return to the 1967 lines, with mutually agreed-upon land swaps. Netanyahu’s position, which he highlighted in an unexpectedly negative response to the president’s speech, is that the 1967 lines are indefensible.

Focus Is on Obama as Tensions Soar Across Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Helene Cooper - May 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Few game-changing proposals are emerging to defuse tensions in the Middle East as a busy week of diplomacy unfolds with President Obama’s address to the region and his meeting with Israel’s prime minister. Against the backdrop of Middle East uprisings that have intensified animus toward Israel and growing momentum for global recognition of a Palestinian state, American and Israeli officials are struggling to balance national security interests against the need to adapt to a transformative movement in the Arab world.

PREVIEW-Peace prospects bleak for Netanyahu U.S. visit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Jeffrey Heller - May 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu goes to Washington on Friday to rally opposition to a Palestinian bid for U.N. recognition of statehood. There is little indication the right-wing leader will, or can, offer new peacemaking ideas to persuade Palestinians not to take a detour at the U.N. General Assembly in September around the brick wall that the U.S. peace efforts have run into.

Washington Watch: Is Israel drifting out of focus?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by D. Bloomfield - (Opinion) May 18, 2011 - 12:00am

When AIPAC convenes what it boasts will be another record-setting gathering of the faithful next week at the Washington Convention Center, some of the lobby’s most valuable assets will be locked out. The usual sources will again proclaim the lobby’s power, but none so convincingly as its adversaries. The seemingly endless parade of AIPAC-haters who bloat the blogosphere are invaluable to enhancing the lobby’s aura – and stimulate AIPAC’s donors and delegates.

Obama's Arab-Israeli Options
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
May 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Introduction The Arab uprisings that have swept the Middle East touched Israel directly for the first time, as an unprecedented wave of Palestinian protesters charged toward Israel's borders from four directions on Sunday. With President Obama set to give a major speech on the Middle East on Thursday and with the departure of George Mitchell, the chief United States envoy to the Israelis and Palestinians, the White House is facing new challenges on both sides in dealing with the impasse in peace talks .

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