Netanyahu due for May 20 White House talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 5, 2011 - 12:00am

President Barack Obama will host Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Oval Office talks on May 20, with the stalled Middle East peace process expected to top the agenda. "The leaders look forward to discussing the full range of issues of mutual interest to the United States and Israel," the White House said in a statement.

»

Jordan says U.S. role fundamental to revive peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
May 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Jordanian foreign minister said Tuesday the United States plays a major role in pushing the peacemaking efforts forward and pressuring Israel to stop unilateral measures to resume the peace talks with the Palestinians, the state-run Petra news agency reported. At a meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh said the regional developments should not divert the attention away from the Israeli-Palestinian issue, which is the core issue in the region.

»

Survey of Campus BDS Finds Few Serious Cases
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Josh Nathan-Kazis - May 4, 2011 - 12:00am

An Israeli diplomat issued a stark warning to a roomful of Jewish communal professionals at a major Jewish convention last fall. The campaign to impose boycotts, divestment and sanctions on Israel, he said, amounts to putting “a practical warhead on the tip of an ideological rocket.”

»

Jewish Dems: Don’t let Hamas-Fatah prevent peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
May 4, 2011 - 12:00am

The National Jewish Democratic Council counseled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to use the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation to back down from peacemaking.

»

Obama must bring his daring to Israeli-Palestinian peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) May 3, 2011 - 12:00am

The value of yesterday's assassination of Osama bin Laden is more symbolic than practical. The Al-Qaida leader has influenced events around the world more than anyone else in the past decade. He ordered the attacks of September 11, 2001, which led to the American military intervention in Afghanistan and indirectly led to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

»

US court case: Is Jerusalem part of Israel?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
May 2, 2011 - 12:00am

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal over whether an American born in Jerusalem can have Israel listed as his birthplace on his passport even though US policy does not recognize the once-divided city as belonging to Israel. The court said Monday it will review an appeals court ruling against Jerusalem-born Menachem Zivotofsky and his parents. They filed a lawsuit after State Department officials refused to list Israel as his birthplace.

»

Op-Ed: Reform’s nomination of Jacobs means a victory for J Street
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Carol Greenwald - (Opinion) May 2, 2011 - 12:00am

The nomination of Rabbi Richard Jacobs to head the Union for Reform Judaism is the latest coup for J Street. Less than three years after its founding, a member of J Street's rabbinic cabinet is being appointed to head the largest branch of American Judaism. With the nominee to head the Reform movement supporting the goals and visions of J Street, it will be impossible for mainstream American Jewry to continue to marginalize J Street and its profoundly anti-Israel positions.

»

Obama and 'the Jewish lobby of one'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) April 29, 2011 - 12:00am

Among the most durable pieces of conventional wisdom circulating in Washington these days is that President Obama would never risk a confrontation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (when he comes to town in May) out of fear of angering Israel's supporters in America a year before the U.S. presidential election. The notion that domestic politics and the pro-Israel community hold the president's Middle East policy hostage seems to bind Washington like a hard-and-fast political law of gravity. The only problem is it's dead wrong and dangerous.

»

Our Kind of Realism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Aluf Benn - (Opinion) April 26, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, asserts rightly that in view of the current political upheaval, America has no better or more trustworthy friend in the Middle East than Israel. Looking at the region's strategic map, one sees mostly instability and uncertainty. Who is going to rule Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia five years ahead? What will happen in Iraq if and when U.S. forces leave? And will Iran prevail as the new regional superpower under its current leadership, or will it go through regime change and return to the pro-Western camp?

»

Peres hands Obama letter from Pollard
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
April 26, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli President Shimon Peres handed President Obama a letter from Jonathan Pollard pleading for his release. "I write to implore you, Mr. President, in the wake of numerous calls by senior American officials urging you to commute my sentence to time served, and in light of the official request by Prime Minister Netanyahu, to please send me home to Israel now, in time to celebrate my first Passover in freedom in 26 years," said the April 1 letter, Pollard's first direct communication with an American president.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017