March 19th

Israeli settlements threaten world security
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Nathan Gardels - (Interview) March 18, 2010 - 12:00am


Nathan Gardels: Let’s go back to basics. It is clear that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict stands at the center of what motivates so much terrorism against the United States. In this context, the Netanyahu ( Israeli) government’s insistence on expanding settlements – despite President Obama’s high profile promise to stop them in his Cairo speech – does more than undermine US credibility. Isn’t it, fundamentally, against US strategic interests?


Shas Journal: Obama is 'a stone-throwing Palestinian'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yair Ettinger - March 19, 2010 - 12:00am


The official Shas journal "Day to Day" published Thursday an editorial depicting United States President Barack Obama as "a Palestinian stone throwing youth in East Jerusalem, and not a strategic leader." The journal editorial was published in response to Obama's interview on Fox News Thursday morning, during which he criticized Minister of Interior affairs and Shas chairman Eli Yishai for the administrative decision to build 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood.


Jerusalem construction is now a national obsession
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Doron Rosenblum - (Opinion) March 19, 2010 - 12:00am


It is doubtful that anyone in the present administration in the White House, or anywhere in the world, has the patience or desire to get to the bottom of the motives behind the Netanyahu government. But those who nonetheless want to understand what makes the prime minister tick should look at the photographs of the happy and ostensibly non-political event that fell into the lap of the extended Netanyahu family this week: the victory of Benjamin and Sara Netanyahu's son Avner in the National Bible Quiz.


How Obama created the Biden incident
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Charles Krauthammer - March 19, 2010 - 12:00am


And a gaffe it was: the announcement by a bureaucrat in Israel's Interior Ministry of a housing expansion in a Jewish neighborhood in north Jerusalem. The timing could not have been worse: Vice President Biden was visiting, Jerusalem is a touchy subject, and you don't bring up touchy subjects that might embarrass an honored guest. But it was no more than a gaffe. It was certainly not a policy change, let alone a betrayal. The neighborhood is in Jerusalem, and the 2009 Netanyahu-Obama agreement was for a 10-month freeze on West Bank settlements excluding Jerusalem.


U.S. to send envoy back to Mideast as Israel moves to smooth relations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - March 19, 2010 - 12:00am


In an effort to defuse a bitter spat with the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday night to propose confidence-building measures to get Middle East peace talks back on track, U.S. and Israeli officials said.


Netanyahu thought he could take Obama, and lost
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Anshel Pfeffer - March 19, 2010 - 12:00am


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quite right. As he said in his speech at the Knesset on Monday while greeting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, over the last four decades, every single Israeli government has built Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. No prime minister, from the right, left or center, has ever caved to international pressure and agreed to curtail the development of the capital east of the Green Line.


Israeli Suggests Steps to Aid Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Mark Landler - March 18, 2010 - 12:00am


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, under intense pressure from the United States to settle a diplomatic dispute over Jewish settlements, called Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton late Thursday to propose what he called a package of “mutual confidence building” steps to be taken by Israelis and Palestinians to help restart peace negotiations. The Obama administration will “review the prime minister’s response and continue our discussions with both sides,” Philip J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said in a statement.


March 18th

Why Israel simultaneously both is and is not a "Jewish State"
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - March 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Talk delivered by ATFP Senior Fellow Hussein Ibish at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, March 16, 2010


Coverage continues to focus on the US-Israel settlement controversy: the US may be rethinking negotiation plans; the New York Times says the administration see an opportunity; Israel rejects US demands to limit construction in Jerusalem, but reports suggest an unannounced freeze may be imminent; Pres. Obama and Israeli Amb. Michael Oren both say there is not a crisis; Mustafa Barghouti says Palestinians should not stay on the sidelines; the Christian Science Monitor says the US must keep up the pressure; a Ha'aretz commentary says Israel needs tough love; Arabs say hopes in Obama are dwindling; Osman Mirghani says Arabs should take advantage of this opening; Francis Matthew says the issue is not just future building but existing settlements. The Forward looks of assertions that Israel's policies are threatening US interests. A rocket fired from Gaza kills a Thai worker in southern Israel, among claims of responsibility include an Al Qaeda-like organization. The first planned Palestinian city in the West Bank gets a US government grant. A Ha'aretz editorial says Israel's closure of West Bank nonviolent protest villages is an attack on free speech. Ali Jarbawi says the PA state and institution building program shows Palestinians are serious.

What is Israel afraid of?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ali Jarbawi - (Opinion) March 15, 2010 - 12:00am


The program of the 13th Palestinian government, commonly referred to as the Fayyad Plan, called for all Palestinian institutions, and Palestinian society as a whole, to unite behind a state-building effort. The program embodies an authentically Palestinian initiative to work pro-actively and constructively toward establishing the state of Palestine through non-violent means over a two-year timeframe, despite the lack of progress in negotiations and continued military occupation.



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