A Memo to the US President
In Print by Hussein Ibish - NOW Lebanon (Opinion) - November 6, 2012 - 1:00am

Dear Mr. President: congratulations on winning today's election. The third debate with your esteemed opponent reflected a broad consensus on foreign policy. Both of you therefore appeared well-positioned to make any necessary course corrections, but the job is yours. US Middle East policy needs to be tweaked rather than overhauled. On most pressing issues, current policies reflect a reasonable balance between American values and interests, and the really existing options and politically plausible positions for any administration. 

»

NEWS: PM Netanyahu reiterates his willingness to strike Iran without any international support. Israel says it is preparing to “ensure the collapse” of a new Palestinian UN initiative, and is considering a range of retaliatory measures. Israel issues tenders for 1,200 new settlement housing units in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.The Syrian government physically shutters Hamas' offices in Damascus.A Turkish court is trying four Israeli military officers in absentia over the deadly flotilla incident. Three Israeli soldiers are wounded by a bomb near the Gaza border. School teachers go on strike in the West Bank. Hamas denies it prevented a Fatah official from leaving Gaza. Russia says Hamas can play a vital role in advancing the Palestinian issue. Palestinians and Israeli settlers are locked in a court battle over the burning of wood for fuel. FM Lieberman's new level of influence is worrying some Israelis. An internal Israeli Foreign Ministry report allegedly contradicts many current government assumptions, including that Palestinian statehood would not threaten Israel, but the stalled peace process does. COMMENTARY: Hussein Ibish pens a memo to the incoming American president on Middle East policy. George Salem says Arab-Americans should vote for Mitt Romney, but Jim Zogby says they should reelect Pres. Obama. Bernard Avishai says a Romney administration would probably ignore the Israeli-Palestinian problem, and that would be a disaster. Adam Gonn says Pres. Abbas is trying to reinsert the Palestinian issue into Israel's election. David Grossman says Netanyahu urgently needs to talk to Abbas. Gershon Baskin says that in his recent interview with Israeli TV, Abbas merely reiterated long-established positions and again demonstrated he is a good partner for peace. J.J. Goldberg says Netanyahu will probably find himself in conflict with whoever wins the American election. Jonathan Yavin says the assassination of the late PM Rabin marked a turning point in Israel's history. Elisheva Goldberg profiles a generation of Israeli youngsters being inculcated with the extremist ideology of the late Rabbi Kahane. Philippe Assouline says both Hamas and the PA are suppressing aspects of Palestinian culture they don't like. Michael Koplow compares Abbas to Guy Fawkes.

Speaking power to truth in Gaza and the West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times of Israel
by Philippe Assouline, Daniel Putterman - (Editorial) November 4, 2012 - 12:00am

Artists move us beyond dogmas. Think of the role of music in the anti-war movement of the 1960s. Think of the impact that “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” or “The Diary of Anne Frank” had on public consciousness. Art is the vanguard of progress.

»

The Palestinian Guy Fawkes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Atlantic
by Michael Koplow - (Opinion) November 5, 2012 - 1:00am

Today is Guy Fawkes Day, which commemorates the plot by a group of English Catholics to blow up the Houses of Parliament and King James I along with it. The plot was disrupted on November 5, 1605, when Fawkes was discovered with the cache of gunpowder underneath Westminster. Ever since, Fawkes has been associated with the Gunpowder Treason and fated to be burned in effigy by English schoolchildren every November 5.

»

'Kahane For Kids'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Elisheva Goldberg - (Opinion) November 6, 2012 - 1:00am

Last week, some four hundred followers—around 300 men, 100 women—marked Rabbi Meir Kahane's death in a dilapidated wedding hall in a poor religious neighborhood in Jerusalem. The lighting was poor, the food was cheap, but the guests were hardcore. Bentzi Gupstein, a graduate of the Kach movement and Kiryat Arba settler, announced that they picked the place it was where Kahane always held his public events. It is, he claimed, the only place in Jerusalem “where they never let Arabs in.”

»

Rabin’s Assassination Marked The End of an Era
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Yedioth Ahronoth
by Jonathan Yavin - (Editorial) October 18, 2012 - 12:00am

Seventeen years after the murder of [late Prime Minister] Yitzak Rabin, of blessed memory, the tears have dried, and so has the conversation. Enough time has passed, and naturally, the event has passed from the dark expanses of trauma to the junkyard of history. When people discuss the murder, they no longer focus on the incitement that preceded it, nor on the actions of Rabin the man, the soldier, the leader — but rather the results and the implications that we continued to live daily. The inquiries are purposeful: What happened to us since then? Where are we going?

»

Can Bibi Make Nice?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) November 4, 2012 - 12:00am

Regardless of who is sworn in as president next January 20, Israeli-American relations are headed for a period of profound uncertainty. We’ve been so focused on debating whether and how Barack Obama gets along with Israel that we’ve completely overlooked a more important question: Can Benjamin Netanyahu can get along with the United States?

»

Encountering Peace: The leader and the leaderless
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Editorial) November 5, 2012 - 1:00am

What Palestinian Authority chairman had to say to the people of Israel in his interview on Channel 2 on Friday night, I heard months ago in private meetings with him, following which I wrote detailed reports and analysis for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Just to recap his main points for any who may have missed the interview: 1. As long as he is chairman of the PA, there will be no third intifada and no return to violence.

»

An open letter to Netanyahu: It's time to speak to Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by David Grossman - (Opinion) November 6, 2012 - 1:00am

What are you waiting for, Benjamin Netanyahu? Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority, said in an interview on Israeli television that he is willing to return to Safed, his hometown, as a tourist. Implicit in his words is the most explicit renunciation of the "right of return" that an Arab leader is capable of uttering at this time, before the start of negotiations. So, why are you waiting?

»

Abbas tries to put Palestinian issue back on Israeli political agenda
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Adam Gonn - (Analysis) November 6, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian National Authority ( PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas over the weekend gave an interview to Israeli TV Channel 2, in which he touched on a number of issues that are central to Israeli-Palestinian relations, including the 1967 lines, the Palestinian refugees' right to return, and the Palestinian uprising.

»


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