ATFP Praises Release of US Aid to the PA, Welcomes New Quartet Statement
Press Release - April 12, 2012 - 12:00am

Washington DC, April 12 -- The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) today welcomed the announcement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that the United States would be releasing a $147 million package in aid to the Palestinian people. The move overrides some remaining congressional holds on the US aid package to the Palestinians for fiscal year 2011 economic support.


NEWS: The Quartet urges an immediate resumption of negotiations and the delivery of pledged aid to the Palestinians. The US will be releasing $147 million in aid to the Palestinians, overriding congressional opposition. Palestinians reiterate their demand for a settlement freeze. Israel says it plans to send its own letter to Pres. Abbas. Palestinians say 3 have been injured in an attack by settlers near Nablus. Another Palestinian prisoner held by Israel begins a hunger strike. MK Tibi threatens a lawsuit against Amb. Oren for suggesting he supports suicide bombing. The Media Line looks at the role of women in the Israeli military. Israel deports a Palestinian man to Gaza even though he faces possible execution there for “collaboration.” The PA blames Hamas for the Palestinian financial crisis. COMMENTARY: Former Pres. Carter says it is vital the world doesn't give up on Middle East peace. The LA Times says Israel declaring Gunter Grass persona non grata because of a poem is the kind of reaction one would have expected from Iran. Anshel Pfeffer says Egypt's major military deployment in Sinai hasn't changed much. Daniel Gordis defends “Jewish tribalism” in Israel. Uri Savir says Israel's go it alone attitude on security won't work anymore. George Hishmeh says a newly released letter by David Ben-Gurion shows he anticipated the need to drive out Palestinians long before the 1948 war. Arron David Miller says it's extremely unlikely a second-term Pres. Obama would choose to heavily pressure Israel. Hanan Ashrawi says Palestinians in Jerusalem need freedom, not Israeli permits. Jerome Segal says Palestinians should pursue the creation of a new UN Special Committee on Palestine. Hussein Ibish says just because he supports peace with Israel based on ending the occupation and creating a Palestinian state doesn't make him a “Zionist.”

No, Of Course I'm Not
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

Since the emergence of the one-state movement, I've been routinely described by the pro-Palestinian far right and ultra-left as a “Zionist,” and even a “traitor” and “collaborator,” because I remain committed to ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Of course, most of these people were, in the past, themselves supporters of a two state solution, so by their logic they were also once “traitors” and “collaborators.”

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Palestinians need freedom in Jerusalem, not Israeli permits
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Hanan Ashrawi - (Opinion) April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

It is Easter in Jerusalem. Newspaper pictures show scenes of Christians from all over the world celebrating and commemorating this holy occasion, with processions, special services and prayers. While most come freely with passports and tourist visas, the indigenous Christian population, many of them coming from towns and villages within few kilometers of the Old City, require special permits to visit their holy sites. The majority of these Christians do not receive the necessary permits and so are prevented from participating in the Easter celebrations of Jerusalem.

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The Second-Term Illusion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

It's 2013. Barack Obama has just been re-elected, the Democrats have retained their majority in the Senate. And the American president, freed from political constraints in a second term, decides to take on an issue that stymied him so badly in his first. "Israeli-Palestinian peace is critically important to our national interests," Obama tells his new secretary of state (Kerry, Rice, Donilon -- take your pick). "If we don't move now, the two-state solution is dead." "It means taking on Benjamin Netanyahu," the secretary responds.

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The real Ben Gurion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) April 12, 2012 - 12:00am

There is no doubt that David Ben Gurion, who was born in 1886 in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, has correctly been recognised everywhere as the founder of Israel, created in 1948 by a UN resolution. But the issue that has recently been uncovered, touching off a damaging charge, emanates from the just revealed hard-line advocacy of Ben Gurion more than 10 years earlier on how to establish a firm Zionist foothold in Palestine where the majority of the population were then Arabs.

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The summer of 2012
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Uri Savir - (Opinion) April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

Some time ago we saw in the brilliant television satire, Eretz Nehederet, Israelis giving up on all their summer plans, “because of that thing that will happen with Iran this summer.” “Can I give you a delayed check for this summer?” says the customer. “No, of course not,” says the shopkeeper. “Don’t you know what will happen this summer? That thing with Iran.” “Oh yes, I forgot it’s this summer!” he replies, and pays immediately.

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A Dose of Nuance: Peter Beinart's mis-identity crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Daniel Gordis - April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

Peter Beinart is right. The relationship between American Jews and the Jewish state is indeed in crisis. Beinart and his title are just wrong about what the crisis is. What we face, as his book accidentally demonstrates, is not The Crisis of Zionism, but a crisis of American Judaism.

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Egypt's army fills Sinai, but business runs as usual
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Anshel Pfeffer - (Opinion) April 12, 2012 - 12:00am

Sinai, EGYPT - A bearded Bedouin approached a cab on the main street of Rafah, in Egypt. Right next to the taxi, at either end of the narrow street, were two armored personnel carriers and a squad of Egyptian army soldiers in full combat gear.

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Israel's poetry critics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
(Editorial) April 10, 2012 - 12:00am

The people in Israel and Germany who are most outraged by Nobel Prize-winning author Gunter Grass' latest work have one thing in common: They think it's ridiculous, and possibly anti-Semitic, for Grass to assert a moral equivalency between Israel and Iran. Yet by overreacting to Grass' criticism, Israeli officials are acting like, well, Iranians.

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