April 21st

Emanuel: No U.S. peace plan for now ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) April 20, 2010 - 12:00am The time is not ripe for a U.S.-promoted Middle East peace plan, President Obama's chief of staff said. "A number of people have advocated that," Rahm Emanuel said Monday on the Charlie Rose show on Bloomberg Television. "That time is not now," Emanuel said. The "time now is to get back to the proximity talks, have those conversations that eventually will lead to direct negotiations, start to make the hard decisions to bring a balance between the aspirations of the Israelis for security and make that blend with the aspirations of the Palestinian people for their sovereignty." » Read more

Palestinian village and Israeli town build rare partnership across line ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Sue Fishkoff - April 21, 2010 - 12:00am Mohammed Mansara, a 70-year-old farmer who goes by the name Abu Mazen, indicates with a sweep of his arm the fruit trees and vegetables he grows on his small plot of land in this Palestinian village in the West Bank, population 1,200. Then he points to a small green hill on the western side of the village topped by a tidy cluster of red-roofed homes. That is Tzur Hadassah, an Israeli community of about 5,000 Jewish residents. “Tzur Hadassah has such nice people,” he says in Hebrew. “They are great neighbors.” » Read more

Jewish leaders caught between criticizing, defending Obama ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ron Kampeas - April 20, 2010 - 12:00am With anxiety over the White House’s Middle East policy mounting in some pro-Israel circles, several Jewish organizational leaders have found themselves in a discomfiting position: criticizing the Obama administration in public while stridently defending the president in private against the most extreme attacks. It's an upside-down version of what pro-Israel groups usually do: lavishing praise on the U.S. government of the day for sustaining the "unbreakable bond" while making their criticisms known quietly, behind closed doors. » Read more

IDF drafts pre-intifada pullback plan ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Irish Times by Yaakov Katz, Tovah Lazaroff - April 21, 2010 - 12:00am The army has drawn up plans to withdraw to pre-intifada lines in the West Bank, if ordered to do so by the government, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Such a withdrawal was one of the demands that US President Barack Obama made to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during their meeting at the White House last month. The demand refers to the positions the IDF held when the second intifada erupted in late 2000, before the army swept into all the Arab towns and cities in the West Bank. It maintains a presence on the outskirts of many of them today. » Read more

Campaign against New Israel Fund boosts donations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yitzhak Benhorin - April 21, 2010 - 12:00am Donations to the New Israel Fund (NIF) have increased by 35% since Zionist student group Im Tirtzu launching a campaign accusing the fund of direct responsibility for the UN’s Goldstone Report on the IDF’s offensive in Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009.. Im Tirtzu published a report according to which 92 percent of the Goldstone document’s allegations criticizing the IDF’s conduct came from 16 Israeli NGOs that received some $7.8 million from the NIF in 2008-2009 alone. » Read more

IDF: Settlers crossed red line, again ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Hanan Greenberg - April 21, 2010 - 12:00am The IDF on Wednesday continued to condemn the settler attack on a soldier near Yitzhar. During Tuesday evening's clashes, settlers from Yitzhar beat and lightly wounded a solider. The IDF said the settlers also hurled stones and slashed the tires of a military vehicle. Officers in the Central Command said the Jewish settlers had "crossed a red line" once again and urged the leaders of Jewish communities in the West Bank to act with resolve against outlaws. » Read more

Fayyad: 'Security gains' will foster state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ali Waked - April 21, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told Ynet he hoped to create a "positive reality" by the summer of 2011, which would help his people with the establishment of a Palestinian state. Security? Army says escalation in West Bank violence unacceptable, taking measures to contain demonstrations against security barrier. 'A stone can be deadly,' senior IDF officer says » Read more

Declare Independence. Free Israel. End the Occupation. ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) April 21, 2010 - 12:00am It's taken us years and years, but we've finally realized the dream of every Israeli. It was my wife who noticed. "I really like this," she said one Friday as we left the house, "getting out and going to a foreign country every weekend." Our fellow Israeli Jews, inveterate world travelers that they are, literally go out of their way to avoid this place, which is called East Jerusalem. Some steer clear because it scares them, others simply because it feels so, well, foreign. » Read more

U.S. officials slam pro-Israel Jerusalem ad ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - April 21, 2010 - 12:00am United States administration officials have voiced harsh criticism over advertisements in favor of Israel's position on Jerusalem that appeared in the U.S. press with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's encouragement. The authors of the most recent such advertisements were president of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel. "All these advertisements are not a wise move," one senior American official told Haaretz. » Read more

Indyk: If Israel manages alone, it can decide alone ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz April 21, 2010 - 12:00am Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk said on Wednesday that if Israel is a superpower that manages alone, then it can make decisions alone. In an interview with Army Radio, Indyk said that if Israel sees itself as a superpower that does not need any aid from the United States, then it can make its own decisions. However "if you need the United States, then you need to take into account America's interests," said Indyk. » Read more