Barack Obama | The American Task Force on Palestine

The Biden Effect
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) March 15, 2010 - 12:00am

NEW YORK — I’m tempted to see Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel as a parable: Nice guy wanders into mess and truth is revealed. We’ve had, for example, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarifying the fact that, “Israel and the U.S. have mutual interests, but we will act according to the vital interests of the state of Israel.” Of course, the United States, too, has “vital interests.” They include reaching a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine for which the physical space erodes daily as Israeli settlements in the West Bank expand.

Even Labor ministers oppose halting east Jerusalem building
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gil Hoffman - (Analysis) March 14, 2010 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu received backing from his ministers and the parties in his coalition Sunday as he faced a deepening crisis in Israel’s relations with the American administration. While officials in Washington were quoted as saying that Netanyahu would have to choose between his ties with US President Barack Obama’s government and his coalition partners, ministers and MKs took steps to ensure that he would not have to make such a difficult choice.

Bad time for Israel settlements fight
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) March 12, 2010 - 1:00am

This week in Israel, Vice President Joe Biden found out something that he’s probably known for quite some time: No good deed goes unpunished. Shortly after Biden arrived in Jerusalem on Tuesday, to reassure the Israelis and coordinate efforts on Iran and other issues, Israel’s Ministry of the Interior announced the construction of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem.

The problem with illegal settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - March 11, 2010 - 1:00am

The embarrassment the US vice president faced this week when, during his visit to Israel, the creation of a new settlement was announced should not have surprised him. The list of Israeli slaps in the face of US officials is endless. The situation has become such that many believe calls for a freeze of settlement activities should stop because they resulted in a frenzy to build even more Jewish settlements.

Joe Biden gives Israel bear hug - and tough love
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - March 11, 2010 - 1:00am

Tel Aviv Despite two days of public friction between the US and Israel over a Jerusalem building project, Vice President Joe Biden today delivered an emotional speech laden with admiration for the Jewish state. Some years ago "I said if I was Jew, I would be a Zionist," Biden said, telling the audience at Tel Aviv University of his affinity for Israel since childhood. "I was reminded by my father you need not be a Jew to be a Zionist."

Bibi's snub to Biden may backfire
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Simon Tisdall - March 10, 2010 - 1:00am

It's not the first time that Israel has stiffed Barack Obama over his attempts to kick-start Middle East peace negotiations. But the sudden, highly inflammatory announcement of plans to build an additional 1,600 homes in occupied East Jerusalem, in the midst of a visit to Israel of US vice-president Joe Biden, was certainly the most brutally contemptuous rebuff so far to American peacemaking.

Israel's Challenege to the U.S.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
March 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was unpleasantly surprised in Israel on Tuesday when the country’s Interior Ministry declared that it would expand housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem. Mr. Biden, who earlier that day had expressed American support on Israel’s security needs, condemned the announcement, which had been made without the knowledge of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What did the incident reflect about the state of the Obama administration’s relations with Israel and the future of talks with the Palestinians? Aaron David Miller -

With talks stalled, Mideast "alternatives" aired
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Alastair MacDonald - (Analysis) February 24, 2010 - 1:00am

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has lost its global audience as both sides haggle over talks about talks on issues the world thought were long settled. Don't let it fool you. Here on the ground in this Belgium-size bit of Mediterranean coast a new war is raging, so far of words, over the "two-state solution" so consensually accepted in the West since the 1990s.

Why does Israel continue to dismiss Obama's Mideast peace efforts?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gabi Sheffer - (Analysis) February 24, 2010 - 1:00am

Most Israelis, including the heads of the defense establishment and politicians led by the prime minister and the foreign minister, categorically state that U.S. President Barack Obama will never solve the Israeli-Arab conflict. This lack of confidence in and sympathy for Obama have accompanied him, unjustifiably, since the day he began campaigning for the presidency - and has only intensified following his election. The disrespect toward him and his administration is unwarranted; there is no doubt that it is connected to Obama's ethnic background.

'White House has learned lessons'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Haviv Rettig - February 17, 2010 - 1:00am

The US administration is quietly pressuring the Palestinians to come to the negotiating table, according to an influential American Jewish leader and longtime supporter of US President Barack Obama.