Roger Waters: I'm not anti-Semitic, I'm anti-occupation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Lahav Harkov - October 5, 2010 - 12:00am


Pink Floyd's Roger Waters denied being anti-Semitic in an open letter to the UK newspaper The Independent on Monday, after the Anti-Defamation League slammed him for using "imagery long associated with steretotypes about Jews and money." In Waters' The Wall Live tour, during performances of the song "Goodbye Blue Sky," a animated B52 bomber plane is shown dropping bombs shaped like the Star of David, dollar signs and logos for Shell Oil and Mercedes. The ADL released a statement saying Waters "cross[ed] the line into anti-Semitism."


Five myths about Middle East peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Aaron David Miller - October 3, 2010 - 12:00am


Yet again, Israelis and Palestinians are negotiating (or trying to), and yet again, a U.S. administration is in the middle of the muddle. We've seen this movie many times before, and I've watched it up close as a negotiator and adviser for both Democratic and Republican secretaries of state. Is there any reason to believe that this time around, there will be a happy ending? Mutual suspicions, domestic political constraints and substantive differences between the parties are hampering the talks.


Defining 'Jewish state': For many, term has different meanings
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - October 2, 2010 - 12:00am


Nine years ago, then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell delivered a speech on the Middle East in which he briefly called on Palestinians to recognize Israel as a "Jewish state." Powell doesn't recall how the phrase ended up in his speech, but David Ivry, then the Israeli ambassador to the United States, says he persuaded an aide to Powell to slip it in.


Peretz, Thomas, and the Middle East double standard
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe
by Matthew Duss - (Opinion) September 22, 2010 - 12:00am


LAST JUNE, veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas was fired for telling Jews to “get the hell out of Palestine.’’ While many were deeply and rightly offended by Thomas’s remarks, it was a sad end to a storied journalism career.


U.S. Jewish right muted ahead of possible extension of settlement freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - (Analysis) September 14, 2010 - 12:00am


Don't expect a familiar American echo now that West Bank settlers are gearing up to fight the possible extension of Israel’s settlement freeze. Activists on the left and right in Israel usually get their allies in the American Jewish community to fight for the cause of the day with congressional lobbying and protests to Israeli and American officials.


Sanctions shortened for Muslim student group
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
September 8, 2010 - 12:00am


A Muslim student group at the University of California, Irvine, had a yearlong suspension shortened to four months. The Muslim Student Union (MSU) on the Irvine campus will be barred from operating this fall semester, the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles reported. The university had recommended a yearlong suspension in May in response to the group’s orchestrated heckling of Israeli U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren during his address to the university last February. Oren walked off the stage twice, unable to continue because of the disruption.


Michael Oren, making the case for Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - September 7, 2010 - 12:00am


Michael Oren outlines what may be his toughest assignment: Making the case to a skeptical public for a leader who's hard to pin down. Pitching Bibi to the Americans? No, that's an easy one. The real problem for the Israeli ambassador to Washington is how to make Israelis understand President Obama. "Obama often doesn’t get the credit he deserves in Israel," Oren said in a pre-Rosh Hashanah interview with the U.S. Jewish media. "I think it’s important at some point that he visits us."


U.S. banning its diplomats from West Bank travel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
September 6, 2010 - 12:00am


The United States temporarily banned its diplomats from traveling to the West Bank and Jerusalem's Old City because of shooting attacks. "Due to heightened tensions and increased security presence after the Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 attacks in the West Bank, the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem has prohibited all Consulate personnel from personal travel to the West Bank" through Monday, said a statement from the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, which handles the West Bank.


The quest for peace begins again
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Matt Bradley, Sharmila Devi, Omar Karmi - September 2, 2010 - 12:00am


Against a backdrop of almost universal pessimism about its chances of success, and threats by settlers to restart construction in the West Bank, the US president Barack Obama yesterday launched Washington’s third effort in a decade to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The formal resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations after a 20-month hiatus will take place today at the US state department in Washington.


In search of the invisible Arab lobby
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Book Review) September 1, 2010 - 12:00am


This week HarperCollins released a new book by Mitchell Bard called The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance that Undermines America’s Interests in the Middle East, an obvious and ham-handed effort to counter the influential 2007 book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.



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