Internal Israeli Politics | The American Task Force on Palestine

Haaretz WikiLeaks exclusive / Poverty in Israel not that severe, Israel Bank chief told U.S.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ofer Aderet - April 27, 2011 - 12:00am

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer told the U.S. Embassy in 2006 that poverty rates have been diminishing despite a report that found that a quarter of Israelis were living below the poverty line, according to a diplomatic cable recently released by WikiLeaks.

Israel to launch nationwide war drill
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 27, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is gearing to hold a nationwide drill, scheduled to take place in two months, in a bid to prepare the populace for the possibility of war. The exercise, called "Turning Point 5," will begin on June 19 and end four days later. An IDF spokesman confirmed to Xinhua that preparations for the drill are underway, but would not provide further details. National daily Yedioth Aharonot, however, claimed Wednesday that the drill will be the largest-ever to be held in Israel, encompassing 70 percent of civilians residing in more than 80 local councils.

Why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict refuses to be resolved
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by A.B. Yehoshua - (Opinion) April 26, 2011 - 12:00am

The question in the headline should ostensibly be directed to a Middle East expert, a political scientist, or even a foreign historian, not a writer whose expertise is his imagination. But because the question is a real one that is painful to everyone in the region regardless of his nationality, I will try to propose an answer.

'Annexation for declaration' idea advancing in Knesset
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gil Hoffman - April 26, 2011 - 12:00am

Ideas about annexing parts of the West Bank that until recently were considered extreme have been gaining traction in the Knesset in recent weeks as the Palestinian Authority continues threatening to declare a state unilaterally in September. National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau raised the idea at Israel Beiteinu’s convention in Jerusalem two weeks ago and then spoke about it at length in an interview with The Jerusalem Post’s web site last week.

Peres: Israel needs to formulate its own Mideast peace plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
April 22, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel needs to draft its own Mideast peace initiative if it wants to avoid international pressure over a reported U.S peace plan, President Shimon Peres said on Friday, following a report claiming Washington was working on a plan to restart stalled peace talks. Peres' comments came in the wake of a New York Times report claiming that the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama was drafting a new peace plan which included a Palestinian state within 1967 borders and which rejected Palestinian refugees' right of return.

How the Likud Came to Be
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Ideas Daily
by Elliot Jager - April 22, 2011 - 12:00am

The party faithful who gathered in Tel Aviv on April 14 for a pre-Passover toast heard Benjamin Netanyahu announce that he would amplify Israel's security-and-peace principles at a joint session of the U.S. Congress next month. Surveying the crowd from the podium, the prime minister no doubt took comfort from a recent survey showing that 76 percent of Likud members opposed annexing all of Judea and Samaria. Yet he would also have known that 10,000 party recruits had been newly signed up by uncompromising settler leaders.

We have the right to know where Israel is going
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) April 21, 2011 - 12:00am

A word of warning: This article is being written without the slightest cynicism; this call on Benjamin Netanyahu is being written with due sincerity and seriousness. And I'm begging him to tell us and the world what he wants and where he is heading.

Zvi Shalit: Netanyahu uses us for PR
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ahiya Raved - April 21, 2011 - 12:00am

Zvi Shalit, grandfather of captive soldier Gilad Shalit, has expressed protest over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's publicized meeting with the soldier's parents. "You, Mr, Netanyahu are using my son and daughter-in-law with cruel cynicism to convey a sense of action when in fact nothing has been done to save my grandson," he wrote in a letter to Netanyahu.

Tel Aviv Protests Show Divide Over Palestinian State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - April 21, 2011 - 12:00am

Dozens of prominent Israeli artists and intellectuals declared their support for a Palestinian state on the streets of Tel Aviv on Thursday and quickly found themselves confronted by rightist opponents calling them “traitors” and, according to one report, “Jewish Nazis.”

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