oil | The American Task Force on Palestine

The West Bank's gold
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - October 20, 2009 - 12:00am

For centuries, olive harvesting here has been a mostly local industry. Farmers, their relatives and neighbors beat the trees with sticks or strip the olives from branches by hand, then cart them to a local press and sell or trade the oil in nearby markets. Harvest workers keep a share of the crop for their labor, and olive press owners keep a share of the oil -- a testament to the small-scale, bartered nature of the undertaking.

Welcome to the Middle East, 2030
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Paul Eedle - (Opinion) July 15, 2009 - 12:00am

What if Barack Obama can make peace between the Arabs and Israel? It's easy to see how he might fail. But what if he succeeds and really does create a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims"? Here is a first draft of history for the next 20 years. The events are fantasy, of course, but the logic is based on four big trends:

Is peace a means or an end for Obama?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Marwan Al Kabalan - April 30, 2009 - 12:00am

On Tuesday, Barack Obama celebrated his 100-day mark as the president of the US. Analysts from around the world have since tried to reflect on whether he has done enough to tackle the enormous challenges facing America and the world. For Middle Easterners, progress towards achieving just and comprehensive peace is the yardstick to measure Obama's success.

The Freeman fight: Was it all about Israel?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Eric Fingerhut - March 11, 2009 - 12:00am

Supporters of the Obama administration's aborted appointment for a top intelligence post said the former ambassador was unfairly tarred by pro-Israel pundits and advocates. But lawmakers who led the successful campaign against the selection of Charles “Chas” Freeman said their concerns always had less to do with his criticisms of Israel than his financial ties to Saudi Arabia and a Chinese oil company with business dealings in Iran.

The Oily Maze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) June 26, 2008 - 4:33pm

One would think that Arab leaders would have learned a lesson (or two) after failing to tell the Arab side of the conflict with Israel since the establishment of the Jewish state on Arab lands in Palestine in 1948, a loss the Arabs describe as the Nakba or catastrophe. Once again the oil-rich Arab leaders are disappointingly unable so far to convince the world of the reasons, as they see them, that led to the skyrocketing price of oil which had more than doubled in one year; now over $140 a barrel.

War And Peacemakers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Newsweek
by Christopher Dickey - (Special Report) November 13, 2007 - 3:44pm

In a Middle East slipping from war to war, sometimes it seems only the old are truly impatient for peace. Certainly none is pushing harder than the octogenarian King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. His cause as crown prince in the 1990s and as reigning monarch since 2005 has been to settle as many disputes as he can in this region of clashing faiths, millennial rivalries and chronic conflagrations. They are all related, as he sees it, from Palestine to the price of oil, from Iraqi death squads to Iranian nukes to the risk of global recession, each cancroid problem feeding off the other.

The Teflon Alliance With Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Counterpunch
by Katleen And Bill Christison - October 3, 2007 - 6:10pm

Two recent offhand comments, both widely publicized, have seriously undermined whatever progress might have been made in exposing the fact that the Iraq war was initiated at least in large part to guarantee Israel's safety and regional dominance in the Middle East.