Arad's summer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ari Shavit - (Opinion) July 17, 2009 - 12:00am

Summer. It's hot and humid and full of irritants. It's hard to concentrate. And the current scandals are the scandals of summer, too. Intense, juicy and insignificant. Between Dudu Topaz's letter and mourning over the death of Michael Jackson, there's no chance to really think. There's no way to distinguish between policy and gossip, between what's central and what's marginal, between what is of primary and secondary importance. It's time for the petty and the low.

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My Word: Obama team should pressure Israel on settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Oakland Tribune
by Cecilie Surasky - (Opinion) July 17, 2009 - 12:00am

FEW AMERICANS HAVE had the opportunity to see firsthand, as I did in early July, the devastating impact of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and why it's critical that we support President Barack Obama's call for a settlement freeze.

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J Street conference demonstrates increased coordination on left
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Eric Fingerhut - July 16, 2009 - 12:00am

Left-wing advocates of a two-state solution and a greater U.S. role in the peace process are joining forces in support of what they hope will be a groundbreaking conference this October in Washington. The conference, set for Oct. 25-28, is being dubbed as J Street's first national convention, but 11 other groups have signed on as “participating organizations,” including Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, the Israel Policy Forum, the New Israel Fund and Brit Tzedek v'Shalom.

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Pro-Israel lobby still influential in America
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Marwan Al Kabalan - (Opinion) July 16, 2009 - 12:00am

President Barack Obama's recent meeting with the leaders of the pro-Israel lobbies in the US did nothing but feed speculation about how much power and influence these groups wield on US Middle East policy. The purpose of the meeting was to ask these groups to help convince Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze colony activity in the occupied Palestinian territories and facilitate the resumption of Middle East peace talks.

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Clinton doesn't rule out compromise with Israel on construction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yitzhak Benhorin - July 15, 2009 - 12:00am

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not rule out the possibility of a US-Israeli compromise that will allow the construction of several thousand housing units to be completed in a number of West Bank settlements.

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Jewish Leaders Give Obama No Push-Back on Settlement Freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - July 15, 2009 - 12:00am

Forty-five minutes at the White House was all it took to crystallize the new paradigm defining the relations among the Obama administration, the Jewish community and Israel. As Jewish leaders left their July 13 meeting with President Obama — “glowing,” according to one of the participants — it became clear that despite some misgivings regarding the tone Obama has used toward Israel, the bulk of the organized Jewish community is in full support of his peace efforts, including his demand for a complete freeze of Jewish settlements on the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

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Obama still worries some Jewish leaders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Hilary Leila Krieger - July 15, 2009 - 12:00am

Several Jewish officials said Tuesday that US President Barack Obama's efforts to reassure them on US policy towards Israel had not assuaged their concerns. Though they welcomed Monday's intimate face-to-face discussion at the White House and were pleased that Obama acknowledged that some in the community were worried, they said it was insufficient to dispel their doubts about his approach towards Israel.

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Disagreements inside the Same Family
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Elias Harfoush - (Opinion) July 15, 2009 - 12:00am

I don’t believe it would be an exaggeration to say that the meeting held between President Barak Obama and 15 of the most prominent leaders of the Jewish community in the United States on Monday will constitute a pivotal point that might restrain the momentum of the new president’s administration towards achieving a balanced settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

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Obama tries to allay US Jews' concerns
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Hilary Leila Krieger - July 14, 2009 - 12:00am

In their first official White House meeting, US President Barack Obama tried to reassure American Jewish leaders that there was a mistaken perception that the United States is pressuring Israel more than the Palestinians or Arab countries. Obama considers visiting Israel Instead, he spoke of the need for Palestinian and Arab leaders to take steps toward Israel, suggesting that effort would become more pronounced in the coming weeks and emphasizing his bedrock commitment to Israel's security, according to participants.

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A cleansing battle over settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Eric Fingerhut - July 9, 2009 - 12:00am

J Street and The Israel Project are firing shots at each other after the disclosure that The Israel Project was advising its activists to say that the removal of Jewish settlements would be a version of "ethnic cleansing."

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