September 14th

East Jerusalem housing plans cast new shadow over Israel-Palestinian peace talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Nir Hasson<br /> - September 14, 2010 - 12:00am In a move that could strike a blow at already fragile peace talks, Jerusalem city planners will in the coming weeks discuss a scheme to build over a thousand housing units beyond the Green Line, Haaretz learned on Tuesday. At a U.S.-mediated summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, aides to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said talks were being conducted in a "good atmosphere". » Read more

Palestinian 'all or nothing' strategy paralyzing peace talks, Israeli officials warn ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid<br /> - September 14, 2010 - 12:00am The Palestinians' "all or nothing" strategy of insisting on a total freeze on West Bank settlement construction risks paralyzing Middle East peace talks in their infancy, officials close to the heart of negotiations warned Tuesday. As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Egypt for a second round of negotiations, senior officials inside Netanyahu's office said they expected the Palestinians to avoid extreme responses that could derail the U.S.-sponsored peace process. » Read more

Sha'ath: Key issues on Sharm agenda ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency September 14, 2010 - 12:00am The second round of negotiations in Egypt will focus on land, borders and security, said member of the Palestinian negotiations team Nabil Sha'ath on Tuesday, as officials and leaders arrive in the coastal resort town ahead of talks. Sha'ath said reports that the talks in Sharm Ash-Sheikh will focus on Israel security matters solely were false, adding in a statement that "there is no security without the land and the borders and they know this very well." » Read more

Why the Israeli 'consensus' on settlements is not so simple ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick<br /> - September 13, 2010 - 12:00am Responding to calls from President Barack Obama to extend an Israeli settlement freeze in the West Bank, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted this weekend for the first time that he's open to new limits on building after the Sept. 26 expiration. » Read more

Netanyahu's embrace of peace talks keeps Israelis guessing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders <br /> - September 13, 2010 - 12:00am Israelis have seen it before. A hawkish leader expected to be tough on the Palestinian issue instead embarks on a game-changing path to end the conflict. Menachem Begin did it. So did Yitzhak Rabin. Ariel Sharon split apart his right-wing Likud Party by withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. » Read more

Israeli enclave thrust into debate ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Joel Greenberg<br /> - September 13, 2010 - 12:00am From the four-lane highway linking central Israel to this sprawling settlement town on the West Bank, drivers can see the distant towers of Tel Aviv and, beyond them, the shimmering sea. The enclave of Ariel, with its red-roofed homes, state-of-the art sports complex and tidy streets and parks, looks like an ordinary Israeli town, and feels that way to many of its 19,000 residents. » Read more

Clinton stresses urgency of Mideast talks despite focus on settlement moratorium ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Glenn Kessler<br /> - September 13, 2010 - 12:00am Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, making her first plunge into Middle East peacemaking, said she will prod Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week to press forward with talks, even with the Israeli moratorium on settlements expiring this month. » Read more

Peace Talks? What’s on TV? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Roger Cohen<br /> - (Opinion) September 13, 2010 - 12:00am I recently went to a dinner here hosted by a charming Israeli couple, just back from Umbria with assorted Italian delicacies, and found the guests riveted not by the ritual of a new round of U.S.-mediated peace talks but by the climax of “A Star is Born.” We all rushed from the table to see 18-year-old Diana Golbi — a Russian immigrant born Diana Golbanova in Moscow — belt out her winning song on the Israeli version of “American Idol.” The runner-up, a Sephardic commander in the Israel Defense Forces named Idan Amedi, looked to the heavens and thanked God for second place. » Read more

After Negotiations, Israel Emerges on Twitter ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner<br />, Raphael Minder - September 13, 2010 - 12:00am Israel has acquired the user name @israel on Twitter, the microblogging Internet service, from the Spanish owner of a pornographic Web site, in an unusual transaction intended to help Israel exercise more influence over its image. The owner of the user name, Israel Meléndez, got it in 2007, when Twitter was in its infancy. He struggled to use his account, however, because every posting prompted a flood of anti-Semitic or anti-Israel comments from Twitter users, in a case of mistaken identity. » Read more

Israel and Palestinian Leaders Extend Egypt Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Mark Landler<br /> - September 14, 2010 - 12:00am The leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority held nearly two hours of face-to-face talks in this Red Sea resort on Tuesday in a second round of negotiations that delved into the core issues dividing them but did not yet break an impasse over Jewish settlements. President Obama’s special representative to the Middle East, George J. Mitchell, said he was encouraged by the overall direction of the talks but declined to say whether the two sides made any progress on a dispute over Israel’s moratorium on settlement construction, due to expire on Sept. 26. » Read more