November 5th

Administration missteps hamper Mideast efforts ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Glenn Kessler - (Analysis) November 5, 2009 - 1:00am President Obama came into office insisting that his administration would press hard and fast to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But after nine months, analysts and diplomats say, the administration's efforts have faltered in part because of its own missteps. As Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made clear during her Middle East trip, which ended Wednesday, U.S. officials are now promoting new tactics -- what they called the "baby steps" of lower-level talks -- to bring the Israeli and Palestinian leaders together for direct talks. » Read more

U.N. Set to Endorse Inquiry Into Possible War Crimes in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Neil MacFarquhar - November 4, 2009 - 1:00am UNITED NATIONS — The General Assembly is preparing to approve a resolution that would endorse a United Nations report calling on both Israel and the Palestinians to investigate possible war crimes in the Gaza Strip within three months. » Read more

Clinton Backs Peace Talks Before Israeli Settlement Freeze ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Mark Landler - November 4, 2009 - 1:00am CAIRO — Winding up a Middle East tour, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton repeated on Wednesday that while the Obama administration rejects the legitimacy of Israeli settlement expansion, it nonetheless believes that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations should precede a permanent freeze on such construction. Her arguments conflicted with Arab and Palestinian demands that all settlement activity be frozen as a precondition for resuming talks with Israel. » Read more

November 4th

Hussein Ibish on the Fantasy World of One-Staters ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg - (Interview) November 3, 2009 - 1:00am Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, which is the leading American group advocating for an independent Palestine alongside Israel, has a new book out, "What's Wrong With the One-State Agenda?" which does a comprehensive job of demolishing the arguments made by those who think that Israel should be eliminated and replaced by a single state of Jews and Palestinians. He has performed an important service with this book by noting one overwhelming truth about this debate: Virtually no one in Israel wants a single-state between the river and the sea. » Read more

A bad month for Mideast peace-making ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) November 4, 2009 - 1:00am In baseball three strikes mean you are out, but in American foreign policy in the Middle East three strikes seem to mean business as usual. In the past few days and weeks, the United States has made three very controversial moves related to Arab-Israeli issues that generate widespread skepticism and anguish – though their total significance remains difficult to gauge, because this depends on whatever else the US may do in the weeks and months ahead. » Read more

For sale – one Middle East peace strategy (hardly used) ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Emile Hokayem - November 4, 2009 - 1:00am Pity the Palestinians, but pity also the peacemakers whose good intentions inevitably stumble up against the harsh realities of Israeli-Palestinian politicking. The US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s retreat from the position that a complete Israeli settlement freeze is a necessary confidence-building measure before final-status negotiations is not new; Barack Obama admitted as much in September. It simply reflects the dead end that US peace diplomacy has reached, and the need to start anew with a different approach. » Read more

Despite progress, Obama hesitant about Netanyahu meeting ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ron Kampeas - November 3, 2009 - 1:00am With President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set to appear at the same convention of Jewish activists, and their governments nearing a deal on the thorny settlements issue, it would seem like a great time for a sit-down. But there's a problem: the reluctance of the Palestinians -- and by extension the Arab world -- to climb on board for renewed negotiations. » Read more

Settlement by stealth belies promises of restraint ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Donald MacIntyre - November 4, 2009 - 1:00am Maysaa Al-Kurd has lived all her life in the home her family moved into in 1956. The pomegranate tree standing in the garden was planted by her father when she was still an infant nearly half a century ago. But that hardly reassured her yesterday when she heard the Jewish settlers break into the next-door extension building her brother Nabil built to house his family in 2001. » Read more

Clinton tries to keep peace alive ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News by Kim Ghattas - November 4, 2009 - 1:00am Hillary Clinton was planning to be home by now after a week-long trip, but instead she took a detour through Egypt for talks with top officials including President Hosni Mubarak, looking for help from a country that is key to any progress in the Middle East peace process. In her discussions she is expected to try to undo some of the damage done by her comments in the past few days while also looking for ways to keep some semblance of movement in the moribund Middle East peace process. The Obama administration is worried that in the absence of any talks, violence might resume. » Read more

BUILDING IN THE WEST BANK: An Interview with Bashar Masri ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Re-Think the Middle East by Michael Lame - (Interview) November 3, 2009 - 1:00am Bashar Masri is a Palestinian, born and raised in Nablus, educated in Egypt and the United States. Trained as a chemical engineer and with a background in management consulting, Bashar moved back to the West Bank from the Washington DC area in the mid-1990s, establishing himself in Ramallah. He was the founder and first publisher of the Palestinian daily newspaper Al Ayyam. A successful businessman, Bashar is CEO of Massar International, which engages in a variety of business activities across the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe. » Read more