September 21st

Obama convenes talks to break Mideast impasse ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times by Harvey Morris - September 21, 2009 - 12:00am Barack Obama, US president, will host a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in New York tomorrow, seeking to break the Middle East stalemate after a troubled week for US diplomacy in the region. A weekend statement from the White House that Mr Obama would chair a joint session with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, came after the failure of both sides to budge on the issue of Israeli settlement activity had threatened to scupper the encounter. » Read more

Little hope of breakthrough at Mideast meet ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) by Yana Dlugy - September 21, 2009 - 12:00am Israeli and Palestinian leaders headed on Monday for a summit with US President Barack Obama, with both sides sceptical the "photo-op" encounter will lead to a resumption of stalled peace talks. The US leader is to hold a three-way meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. It will mark Netanyahu's first meeting with Abbas since the hawkish premier was sworn into office nearly six months ago. » Read more

Why Israelis and Palestinians will meet ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico by Laura Rozen - September 21, 2009 - 12:00am A day after U.S. special envoy George Mitchell left Israel with no deal on a resumption of peace talks in the region, the White House announced Saturday that President Barack Obama will meet Tuesday in New York with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. That meeting will be immediately preceded by separate meetings between Obama and each leader, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. » Read more

Obama to Meet With Mideast Leaders ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - September 20, 2009 - 12:00am After a frustrating week of shuttle diplomacy here in which the Obama administration failed to persuade Israelis and Palestinians to renew peace talks, leaders of the two sides are heading to the United States to make their cases again that the administration should push the other harder. » Read more

September 18th

Let's try something else ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ahram by Samir Ghattas - September 18, 2009 - 12:00am In three months time, we'll mark the anniversary of UN Resolution 181 of 1947, which provided for the partitioning of Palestine into two states, a Jewish one and an Arab one, with Jerusalem being an international zone. » Read more

Peace and prosperity in Palestine ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Michael Mylrea - September 18, 2009 - 12:00am US President Barack Obama’s commitment to Middle East peace has made little progress in the last eight months. As his Middle East envoy George Mitchell visits leaders in the region this week, Palestinian optimism has turned to resentment. Time is quickly running out. Unless there is immediate progress toward establishing a sovereign Palestinian state, there will be a deadly third intifada that could quickly escalate into a major regional conflict. To prevent this volatile situation from becoming a catastrophe, US policy makers need to make immediate steps toward a two-state solution. » Read more

US envoy faces stalemate over settlements ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Ori Lewis - September 18, 2009 - 12:00am A burst of shuttle diplomacy by President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy today did not produce immediate results, with Palestinian and Israeli leaders still at odds over terms for resuming direct talks. An Israeli official said after envoy George Mitchell met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem that Israel might freeze settlements in the West Bank for longer than the six months it previously suggested, but not for as long as a year. » Read more

Israel must now heal itself ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Daniel Levy - (Opinion) September 18, 2009 - 12:00am The report of the UN fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict is outrageous, a disgrace. The mission's head, Richard Goldstone, was the chair of the Friends of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, chair of the World ORT education organisation with more than 150 schools in Israel and a self-declared friend of Israel whose daughter made aliyah – Zionist emigration to Israel – and she told Israeli army radio this week, "Israel is more important to me than anything." » Read more

'Protecting' Jewish girls from Arabs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Abe Selig - September 18, 2009 - 12:00am Every night, dozens of young men in Jerusalem's Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood take to the streets and go out searching for girls. But theirs is not a promiscuous search. In fact, the group of some 35 volunteers is looking to prevent such interaction and to stop what neighborhood residents have overwhelmingly complained is a growing problem in Pisgat Ze'ev - Arab men going out with Jewish girls. » Read more

'PM agrees to 9-month W. Bank freeze' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Herb Keinon - September 18, 2009 - 12:00am Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has agreed to a West Bank settlement freeze of nine months, and not the previously agreed six, Army Radio quoted Jerusalem sources as saying Friday. The reported deal came in a meeting with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, during which the possibility was also raised of Israel making additional moves to ease Palestinians' lives in order to try and convince Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to meet Netanyahu and resume the peace process. » Read more