October 4th

Israel, Palestinians start to blame each other as talks look shaky ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua October 4, 2010 - 12:00am The latest round of the U.S.- sponsored direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians were stumbling as the two sides differed on the issue of whether or not Israel should extend its 10-month freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank after it ended last week. Analysts said that both Israel and the Palestinians are now trying to escape being blamed for delaying the peace talks, while reaffirming close relations with the Washington. BLAME GAME STARTS » Read more

Did Obama appeal to Netanyahu to extend the settlement freeze? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua October 2, 2010 - 12:00am With Israel's ten-month freeze on construction in Jewish settlements on the West Bank ending earlier this week, speculation is rife about what this will mean for the current round of negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians under the supervision of U.S. President Barack Obama. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to walk away from the talks if Israel does not extend the freeze. » Read more

In Israel, a highway that divides ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - January 10, 2010 - 1:00am Reporting from Highway 443, West Bank — Cruising down this disputed four-lane highway, with all its twists and turns, is like taking a road trip through the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You pass the walls and barriers that keep Palestinians from accessing Highway 443 as it slices through their land. Then there are the hazardous corridors where Israeli drivers have been shot and killed. » Read more

Lieberman 'key' to cabinet vote on settlement freeze ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Jonathan Lis - October 4, 2010 - 12:00am A cabinet decision to extend the moratorium on settlement construction, which expired late last month, hinges on the support of either Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman or Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Atias, senior Likud officials told Haaretz yesterday. The officials said that if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asks the cabinet to extend the freeze, he would need the vote of Atias, a Shas minister seen as a moderate, or of Lieberman, who heads the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party. » Read more

Palestinians invest $2 billion in Jericho to celebrate its 10,000th birthday ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Irit Rosenblum - October 3, 2010 - 12:00am The Palestinian Authority is launching a new branding campaign for the city of Jericho, one of the oldest cities in the world. Celebrations planned for October 10 will be held in honor of the establishment of the city 10,000 years ago. The city is also expecting to see $2 billion invested in a residential complex and hotels, and the option of an airport is also being discussed. » Read more

Future of vast Jewish enclave in West Bank far from settled ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - October 3, 2010 - 12:00am Reporting from Ariel, West Bank advertisement Ron Nachman had waited 10 months for this day. But when Israel's West Bank construction moratorium expired a week ago and settlers celebrated with balloons and bulldozers, the mayor of the fourth-largest Jewish settlement was nowhere to be found. Nachman, 68, was in the hospital undergoing chemotherapy for recently diagnosed bladder cancer. » Read more

Years of rage ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amos Harel - (Opinion) October 1, 2010 - 12:00am If anyone needed a reminder, it came 10 days ago, via images broadcast from the clashes in Silwan in East Jerusalem: The funeral of the Palestinian shot dead by an Israeli security guard; the police commanders' explanation that the guard was caught in a nighttime ambush and felt his life was in danger; the masked stone-throwers; the burned Israeli cars with shattered windows; a line of policemen advancing, tossing gas grenades on its way to dispersing the riot. » Read more

Pressure mounts on PM to reject US ‘benefits package’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gil Hoffman - October 4, 2010 - 12:00am Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has begun efforts to persuade Likud cabinet members to support a deal with the US in which Israel would limit construction in Judea and Samaria for 60 days in return for American promises, Likud officials confirmed on Sunday. While the proposal has not been finalized, Netanyahu’s associates have started making inquiries with the ministers, asking them to be flexible. » Read more

Five myths about Middle East peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Aaron David Miller - October 3, 2010 - 12:00am Yet again, Israelis and Palestinians are negotiating (or trying to), and yet again, a U.S. administration is in the middle of the muddle. We've seen this movie many times before, and I've watched it up close as a negotiator and adviser for both Democratic and Republican secretaries of state. Is there any reason to believe that this time around, there will be a happy ending? Mutual suspicions, domestic political constraints and substantive differences between the parties are hampering the talks. » Read more

David Grossman, a Man Who Owns Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) September 29, 2010 - 12:00am In his remarkable recent New Yorker profile of the Israeli writer David Grossman, George Packer observes that the heroine of Grossman’s new novel “embraces the breadth of Israel’s tragedy, a country that can take nothing for granted, not even its own existence.” (The novel, “To the End of the Land,” is newly available in English.) Yet Packer’s lengthy article, though tinged with tragedy to be sure, is colored as well by resolve, even triumph. For the Grossman he portrays is a steadfast Israeli patriot, a man who owns Israel. » Read more