Netanyahu heads to Washington in effort to mend U.S. ties ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - July 5, 2010 - 12:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fly to Washington on Monday evening to meet with President Barack Obama for the fifth time since the two leaders took office. A senior source in Jerusalem said that Netanyahu hoped the meeting would enable him to regain Obama's trust after months of tension regarding West Bank settlement construction. Netanyahu was planning to present Obama with a number of proposals for coordinating progress in the Middle East peace process, said the source. » Read more

What do Palestinians expect from Obama-Netanyahu meeting? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Emad Drimly - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am On the eve of the scheduled meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday, the Middle East peace process and lifting Gaza Strip blockade are the two major issues of deep concerns for the Palestinians. They are seeking an active U.S. intervention in both tracks, while officials and observers see that the White House is standing before a real examination at this moment to achieve a serious progress in the political process and respond to the Palestinian demands. » Read more

Clock is ticking on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Robert Danin - (Opinion) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy brokered by the United States is rapidly heading toward a September crisis. President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu need to establish a new understanding quickly when they meet Tuesday at the White House or relations between the two governments will remain stormy and efforts to launch direct negotiations will fail. » Read more

ISRAEL: Are Palestinians and Israelis ready to talk face to face? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Raising hopes that direct peace talks might soon be renewed, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad met Monday in Jerusalem with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the first high-level meeting since February. Fayyad said in a statement that they discussed “a number of vital and key issues as well as Israeli violations of the rights of our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including Jerusalem.” » Read more

WEST BANK: A tit for tat or just a new policy? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Hundreds of Palestinian dairy and meat producers demonstrated Monday outside the Palestinian Authority prime minister’s office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, demanding that Israel cancel an order banning the sale of their products in East Jerusalem markets. The demonstration took place only hours before Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority was scheduled to meet Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Jerusalem to discuss such matters and many more that directly affect Palestinian living conditions. » Read more

Israelis, Palestinians, Americans produce 24 hours of "theater": analyst ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by David Harris - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am The diplomatic activities in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Washington on Monday and Tuesday is nothing more than theater, according to an analyst. The political science professor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ira Sharkansky, was highly dismissive of the meeting on Monday in Jerusalem between Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Likewise, Sharkansky expected little more than showmanship when United States President Barack Obama hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday. » Read more

On Netanyahu's map of concerns there is no room for neighbors ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Akiva Eldar - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog was quoted in these pages over three months ago as saying: "The diplomatic issue is the main thing keeping us in the government, because we have a genuine wish to reach a breakthrough with the Palestinians and the Syrians." ("What is the Labor Party still doing in a right-wing government?" March 22 ). "And we see the possibility of ending this partnership if there is no change of direction in the coming months," Herzog, one of the top members of the Labor Party, added assertively during that interview given to Aluf Benn. » Read more

Obama, Netanyahu meet again ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Anne E. Kornblut - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Two months after a tense meeting at the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Obama are set to meet on Tuesday with a deceptively simple mission: getting their picture taken together. The public show of unity matters for the delicate Middle East peace process and for domestic political consumption on both sides. Of immediate concern to the Democratic Party is the effect a perceived rift could have on the midterm elections, as Republicans angle to use any perceived rupture with Netanyahu to argue that Obama is insufficiently committed to Israel. » Read more

PA wraps up store-to-store campaign ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 6, 2010 - 12:00am After visiting most of the shops in the West Bank, Palestinian Authority Minister of the Economy Hassan Abu Lubda said the "store-to-store" campaign promoting the boycott of settlement goods had come to an end. A statement announced the end of the project, which saw hundreds of volunteers coordinated by government and bodies to go to shops - mostly food and mini-markets - with lists of goods produced in settlements and promoting the government-led boycott. » Read more

Israel Details Easing of Its Gaza Blockade ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Israel on Monday announced details of the easing of its blockade of Gaza, and the Israeli defense minister held a rare face-to-face meeting here with the Palestinian prime minister in a flurry of activity apparently intended to show diplomatic momentum ahead of the Israeli prime minister’s meeting with President Obama, scheduled for Tuesday in Washington. » Read more