May 23rd

Obama's AIPAC comments can't conceal mutual mistrust, say Israeli analysts ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - May 22, 2011 - 12:00am President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday sought to tone down a fresh crisis after the two clashed in public at the White House two days earlier over Mr. Obama's call for a border between Israel and a Palestinian state to be based on the 1967 line demarcating the West Bank. » Read more

Netanyahu pushes back on Obama's peace plan ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Christi Parsons, Paul Richter, Edmund Sanders - May 21, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly lectured President Obama on the shortcomings of his plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks during a tense Oval Office appearance that laid bare the strained relations between the leaders. Admonishing a president of the United States on international television, Netanyahu rejected the plan outlined by Obama that would use the borders in effect before the 1967 Middle East War as the starting point for negotiations, saying that doing so would risk Israel's security and force it to negotiate with "a Palestinian version of Al Qaeda." » Read more

Netanyahu aides play down differences with Obama ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Joel Greenberg - May 22, 2011 - 12:00am After a bruising confrontation with President Obama over his call for a peace deal based on Israel’s 1967 boundaries, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his aides are playing down the dispute, calling reports of a crisis overblown. Their comments came as Obama gave a reassuring speech to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC on Sunday, and Israeli commentators noted that the boundaries in question have long been considered the baseline for any future agreement with the Palestinians. » Read more

Obama Draws the Line ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) May 20, 2011 - 12:00am On the eve of an election year, with Jewish donors and fund-raisers already restive over his approach to Israel, President Obama made a brave speech telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “the dream of a Jewish and democratic state cannot be fulfilled with permanent occupation” and urging him to accept Israeli borders at or close to the 1967 lines. » Read more

Palestinian Sees Prospects of Deal Receding ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - May 20, 2011 - 12:00am After President Obama’s high-profile speech on Thursday in which he laid out broad principles for reaching an Israeli-Palestinian deal, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, called an emergency meeting at his headquarters in Ramallah in the West Bank. He advised his associates not to comment on the speech, according to a senior Palestinian official who attended the meeting, but to wait instead for Mr. Obama’s meeting with the prime minister of Israel in the White House “and see if there are any positive signs.” » Read more

Obama Presses Israel to Make ‘Hard Choices’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Helene Cooper - May 22, 2011 - 12:00am President Obama struck back at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in a speech to a pro-Israel lobbying group on Sunday, defending his stance that talks over a Palestinian state should be focused on Israel’s pre-1967 borders, along with negotiated land swaps, and challenging Israel to “make the hard choices” necessary to bring about a stable peace. » Read more

May 20th

Two Narratives for Two Peoples ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) May 19, 2011 - 12:00am Many Jewish Israelis and their supporters have reacted with outrage to a New York Times Op-Ed on May 17 by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, particularly its invocation of the Palestinian historical narrative. Most troubling to them was Abbas’s description of how his family was “forced” to flee their home in what became Israel in 1948 — a word choice they feel implies that Abbas and his family were evicted by Jewish troops. » Read more

Editorial: Fine words again ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News (Editorial) May 20, 2011 - 12:00am Two years ago, President Barack Obama reached out to the Muslim world in Cairo, promising a new beginning to America’s relationship with it. The Muslim world responded enthusiastically. It reached back in hope having heard him say that it was his duty to fight negative stereotypes of Islam and declare solemnly that the Israeli settlements had to stop and that the US would not turn its back on legitimate Palestinian aspirations for a state of their own. » Read more

Even allies say Netanyahu must put 1967 borders on negotiating table ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Hugh Naylor - May 20, 2011 - 12:00am Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is coming under pressure to agree to the 1967 borders as the basis for negotiating a Palestinian state ahead of his address to the US Congress next week. Critics and even some allies in Mr Netanyahu's right-wing government have strongly suggested he offer the compromise in the hope of reviving Middle East peace talks. That pressure received a significant boost by the US president, Barack Obama, who endorsed yesterday the idea of brokering a two-state solution with the 1967 lines as the starting point. » Read more

Obama misses another chance to lead for peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) May 20, 2011 - 12:00am At times, it seemed that Barack Obama thought that the Middle East did not include Israel or the Occupied Territories. "The United States opposes the use of violence and repression against the people of the region," the US president said last night. But there was not a word about 17 Palestinians killed earlier this week by Israeli security forces. "We support a set of universal rights," Mr Obama said." Whether you live in Baghdad or Damascus; Sanaa or Tehran." If Gaza or Ramallah had been mentioned, more explanation would have been needed. » Read more