After setback, US resumes Mideast peace push
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Josef Federman - December 13, 2010 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — The U.S. Mideast envoy returned to the region on Monday, seeking to revive troubled peace efforts after a major setback in which Washington abandoned efforts to coax Israel to freeze Jewish settlement in areas Palestinians want for a future state. The envoy, George Mitchell, was expected to push the Israelis and Palestinians for progress on key issues at the heart of their conflict. But in a reflection of the difficulties ahead, Mitchell was being forced to meet separately with the sides during the two-day visit, and expectations for a breakthrough were low.

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In Need of a Strategy and Not Just Tactics!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by George Semaan - (Opinion) December 13, 2010 - 1:00am

It is one thing for the political process to collapse and for the American administration to fail due to its inability to pressure Benjamin Netanyahu, but it is a totally different thing for Washington to leave the region in a state of chaos and vacuum. While a settlement is impossible, or was rendered so by the Israeli right-wing, the United States is not ready to risk seeing the region slide towards the worst, and must at least give the impression that it is still committed to the peace process.

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Israel PM welcomes US backdown on settlement curbs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
December 13, 2010 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM (AP) — Washington's Mideast envoy is returning to the region on his first mission since the United States abandoned efforts to salvage direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians. In the absence of direct talks, George Mitchell will mediate between the two sides, meeting the Israeli leader on Monday and the Palestinian president on Tuesday. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton wants Israel and the Palestinians to detail their positions on the major issues dividing them.

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Abbas asks U.S. to press Israel to cancel Jerusalem evictions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
December 13, 2010 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday asked the United States to press Israel to cancel the eviction of a Hamas lawmaker from Jerusalem. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who is in Washington, carried a letter from Abbas to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which asked the U.S. administration to intervene, said Azzam Al-Ahmad, an aide to Abbas. On Wednesday, an Israeli court ruled to expel Mohammed Abu Tair from Jerusalem, who was later sent to the West Bank city of Ramallah.

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Obama's dose of reality may be a cure for the Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
December 13, 2010 - 1:00am

The Obama administration's announcement that it had capitulated before Israeli recalcitrance on a settlement freeze should be read as a cry for help. Mr Obama has, in fact, taken a bold step in acknowledging frankly that he has a problem. He has been repeating the rituals and catechisms of the failed Oslo peace process in the hope of producing a different outcome. Now, he's been forced to acknowledge that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a communication problem that can be solved by simply getting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas to talk.

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Rough road ahead for new U.S. Mideast peace push
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
by Tom Perry - December 12, 2010 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Neither Israeli nor Palestinian officials showed any enthusiasm on Sunday for a U.S. proposal of a return to indirect peace talks after the swift collapse of face-to-face negotiations. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, looking ahead to Washington's next steps in the troubled peace process, said in a speech on Friday the United States would push for the resolution of the core issues of the six-decade-old conflict.

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Top PA officials head to Washington
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestinian premier Salam Fayyad and chief negotiator Saeb Erakat were on Thursday flying to Washington to hold talks with top US officials over the crisis in peace talks. Fayyad was to hold talks with Hillary Clinton early on Friday ahead of a conference at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at which the secretary of state was to give a keynote address outlining a new strategy for advancing the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

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Palestinians weigh up option of seeking UN membership
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by James Reinl - December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

An application for UN membership and a request for the recognition of a sovereign state is one of several options on the table for the Palestinian leadership that will be decided upon during an Arab League meeting next week, a Palestinian envoy to the UN said yesterday. Palestinian officials hope to eventually win support from the 192-member UN General Assembly, said the envoy, who asked to remain anonymous. "We would try to have everyone on board because the question of Palestine is legally very clear under international law," the envoy said.

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Abbas Don’t Go
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Hassan Haidar - (Opinion) December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Shifts in US foreign policy, especially in the Middle East, prove that it is the making of amateurs, who do not hesitate to back down every time they are confronted with a problem, and who do not refrain from 180 degrees turnarounds every time difficulties appear before the ideas they have put forward to resolve any issue or crisis. Such frivolity was revealed by the WikiLeaks documents, which showed that most US diplomats all over the world were like eavesdropping workers who report what they hear here and there superficially and without any analysis, mixing up rumors and facts.

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Abject surrender
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Washington’s decision that it will no longer attempt to persuade the Israelis to impose a new moratorium on settlement construction in order to restart peace negotiations is an abject and shocking admission of failure. Everyone knew that that the Americans had serious difficulties trying to persuade the Israelis to concede on this vital issue. But there was wide belief that an ingenious diplomatic formula could be devised to enable talks to go ahead. No one imagined that President Barack Obama would simply capitulate to the Israelis. That is what has happened.

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