Netanyahu: No settlement freeze vote without U.S. offer in writing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - November 21, 2010 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told lawmakers on Sunday that he had not yet received a written draft from the United States over a proposed package of incentives in exchange for a freeze on West Bank construction. "We still have not received from the Americans a written summary of the principle understandings," Netanyahu told eight MKs from his Likud party, adding that he would not bring the offer for cabinet vote until he saw the proposal in its entirety.

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PA slams NIS 85 million Kotel development project
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - November 21, 2010 - 1:00am

"This move preventing us from reaching solution," PA spokesman says; project to help accommodate 8 million annual visitors to Western Wall. The Palestinian Authority slammed a Sunday cabinet decision to allot NIS 85 million to a development project for the Western Wall over the next five years, AFP reported. Ghassan Hatib, a PA spokesperson reportedly said: "Israel does not have permission to make changes in the occupied territories, especially in Jerusalem." "This move is preventing us from reaching an agreement, because any solution must include Jerusalem," Hatib added.

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The Meaning of Peace in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Hussein Shobokshi - (Opinion) November 21, 2010 - 1:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is making a mockery of the entire world, by feigning to succumb to the pressure exerted upon him, and announcing his acceptance of a temporary freeze on settlement construction. According to the deal, Israel will only continue the construction process in the West Bank, with the exception of Jerusalem. At the same time, Netanyahu has received a substantial reward, in the form of significant military equipment, estimated to be worth billions of dollars, from the United States. This incentive has been financed by U.S.

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Israel, U.S. struggling to conclude settlement pact
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
November 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Talks between Israeli and U.S. officials aimed at reviving Middle East peace negotiations have hit snags over incentives promised by Washington to persuade Israel to resume a freeze of Jewish settlement building. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the U.S. inducements to his cabinet last weekend and appeared hopeful the ministers would back plans for a temporary halt to building in the occupied West Bank to overcome a hurdle to the peace talks.

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Editors Notes: Didn’t we used to be on the same side?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Horovitz - (Opinion) November 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Earlier this month, in an op-ed for The New York Times marking the 15th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, former US president Bill Clinton told the tie story. Again. The story, often repeated, that shows a Rabin so focused on the important things of life, so “utterly without pretense” as Clinton put it, that he never quite came to terms with this merely decorative article of clothing.

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Arafat: The Man We Now Miss
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed - (Opinion) November 19, 2010 - 1:00am

If late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was among us today, would the Palestinian situation be as it is? Gaza is in a state of secession, negotiations are at a stalemate, the Palestinian cause has dropped down the list of priorities, coming behind the issues of Iraq, Iran, the Shebaa farms, Darfur and al-Qaeda in Yemen.

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Abbas aide: Palestine won't be pretext for weapons sale
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
November 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told reporters on Friday that Palestinians would not be used as a pretext for supplying Israel with weapons. Commenting from the Jordanian capital, Abu Rudeina said the Palestinian position on the matter of the US-Israel deal for an extension to the settlement freeze was clear.

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Israel should change course
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Hanan Ashrawi - (Opinion) November 18, 2010 - 1:00am

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reached a critical stage. For more than two decades, the two-state solution has been the basis of international efforts to make peace in the region. Yet the Israeli government's refusal to cease colony construction in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem will shortly render the creation of a territorially contiguous and viable Palestinian state impossible.

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Hague's Guantanamo plea overshadows Middle East talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by David Usborne - November 18, 2010 - 1:00am

A day after announcing it was to pay millions in tax-payers' money to compensate a group of 16 men who were detained and allegedly tortured by American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, the Government last night implored the US to free the last Briton remaining there. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, made the appeal during talks with the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, in Washington. The issue has attracted a broad mix of reactions in the US, not all of them exactly in tune with the "special relationship" that the two countries insist they enjoy.

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U.S. official: Israel must refrain from East Jerusalem construction during freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - November 18, 2010 - 1:00am

The United States will demand that Israel refrain from construction in both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as part of a 90-day settlement freeze Secretary Hillary Clinton has requested in exchange for a package of incentives, a U.S. official told Haaretz on Thursday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scrambling to gather cabinet support for the settlement freeze. The ultra-Orthodox party Shas currently holds the balance of votes on the matter.

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