Obama can let Palestinians seek state recognition at the UN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
(Editorial) October 29, 2010 - 12:00am

President Obama may soon have an unusual chance to serve the cause of Middle East peace by remaining silent. He could quietly acquiesce to a move being considered by Palestinian leaders to ask the United Nations to recognize a state of Palestine. Such a request would only be necessary in one case: if Israel effectively ends any hope of renewed peace negotiations by continuing to build Jewish settlements on Palestinian territory in the West Bank.

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Mideast sides eye US midterms and impact on talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Amy Teibel - October 25, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israelis and Palestinians are closely watching next month's U.S. midterm race amid a sense — rarely discussed openly but very much on people's minds — that the result could affect the U.S.-led peace effort, and President Obama's ability to coax concessions from Israel. Animating the discussion is the startling fact that the United States has failed, despite emphatic public appeals by Obama and weeks of increasingly frustrating diplomacy, to persuade Israel to extend the settlement-building slowdown that expired on Sept. 26.

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The end of Oslo
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - October 25, 2010 - 12:00am

What fate would have befell the Oslo Accords if Yitzhak Rabin had not been assassinated in a Tel Aviv square on the night of November 4, 1995? Would he have succeeded in overcoming opposition at home and kept his promise to reach a final-status deal before the dawn of the new millennium? Would nothing have changed his position regarding the division of Jerusalem, just as he changed his position on the issue of conducting negotiations with the Palestine Liberation Organization? Would the Palestinians have succeeded in adopting a realistic solution to the refugee problem?

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Pope: Mideast peace is possible, urgently needed
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
October 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday called for greater religious freedom in the Middle East and said that peace there is possible, urgently needed and the best remedy to the exodus of Christians from the region. Benedict celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday to mark the end of a two-week meeting of Mideast bishops, called to discuss the future of embattled Christians in the largely Muslim region. He called freedom of religion "one of the fundamental human rights, which each state should always respect" and said the issue should be the subject of dialogue with Muslims.

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Why Israeli settlement construction must stop
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Nabeel Shaath - (Opinion) October 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Ramallah, West Bank — After more than two decades of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, we are at a turning point in the history of the region. As a Palestinian negotiator for over 20 years, I see that tough decisions have to be made. The stakes are too high – not just for the Palestinian people, but for the entire region’s stability.

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Israel tells Palestinians talks only option
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Amy Teibel - October 24, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel's prime minister on Sunday urged the Palestinians to avoid unilateral action and resume peace talks, a reflection of growing concern that the Palestinian leadership may be inching toward a "Plan B" in which they seek international recognition of an independent state without Israeli agreement.

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Some Question Insistence on Israel as Jewish State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - (Analysis) October 24, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — The more stridently Israel insists on Palestinian recognition of it as the nation-state of the Jewish people, the more adamantly the Palestinian leadership seems to refuse. As a result, some senior Israeli officials are beginning to question the wisdom of the policy of their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made recognition of the legitimacy of the Jewish nation-state a prerequisite for any final agreement with the Palestinians.

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Abbas: Netanyahu fears govt collapse
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 18, 2010 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu told him he could not extend the settlement moratorium "because he fears his government might collapse." In an interview with Israel's Channel 1, Abbas further said "the government isn't more valuable than peace, neither is it more valuable than the future of both peoples."

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Israeli official: Moroccan king won't meet Peres
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Amy Teibel - October 18, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — The king of Morocco has rejected a request to meet with Israel's president because of the impasse in Mideast peacemaking, an aide to the Israeli statesman said Monday in a new diplomatic fallout from the deadlocked peace talks. President Shimon Peres had asked to meet with King Mohammed VI on the sidelines of an upcoming international conference in Marrakech. But the monarch — citing the stalled talks — said the timing wasn't right, the aide said.

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Israel Renews Bid to Free Soldier Held by Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - October 17, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM —Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel had recently renewed contacts with a German mediator to negotiate the release of a captured Israeli soldier, Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, who is being held by Hamas. Related “We are working all the time and in various ways to try to bring Gilad back,” Mr. Netanyahu told Israel’s Army Radio. “One of those ways, even the main way, is through negotiations, which indeed resumed a few weeks ago.”

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