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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With statehood, Palestine ready to end all claims
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Karin Laub - October 17, 2010 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK — The Palestinians are ready to end all historic claims against Israel once they establish their state in the lands Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast War, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday, addressing a long-standing Israeli demand. In an interview with Israel TV, Abbas also said negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remain his preferred choice, but that he will consider other options if talks break down over Israel's continued settlement expansion.

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Gaza children deliver dreams, hopes to outside world through mini-boats
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
October 17, 2010 - 12:00am

GAZA, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Around 30 mini cork boats floated on the water of Gaza Strip sea heading to the outside world with local children's messages of their dreams and suffering and calling for ending the Israeli blockade.

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Israeli settlement building surges as US pushes for a new freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - October 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Beitar Illit, West Bank — In the two and a half weeks since Israel's settlement freeze expired, there's been a surge in construction on new West Bank homes, dimming prospect the Palestinians will agree to resume peace talks. "The resumption at this scale makes it more complicated to make arrangement that will allow a resumption of talks," says Palestinian government spokesman Ghassan Khatib. "They are putting more sticks in the wheels.''

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Palestinians counter Israeli offer on settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg - October 14, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM - Responding to an offer by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to extend a freeze on building in West Bank settlements if Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state, a top Palestinian official said Wednesday that such recognition could be granted to Israel within its 1967 borders, without the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. In media interviews, Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior official of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, countered Netanyahu's offer in another volley of the verbal ping-pong that has taken the place of direct negotiations.

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US backs Palestinian demand to see borders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 14, 2010 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON (Ma’an) -- The US on Wednesday supported the PLO's request to see a map of Israel's borders, but said such demands must be made face-to-face, not through the media. PLO Secretary-General Yasser Abed Rabbo on Wednesday called on Israel and the US to provide a map of Israel's borders before "asking anything else." "Israel is an unknown entity in terms of borders [so] how does it suggest to recognize it as a Jewish state? Israel and the US should first set out Israel's borders," he explained.

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Israel could reconsider presence in Jordan Valley
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Karin Laub - October 13, 2010 - 12:00am

JERICHO, WEST BANK — Israel's insistence on maintaining a presence on the eastern border of a future Palestinian state could be reviewed over time, a government spokesman said Wednesday. Israel's demand for such a presence is one of the potential obstacles to a Mideast peace deal. The Palestinians say they will not accept any Israeli deployment in their future state, arguing that the presence of international forces during a transition period — an idea they support — should be sufficient to address Israeli security concerns.

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Rattling the Cage: Any more doubts about Bibi?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) October 13, 2010 - 12:00am

Until this week, the question posed by “neutral observers” about Binyamin Netanyahu was whether he was going to follow the examples of Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon, or that of Yitzhak Shamir. Would he transform himself into a peacemaker like Begin and Sharon by uprooting settlements and relinquishing occupied territory, or would he be an immovable object like Shamir, aiming only to keep things “quiet” so he could build more settlements and close the door on Palestinian statehood?

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Israeli Minister Exposes Rift With Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - October 13, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — This week, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of Israel gave a dinner for the foreign ministers of France and Spain, who were here urging a West Bank settlement freeze to improve the chance for peace with the Palestinians. When the meal was over, Mr. Lieberman spoke.

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An End to Israel’s Invisibility
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Michael B. Oren - (Editorial) October 13, 2010 - 12:00am

NEARLY 63 years after the United Nations recognized the right of the Jewish people to independence in their homeland — and more than 62 years since Israel’s creation — the Palestinians are still denying the Jewish nature of the state. “Israel can name itself whatever it wants,” said the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, while, according to the newspaper Haaretz, his chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said that the Palestinian Authority will never recognize Israel as the Jewish state. Back in 1948, opposition to the legitimacy of a Jewish state ignited a war.

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