ISRAEL: Are Palestinians and Israelis ready to talk face to face?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Raising hopes that direct peace talks might soon be renewed, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad met Monday in Jerusalem with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the first high-level meeting since February. Fayyad said in a statement that they discussed “a number of vital and key issues as well as Israeli violations of the rights of our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including Jerusalem.”

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The Palestinians have set the stage for Netanyahu's Washington trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am

This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his entourage will be visiting Washington and meeting with Pres. Obama tomorrow, but it all comes very much in the context of last month's highly successful trip by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and an entourage of PLO leaders, the centerpiece of which was a meeting on June 9 with Obama in the White House. The logic of the Abbas visit, which had originally been scheduled to follow one week after a similar meeting between Obama and Netanyahu, originally seemed lost due to Netanyahu's cancelation of his meeting.

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PM prepares for US visit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
July 2, 2010 - 12:00am

National Security Advisers Uzi Arad and Yitzhak Molko, will leave for Egypt on Sunday to meet with head of Egyptian Intelligence Omar Suleiman, Israel Radio reported on Friday. The meeting is meant to help Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu prepare for his trip to Washington on Monday. Netanyahu plans to meet US President Barack Obama next week to discuss the peace process.

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Official: PM-Obama talks to determine region's future
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roni Sofer - July 2, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's senior advisor's, Yitzhak Molcho and Uzi Arad, are expected to leave for Cairo on Sunday for meetings with senior Egyptian officials ahead of Netanyahu's meeting with US President Barack Obama in Washington next week. "This time, the talks with President Obama on the Palestinian issue are more important than ever," a senior state official in Jerusalem said Friday morning. "They will determine the future of the process in the region."

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Turkish and Israeli Officials Meet Secretly on Raid Crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Dina Kraft - July 1, 2010 - 12:00am

The Turkish foreign minister and an Israeli cabinet member met secretly in Europe on Wednesday to try to defuse the crisis that erupted after Israel’s deadly raid on a Turkish aid boat bound for Gaza. According to Israeli news reports, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey and Industry Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer of Israel met in Zurich.

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Palestinians seek new partner: American Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Josef Federman - June 29, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinians have long feared the Jewish lobby in Washington. Now, they are embracing it.

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Israeli Ambassador Oren denies statement of 'rift' with U.S., despite reports
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - June 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren denied Sunday that he had told Israeli diplomats a "tectonic rift" was emerging between the United States and Israel -- incendiary words first reported in the Israeli press and then repeated in media outlets around the globe.

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Obama to meet with Israel's Netanyahu on July 6
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
June 21, 2010 - 12:00am

President Obama's latest White House meeting with Israel's prime minister is set for July 6 -- more than a month after their last one was scuttled at the last minute. Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu had planned talks on June 1. But that fell apart after Israel's deadly raid May 31 on an aid flotilla hoping to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. The raid has strained U.S. and Israeli relations, and the White House has announced a $400 million aid package for Gaza and the West Bank.

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Hizbullah, Hamas, Iran to meet in Damascus
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian opposition factions, Hizbullah officials and a delegation of Iranians, will soon meet in Damascus, the Kuwaiti Al-Anba daily newspaper reported on Monday. The meeting, according to the anonymous source quoted in the paper, will take place in late June, under official Syrian patronage, in an effort to activate resistance in the region in light of an expected Israeli offensive against Iran or against Hizbullah in Lebanon.

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Mitchell holds talks with Abbas in Ramallah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
June 18, 2010 - 12:00am

U.S. peace envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell arrived on Friday in the West Bank city of Ramallah and immediately held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, official Palestinian sources said. The sources said that Mitchell met with Abbas to follow up the U.S.-sponsored proximity talks, which were officially launched between Israel and the Palestinians on May 9. Meanwhile, Yasser Abed Rabbo, a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official, said in a statement that President Abbas is awaiting to hear the Israeli answers that Mitchell is carrying with him.

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