Obama to Confront Israeli Settlement Surge in Netanyahu Meeting
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg
by Jonathan Ferziger - May 14, 2009 - 12:00am

On a West Bank plateau overlooking the desert road to Jericho, crews are building cottages and paving streets for a new neighborhood in Maale Adumim, Israel’s biggest settlement. A town of 35,000 with a suburban-style shopping mall, Maale Adumim is one of about two dozen settlements Israel is expanding in the face of demands from U.S. and European leaders to halt construction. The push has helped increase the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, where Palestinians hope to create a state, by 40 percent in the last seven years to almost 300,000.

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A letter to Obama from former Mideast ambassadors
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Eric Fingerhut - May 14, 2009 - 12:00am

Four former U.S. ambassadors to the Middle East, including three former envoys to Israel, have signed a letter to President Obama urging an "active U.S. role" in pushing for a two-state solution. The letter was put together under the auspices of the Israel Policy Forum and,was signed by Samuel Lewis, a former ambassador to Israel; Robert Pelletreau, a former ambassador to Egypt; Thomas Pickering, a former ambassador to Israel and Jordan; and Edward Walker, a former ambassador to Israel and Egypt.

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Tony Blair holds out hope for two-state solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Barry Schweid - May 14, 2009 - 12:00am

A self-described optimist, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Congress on Thursday there is no workable alternative to a two-state solution to the long and bloody conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and both sides are in favor of it. But in practice, "they doubt it can happen," Blair told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

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Mubarak to Israel: Progress before Recognition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
May 13, 2009 - 12:00am

Progress in peace negotiations must come before Arab recognition of Israel, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview with Israel TV broadcast late Tuesday. Mubarak also addressed American suggestions that the 2002 Arab initiative, offering Israel normal relations with the Arab world if Israel withdraws from all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, east Jerusalem and Golan Heights, could be amended. He categorically rejected that idea and said the only road to peace is the creation of a Palestinian state.

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Obama To Offer Broader Regional Thaw for Israeli Nod to Statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - May 13, 2009 - 12:00am

President Obama will seek to revive the moribund Middle East peace process in his first official meeting with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, offering a new regional initiative that aims to bridge increasing differences between the new governments in Washington and Jerusalem. The new approach takes the 2002 Arab peace initiative another step forward by making clear that normal ties between Israel and the wider Arab world need not await the end of negotiations on the Palestinian issue.

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Obama Speech and Mubarak Visit Signal Improvement in US-Egypt Relations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Joyce Karam - (Opinion) May 12, 2009 - 12:00am

President Barack Obama's speech to the Muslim world from Egypt on June 4, and the upcoming visit of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to Washington signal a desire from both leaders to strengthen relations and increase cooperation on regional issues.

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Contest to win Obama’s ear
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Matt Bradley - May 12, 2009 - 12:00am

On his first trip to Egypt since his re-election as Israel’s prime minister in March, Benjamin Netanyahu said his new, far right government was committed to peace between Israel and the Palestinian people. But in the press conference that followed yesterday’s summit between Mr Netanyahu and Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, neither mentioned what many observers here see as the central conflict in yesterday’s meeting: which Middle Eastern leader will win the ear of new US president Barack Obama.

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Obama to push Israelis, Palestinians on peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
May 12, 2009 - 12:00am

U.S. President Barack Obama will urge Palestinian, Israeli and Egyptian leaders to take the steps necessary to achieve peace in the Middle East when they visit Washington this month, the White House said on Tuesday. The White House said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would visit on May 18, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on May 26 and President Mahmoud Abbas on May 28.

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The Prime Minister’s statement at the press conference with the President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, at Sharm el-Sheikh
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
May 11, 2009 - 12:00am

Thank you very much Mr. President. I am delighted to see you again. I brought with me an old friend of yours and of Egypt, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer.

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Netanyahu to meet Egyptian leader
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Vita Bekker - May 11, 2009 - 12:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president today, for the first time since being re-elected Israel’s prime minister amid differences between the two countries on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and tensions stirred by Israel’s ultranationalist foreign minister. The Israeli leader will meet Mr Mubarak in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh. The trip marks Mr Netanyahu’s first official visit abroad since being sworn in on March 31, and comes just a week before he holds a key meeting with Barack Obama, the US president, in Washington.

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