Israel silent on Obama's four-month building freeze in East Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - March 31, 2010 - 12:00am

President Barack Obama asked Israel to agree to put a four-month freeze on plans to pursue controversial construction projects in East Jerusalem, in return for enabling direct Israel-Palestinian peace talks to start, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Wednesday. The paper quoted an unnamed official in Jerusalem. Officials at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv were unavailable for comment.

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Palestinian PM ploughs ahead with future state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ali Waked - March 30, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Salam Fayyad got behind a horse-drawn plough in the West Bank on Tuesday and drilled a furrow in protest against Israeli control of Palestinian land. Wearing a T-shirt and a hat, the former World Bank economist put his foot to the rusty plough as Jewish settlers watched from a hilltop outpost nearby. Arab protestors attend special ceremony in Sakhnin, cry out: 'Barak, how many children have you killed today?' MKs present complain of Israel's 'racist policies', say they won't stop fighting for 'stolen land'

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Time to change the status quo
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Alon Ben-meir - (Opinion) March 30, 2010 - 12:00am

The last few weeks have looked like a crash course in Middle East diplomacy, replete with the grandeur of talks and lofty speechmaking and the lows that shamed even those most committed to the peace process. As the media frenzy played out, the public watched as Israel and its closest ally celebrated proximity talks, clashed over the untimely announcement of new construction in Jerusalem and worked through their differences during the AIPAC conference in Washington and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s subsequent meeting with President Barack Obama.

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Israel lobby presses Congress to soften Obama's tough stance on Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Chris McGreal - March 30, 2010 - 12:00am

America's main pro-Israel lobby group is mobilising members of Congress to pressure the White House over its bitter public confrontation with Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. The move, by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), appears aimed at exploiting differences in the Obama administration as it decides how to use the crisis around settlement building in Jerusalem to press Israel towards concessions to kickstart peace negotiations.

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Report: 55% of Israeli settlers in Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 30, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics issued a statement Tuesday to mark Land Day, estimating that more than 85% of Palestinian land remains under Israeli control, with 55% of settlers in the West Bank centered in the Jerusalem governorate.

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'Obama must do more to mend ties'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Hilary Leila Krieger - March 29, 2010 - 12:00am

A top Jewish leader on Monday urged the Obama administration to do more to push back against negative aspersions about the Jewish community and the state of the US-Israel relationship in the wake of recent tensions between the two countries. “The outward appearances have been perceived and described in much of the media in very negative terms and I would hope that’s something theadministration would address,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations.

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No resolution to U.S.-Israel tensions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - March 29, 2010 - 12:00am

For Benjamin Netanyahu, the formula for resolving U.S.-Israeli tensions came in the form of a flow chart. The Israeli prime minister took the chart with him when he met with Obama administration officials and visited the White House last week, two weeks after Israel angered the U.S. administration by announcing plans for 1,600 new housing units in a Jewish neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem during a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden. But the flow chart presentation didn't quite do the trick, and Netanyahu's relationship with President Obama remains on the rocks.

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East Jerusalem house is a home divided
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - (Opinion) March 29, 2010 - 12:00am

A tiny brick house. A disputed neighborhood. And a Solomon-style court ruling that has placed two sets of strangers -- with nothing in common but hatred -- under the same flat roof. Since December, Israelis have resided in the front part of a house where Palestinians have long lived. All that separates them is a bedroom wall, a sealed door and, lately, the police, who visit regularly to break up the fights.

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Lo, the Mideast Moves
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) March 29, 2010 - 12:00am

The passage of the U.S. health care bill is a major foreign policy victory for President Barack Obama. It empowers him by demonstrating his ability to deliver. Nowhere is that more important than in the Middle East. All the global mutterings about the “Carterization” of Obama, and the talk (widespread in Israel) of kicking the can down the road and so getting through the “garbage time” of a one-term president — that is suddenly yesterday’s chatter.

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Ministers Reaffirm Jerusalem Stance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - March 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Senior Israeli ministers have publicly rejected American demands for curbs on building in Jewish areas of East Jerusalem and other concessions to the Palestinians, indicating no imminent end to the rift between Israel and the United States. Benny Begin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner cabinet — which has met twice since Mr. Netanyahu returned from Washington last week — said Monday on Israel Radio that the status of East Jerusalem should be resolved in direct negotiations with the Palestinians, not in advance.

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