'Urgency' in US Middle East talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
September 14, 2009 - 12:00am

The US has launched a new effort to finalise terms for fresh negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Mr Mitchell has been discussing the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank - a key stumbling block. He said: "It is our intention to conclude this phase of our discussions in the very near future." "This will enable us to move on to the next and really the more important phase," he added. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.

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US envoy has hopes for settlement deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Vita Bekker - September 14, 2009 - 12:00am

George Mitchell, the top US envoy to the Middle East, said yesterday that he hoped to conclude an agreement with Israel on a possible freeze of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank this week to help spur the renewal of peace talks. Mr Mitchell, who arrived in Israel on Saturday, said after a meeting with Shimon Peres, the Israeli president: “While we have not yet reached agreement on many outstanding issues, we are working hard to do so, and indeed the purpose of my visit here this week is an attempt to do so.”

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Is It a Resolution or Dissolution?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Times
by Reema I. Ali - September 10, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinians refer to initiatives for a peaceful resolution of their conflict with Israel as “dissolution and not a resolution.” It is referred to as another attempt to dissolve their national identity and pride and not to resolve the conflict. This outcry is not without basis. The path to peace has complicated their lives and their voice is far too often lost in the corridors of politics for the sake of expediency.

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Israel pushes ahead with East Jerusalem building
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Jonathan Adams - September 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel announced building plans in contested East Jerusalem today in a move likely to complicate US-Israel talks over a freeze on Israeli settlements in disputed territories. The reports came days after Israel announced other plans to build new settlements in the West Bank (see a map of the settlements here). The Obama administration has pressed Israel for a freeze on all settlement activity as a condition for a return to peace talks with the Palestinians. Israel has shrugged off that demand.

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Israel picks contractors for new settlement homes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
September 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel has picked contractors for 486 new homes in a settlement in annexed Arab east Jerusalem, officials said on Wednesday, days after approving hundreds of new homes in the West Bank. "We published the winner of the bids," a spokesman for the Israel Lands Authority said. He was clarifying an earlier statement that said the tendering process had been reopened. Tenders were first invited in October 2008 but authorities rejected all the bids because of pricing disagreements. Authorities last month reversed the decision following an appeal by companies that had tendered.

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Abed Rabbo: Israel killing peace process before it begins
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel’s expansion of illegal settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank is intended to terminate the peace process before it even starts, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official Yasser Abed Rabbo said on Wednesday. Abed Rabbo told the Russia Today TV network, “They know quite well that such steps will provoke the Palestinians and the Arabs, and even the international community who agreed that settlements must stop as a major part in the Road Map plan. Thus, the Israeli government’s aim is to thwart the political efforts that will eventually lead to the two-state solution.”

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Israel’s settlement announcement irks negotiators, but unlikely to derail process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - September 9, 2009 - 12:00am

The United States and its partners pushing peace in the Middle East are treating Israel's announcement that it will build 455 new housing units in the West Bank before imposing a freeze as a buyer reviewing the unannounced "delivery fee" for a new car: Swallow hard, pay the extra bucks and move on. "It's difficult to understand what the Israelis want when they announce that kind of thing," one European diplomat said. "But it shouldn’t derail the process."

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Israeli Right tries to stop freeze on settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Vita Bekker - September 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli right-wing politicians and settler leaders have launched a last-minute campaign this week to pressure the government to reject the US call for a freeze on construction of Jewish homes in occupied Palestinian territory. The efforts by the Right come just days before Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is expected to reach a compromise with the United States on a temporary halt to settlement activity. Israeli media reported yesterday that he is likely to agree to a lull of six to nine months in the occupied West Bank.

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Israel's settlement charade makes mockery of peace, curbs Palestinians' options
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
(Editorial) September 9, 2009 - 12:00am

The Israeli government’s approval this week of plans to construct hundreds of new settler homes on occupied Palestinian Territory may well be remembered as the hammer that drove the final nail into the coffin of President Barack Obama’s peace efforts. All Israeli settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land is viewed as a “breach of international law,” according to a 2004 ruling by the International Court of Justice.

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Talks go on despite W. Bank construction
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In The Jerusalem Post - September 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Despite angry statements from the Palestinians and the Arab world, and condemnations from the US and the EU, Israel's announcement Monday of new housing starts in the settlements did not derail the diplomatic process; US envoy George Mitchell is expected here Saturday night, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is scheduled to fly to Egypt for talks on Sunday. "The settlements aren't the be-all, end-all" of American policy efforts, one State Department official told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. "Our ultimate goal [is] to create the conditions for negotiations."

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