Campaigns to hurt Israeli economy really hurt Middle East peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Jon Haber - (Opinion) September 16, 2010 - 12:00am

After three years of relative quiet, Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns have been making a comeback in the past 12 months. The BDS movement demands that organizations divest from Israel’s economy as a protest against claims of human-rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Certainly, loud divestment protests on well-known college campuses and boycott decisions by aging pop stars may make sexier headlines than the quieter work of peace negotiations.

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Israelis, Palestinians already broaching tough topics in talks, envoy says
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - September 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli and Palestinian leaders are delving very quickly into some of the most difficult issues dividing them, the U.S. special envoy to the region said in an unusually upbeat report Wednesday, even as Israeli fighters bombed a smuggling tunnel and Palestinian militants launched mortar rounds into southern Israel.

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U.S. sees progress in Mideast peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Arshad Mohammed - September 15, 2010 - 12:00am

The United States said on Wednesday it believed Israel and the Palestinians were making progress towards resolving a dispute over settlement building that threatens to sink their newly-launched peace talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to his official residence, shaking his hand as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looked on approvingly, a day after the three met in Egypt.

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Israel and Palestinian Leaders Extend Egypt Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Mark Landler<br /> - September 14, 2010 - 12:00am

The leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority held nearly two hours of face-to-face talks in this Red Sea resort on Tuesday in a second round of negotiations that delved into the core issues dividing them but did not yet break an impasse over Jewish settlements. President Obama’s special representative to the Middle East, George J. Mitchell, said he was encouraged by the overall direction of the talks but declined to say whether the two sides made any progress on a dispute over Israel’s moratorium on settlement construction, due to expire on Sept. 26.

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Sha'ath: Key issues on Sharm agenda
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 14, 2010 - 12:00am

The second round of negotiations in Egypt will focus on land, borders and security, said member of the Palestinian negotiations team Nabil Sha'ath on Tuesday, as officials and leaders arrive in the coastal resort town ahead of talks. Sha'ath said reports that the talks in Sharm Ash-Sheikh will focus on Israel security matters solely were false, adding in a statement that "there is no security without the land and the borders and they know this very well."

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Israeli-Palestinian talks in Egypt address key issues of conflict
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - September 14, 2010 - 12:00am

Meeting in Egypt for their second peace summit in two weeks, Israeli and Palestinian leaders began discussing for the first time Tuesday some of the issues at the heart of a possible treaty, even as a dispute over settlement expansion clouds the future of the talks. Both Israeli and US officials sounded upbeat about the atmosphere at the talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. US peace envoy George Mitchell, who accompanied Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the summit, said the discussions of those core issues were "serious, detailed, and extensive."

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Why Egypt seeks prominent role in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Kristen Chick - September 14, 2010 - 12:00am

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak today hosted Israeli and Palestinian leaders for the second round of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. Most Middle East nations are sitting on the sidelines, not wanting to expend political capital on a potentially fruitless exercise. But for Mr. Mubarak, the negotiations provide a new opportunity to persuade the US that his role in the process should merit freedom from US pressure on key domestic issues like upcoming elections and the prospect of succession by the president’s son Gamal.

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Artists fight over Israel: The sequel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ami Eden - September 14, 2010 - 12:00am

Big-time Hollywood Jews sent a strong message last year to artists protesting Israel: Don’t mess with Tel Aviv. What’s the buzz these days following the release of a sequel of sorts aimed at the West Bank Israeli settlement of Ariel? It’s complicated.

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After Negotiations, Israel Emerges on Twitter
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner<br />, Raphael Minder - September 13, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel has acquired the user name @israel on Twitter, the microblogging Internet service, from the Spanish owner of a pornographic Web site, in an unusual transaction intended to help Israel exercise more influence over its image. The owner of the user name, Israel Meléndez, got it in 2007, when Twitter was in its infancy. He struggled to use his account, however, because every posting prompted a flood of anti-Semitic or anti-Israel comments from Twitter users, in a case of mistaken identity.

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Europe’s Absence from the Palestinian-Israeli Negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Randa Takieddine - September 8, 2010 - 12:00am

French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed a high degree of resentment of the fact that the European Union was not invited to the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, during his meeting with President Hosni Mubarak at the Elysee Palace on his way to Washington. Meanwhile, the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was the only European minister who sent a letter to Catherine Ashton, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, to say that the absence of the European Union (EU) from the these talks is unacceptable.

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