'Knesset unlikely to see term's end'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
August 7, 2011 - 12:00am

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Sunday that it was highly unlikely the current Knesset would see the end of its term. "I believe that 2012 will be a year when a decision on the next elections is made," he told Knesset TV. "I don't think the (current) Knesset will see November 2013, because politics has a way of mandating crises, so that they can be reflected in the ballots."

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Israel's Lieberman tweaks Turkey. Is he flanking Netanyahu?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - December 27, 2010 - 1:00am

A recent attempt to mend Israel-Turkey ties appears to be on the rocks, with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman lobbying against apologizing to Ankara for the killing of nine Turkish citizens on the Gaza aid flotilla when they challenged Israel's naval blockade of the territory in May.

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Palestinian sees no serious talks with Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Tom Perry - October 7, 2010 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Oct 7 (Reuters) - A senior Palestinian official said on Thursday he saw no hope of a serious peace process with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in some of the darkest comments to date on the U.S.-mediated talks. Yasser Abed Rabbo's remarks signalled deep Palestinian skepticism about the outlook for the talks, which began on Sept. 2 but have been on hold since an Israeli moratorium on new settlement building in the West Bank expired last week. The United States wants the talks to continue and has been trying to find a formula to save the negotiations.

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Labor expects new settlement freeze as payoff for loyalty oath
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jonathan Lis - October 7, 2010 - 12:00am

Labor party ministers angered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's snap decision to back a controversial citizenship loyalty oath said late Wednesday that they expected a new freeze in settlement building as a payoff. Netanyahu neglected to inform his Labor coalition partners that he had approved a right-wing minister's draft of a new oath that would require any non-Jew taking Israeli citizenship to swear allegiance to Israel as a "Jewish and democratic state."

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On being an Arab lawmaker in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - May 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Ahmad Tibi, a member of Israel's parliament, talks about why he thinks democracy in Israel applies only to Jewish citizens, why he'll never accept Israel as a Jewish state and why he'll never leave. Reporting from Jerusalem As one of Israel's few Arab lawmakers, Ahmad Tibi knows how to fight to be heard, even when colleagues don't want to listen.

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Israeli's Livni says reports of her political demise are premature
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders, Batsheva Sobelman - January 25, 2010 - 1:00am

Many people expected Tzipi Livni to become Israel's first female prime minister since Golda Meir. After her high-profile stint as foreign minister, the centrist Kadima party she heads won more votes than any other in elections last year. International leaders praised her as a new-style Israeli politician who could finally make peace with the Palestinians. Yet things aren't working out that way for Livni. Rather than making history, the 51-year-old is fighting for her political life.

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Olmert's negotiator: Full Mideast peace impossible
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn, Barak Ravid - January 25, 2010 - 1:00am

"I do not believe that in the foreseeable future there is a possibility of an agreement with the Palestinians on all the issues, especially on the problematic core issues," says Udi Dekel, who headed the negotiations task force in the previous government. Dekel spoke on Thursday at a conference on the unofficial "Geneva Initiative" peace plan. Other participants included many members of the diplomatic corps.

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Israel's Settlement Freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Michael B. Oren - (Opinion) December 7, 2009 - 1:00am

Distracted by the crucial debate over Afghanistan, many Americans may have missed a pivotal event in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. On Nov. 25, Israel's government announced a 10-month construction freeze in Judea and Samaria—the areas generally known as the West Bank. Though some projects already begun will be completed and essential public buildings like medical clinics and schools will be approved, no new housing permits will be issued.

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ANALYSIS / Netanyahu senses Obama's weakness on Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Analysis) November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

If there is anything that irks the White House more than news from the American consulate in Jerusalem about new West Bank settlements, it is a newspaper report on a new neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Thus when U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's envoy, Yitzhak Molcho, on Monday about a new construction project in Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood, which is beyond the 1967 lines, Mitchell was hoping to settle the matter quietly.

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Press split on Palestinian statehood move
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
November 16, 2009 - 1:00am

Arab and Israeli press commentators are divided over a possible move by Palestinian leaders to ask the UN to recognise an independent Palestinian state. They have also been considering the warning issued by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israeli countermeasures. Some in the Arab world feel that the Palestinians have been left with little alternative, since Middle East peace talks have "gone astray" and "reached gridlock".

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