Oren presents Israel’s priorities for talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
June 30, 2011 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Israel's U.S. ambassador, Michael Oren, outlined for Jewish leaders his country's list of priorities in framing peace talks with the Palestinians. Oren, speaking Thursday in a conference call, said Israel is looking into President Obama's recent proposals for renewing talks. Such talks, Oren said, should be framed by what he called the "terms of reference": the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state; no return of Palestinian refugees; and a long-term military presence for Israel along the Jordan-West Bank border. Also, that an agreement would end all claims.

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Myth of indefensible borders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Daniel Nisman, Avi Yesawich - (Opinion) June 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Individuals who claim the 1967 borders are indefensible ignore the overarching paradigm shift of the Israeli-Arab conflict that has taken place over the last decade. The political outcry in Israel following Obama’s Mideast policy speech was palpable. The president stated what many Israeli hawks found to be unacceptable, if not outright dangerous: Any future Israeli-Palestinian agreement should be based on the 1967 borders with mutually agreed upon land swaps. Hysteria followed, with Netanyahu issuing a clear rebuke to Obama’s statement during his speech at the US Congress.

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The Language Bibi and Bam Used
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward
by Philologos - (Opinion) June 8, 2011 - 12:00am

“On the Same Page?” asked a front-page caption of the June 3 edition of the Forward, beneath which were parallel excerpts from President Barack Obama’s May 19 speech on U.S. policy in the Middle East and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s May 24 Congressional address. The second pair of matching quotes had the U.S.

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The Palestinians’ trick answer to Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jackson Diehl - June 7, 2011 - 12:00am

The chief Palestinian negotiator with Israel staked out a new position Tuesday in Washington: “We want to resume negotiations,” said Saeb Erekat, on the basis of President Obama’s recent Middle East address.

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J'lem unsure Obama moved EU against Palestinian UN bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - May 30, 2011 - 12:00am

In Jerusalem’s post mortem evaluations of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s stormy visit to Washington, questions were raised about the wisdom of the US trying to prevent European support of a Palestinian state at the UN by first setting a return to the 1967 lines, with mutual land swaps, as the negotiation baseline. White House officials have said that one of the reasons why President Barack Obama unveiled this as the new US position in his May 19 speech on the Middle East was to better be able to convince the Europeans that there was no need to support a Palestinian state.

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For Israelis, "defensible" border means more land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
by Dan Williams - (Analysis) May 29, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, May 29 (Reuters) - To ask Israeli officials how the border with a future Palestine should look is to invite a deluge of data -- from the regional military balance, to topographical surveys, to intelligence projections on Hamas strength. But no one will map it out. For while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused any return to the "indefensible" lines held before the West Bank's occupation in the 1967 war, the Israelis themselves have no ready alternative to hand.

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Israel stripped 140,000 Palestinians of residency rights, document reveals
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - May 11, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel stripped thousands of Palestinians of their right to live in the West Bank over a 27-year period, forcing most of them into permanent exile abroad, a document obtained under freedom of information laws has disclosed. Around 140,000 Palestinians who left to study or work had their residency rights revoked between 1967 and 1994.

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Netanyahu's West Bank plan reeks of irrational desperation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - April 13, 2011 - 12:00am

When Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu led the opposition to the Oslo Accords, he had a stroke of media brilliance. Speechwriter Netanyahu called the dynamic of the negotiations not "give and take," but "give and give," ridiculing the leaders of the left and promising that he would insist upon reciprocity. The Palestinians would have to pay through concessions for every dunam they receive in the territories. If they give, they'll get, he said on assuming office as prime minister, and if they don't give, they won't get.

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Return Gaza to Egypt: It will help Israel – and the Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Dashiell Shapiro - (Editorial) March 1, 2011 - 1:00am

The departure of Hosni Mubarak generates fear in Western capitals, and for good reasons. Egypt has been a steadfast ally of the West for decades, as it maintained peace with Israel and worked against Iranian influence in the region. Many Western leaders are frightened to realize that all this may evaporate if anti-Western forces, including the Muslim Brotherhood, gain power in a new government. But a new reality in Egypt may also present opportunities for peacemaking in the region that would have been unthinkable only weeks ago.

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On My Mind: Population swap conundrum
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Kenneth Bandler - (Opinion) February 22, 2011 - 1:00am

Umm el-Fahm was not originally part of Israel. Jordan consented to include the strategically located community – then a town of 4,500 – on the Israeli side of the 1949 armistice line established after theWar of Independence. But some Israeli Jews want to reverse that decision of 62 years ago. Reducing the number Arab citizens, now 20 percent of the population, they believe, would benefit the country’s future. Umm el-Fahm, its largest Arab city, with a population of 43,000, is therefore a target.

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