U.S. Scrambling to Save Talks on Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Mark Landler - September 26, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel allowed a politically charged freeze on Jewish settlement building in the West Bank to expire on Sunday, but the Palestinians did not carry out a threat to quit peace negotiations, setting the stage for further frantic efforts to keep the talks alive. For President Obama, who had publicly called on Israel to extend the freeze, the Israeli decision was another setback in what has been a tortuous effort to help resolve one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.

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Israeli settlers rev bulldozers as settlement freeze nears end
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - September 26, 2010 - 12:00am

Tel Aviv — With Israel and Palestinian negotiators deadlocked over settlement expansion just hours before the expiration of a 10-month Israeli settlement freeze, Jewish settlers vowed to renew building during symbolic celebrations in the West Bank.

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As Israel settlement freeze ends, one-year peace plan begins
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - September 26, 2010 - 12:00am

Tel Aviv — If negotiators can overcome today’s deadline to resolve a dispute on Israeli settlement expansion and keep peace talks alive, the date of September 2011 will begin to loom as the target for reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

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Palestinian President Abbas has the most to lose
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
(Editorial) September 25, 2010 - 12:00am

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S Middle East peace diplomacy has made some progress, but an early error still haunts it. The president's ill-advised attempt to force a freeze of Israeli housing construction in Jerusalem and the West Bank could cause the breakdown this weekend of direct talks on a final settlement, only a month after they began.

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Obama: Israeli-Palestinian peace talks might focus first on possible border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - (Analysis) September 10, 2010 - 12:00am

President Obama on Friday signaled that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators might begin their peace talks by focusing on the potential border between the two states in order to overcome conflicts over Israeli settlement growth on the West Bank.

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Lieberman proposes peace 'blueprint'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
June 24, 2010 - 12:00am

Arguing that “history is moving away from attempts to accommodate competing national aspirations in a single state,” Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday issued a highly specific demand for “an exchange of populated territories” that would place many Israeli Arabs inside a new Palestinian state. In an op-ed that appears in Thursday’s Jerusalem Post, he stressed that this would not require “physical population transfer or the demolition of houses,” but rather “creating a border where none existed, according to demographics...”

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My blueprint for a resolution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Avigdor Lieberman - (Opinion) June 24, 2010 - 12:00am

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” Albert Einstein once said. Since 1993, successive governments, supported by the international community, have tried to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict using the flawed paradigm of land for peace. Each time, the same formula was attempted, but failed every time because of Arab recalcitrance.

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Borders key to peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Houston Chronicle
by EDWARD P. DJEREJIAN - May 22, 2010 - 12:00am

As U.S. Middle East peace special envoy George Mitchell holds proximity talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians, he will have to immediately address two of the timeliest issues in the conflict: the future borders of Israel and a Palestinian state and Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The settlements — which are illegal under international law — have been described by both Republican and Democratic administrations as an obstacle to peace.

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Palestinians Offer Wider Concessions on Land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Charles Levinson - May 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian negotiators have surprised Washington with a bold opening offer to White House peace envoy George Mitchell that includes concessions on territory beyond those offered in past Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, according to officials briefed on the current negotiations.

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Mitchell to launch proximity talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - May 18, 2010 - 12:00am

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is scheduled to hold talks in Ramallah on Wednesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, marking the launch of the “proximity talks” with Israel, PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Monday. Mitchell is to arrive in Israel on Tuesday afternoon, and meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday. He is set to leave the region later that day.

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