Biden visits Middle East; Israel and Palestinians agree to indirect talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Janine Zacharia - March 9, 2010 - 1:00am

Vice President Biden arrived in Israel on Monday to boost U.S. efforts to mediate talks between Israelis and Palestinians amid criticism that the Obama administration has set back the peace process.

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From proximity to peace?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
(Editorial) March 9, 2010 - 1:00am

THE OBAMA administration appears near to a diplomatic achievement it expected long ago: the relaunch of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. It will be a modest start -- not a big conference or a convocation to Camp David but "proximity talks," in which envoy George J. Mitchell will shuttle between the two camps. This is, in one sense, a step backward for Israeli-Palestinian relations, since the two sides have been talking directly to each other, off and on, since 1991. But Mr.

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Salam Fayyad: The Palestinian with a plan for statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Leslie Susser - (Analysis) March 8, 2010 - 1:00am

Pundits and politicians have taken recently to comparing Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to Israel's founding father, David Ben-Gurion. No less a figure than President Shimon Peres, one of Ben-Gurion's foremost disciples, is the latest Israeli leader to offer the accolade. The reason is simple: Like Ben-Gurion, Fayyad is building institutions of statehood.

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U.S. vows to assign blame if Israel-PA talks fail
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - March 5, 2010 - 1:00am

The United States government has committed to playing a role in indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and promised that if the talks were to fail, the U.S. will assign blame and take action, according to a document sent by the U.S. to the Palestinian Authority, which Haaretz obtained on Friday. The U.S. government sent the document to the Palestinians responding to their inquires regarding the U.S. initiative to launch indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

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If Netanyahu wants peace, he knows what to do
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yoel Marcus - March 5, 2010 - 1:00am

British statesman Leopold Amery's plea to prime minister Neville Chamberlain - "For God's sake, go" - has undergone many incarnations, and I'm surprised at my colleague Nahum Barnea, who made do with a simple "Go" in reference to Avigdor Lieberman. The suspicion that Lieberman received documents relating to the investigation against him from our ambassador in Belarus is now being checked by the police. It doesn't smell good - not to mention that the stench of the foreign minister's behavior justifies speeding up the distribution of gas masks.

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Arab source: Mitchell wanted to quit over U.S. bias for Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jack Khoury - February 26, 2010 - 1:00am

An Arab political source said Friday that special U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell has requested to resign due to his frustration with the way the Obama administration has been handling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a Nazareth-based daily. Hadith a-Nass reported that Mitchell's request stemmed partly from to his own failure to advance the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and also from his perception that certain elements within the State Department hold biased favor toward Israel.

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Palestinians threaten to adopt one-state solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - February 26, 2010 - 1:00am

The Palestinian Authority has warned that it may abandon its support of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which outlines a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel, and instead pursue the creation of a binational state between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea, according to a document drafted by the PA's veteran chief negotiator. The paper, entitled "The Political Situation in Light of Developments with the U.S. Administration and Israeli Government and Hamas's Continued Coup d'etat," was written by Saeb Erekat in December 2009.

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Clinton: US hopes talks will start soon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 25, 2010 - 1:00am

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told US lawmakers on Wednesday that she hoped Israelis and Palestinians could resume negotiations toward a peace settlement “soon.” A year of US efforts to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table have failed so far, but Clinton struck an upbeat tone in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

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US slams Israel over designating heritage sites
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
February 25, 2010 - 1:00am

The Obama administration criticized Israel for designating two shrines on Palestinian territory as Israeli national heritage sites. The criticism came as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday she hopes long-stalled peace talks between Israelis and the Palestinians will resume. Clinton told a congressional committee that groundwork is being laid to restart the talks with the help of US envoy George Mitchell. She did not say exactly when the negotiations might resume, but her remarks come amid a flurry of US diplomatic activity in the region.

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Are serious negotiations around the corner?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) February 25, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestinians and many others around the world are trying to figure out whether the current US-backed push to restart Mideast talks will lead to serious negotiations or will it be just another act that leads nowhere.

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