Abbas urges US 'endgame' unless Israel halts settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
January 17, 2010 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas urged Washington on Sunday to declare an "endgame" to resolve the decades-old Middle East conflict if Israel does not agree to halt settlement growth. Abbas, in a statement carried by the official Wafa wire service, said Arab states and the Palestinians would present a unified position to the United States offering two options.

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Focus on West Bank, Not Negotiating
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Council On Foreign Relations
(Interview) January 13, 2010 - 1:00am

Elliott Abrams, a CFR expert who served as a senior Middle East adviser in the George W. Bush administration, says he questions the chances for a breakthrough in efforts to negotiate a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

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Fatah leaders review peace prospects
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Editorial) January 12, 2010 - 1:00am

Ramallah – Ma’an – Fatah’s Central Committee began discussions with party leader and President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday concerning the latest developments on the resumption of negotiations with Israel. The meetings, according to sources within the committee, are due to end Monday evening, before discussing the Egyptian and Jordanian delegations’ visit to Washington, calling for further efforts on the Middle East peace process.

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Netanyahu: Israel will never share Jerusalem with Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - (Analysis) January 12, 2010 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on Tuesday that Israel would never cede control of united Jerusalem nor retreat to the 1967 borders, according to a bureau statement. The statement came after Egypt's foreign minister said in Cairo last week that Netanyahu was ready to discuss making "Arab Jerusalem" the capital of a Palestinian state. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority could abandon its demand for a freeze on construction in East Jerusalem in exchange for an easing of the siege on Gaza and a halt to Israeli assassinations in the West Bank.

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Pope calls for two-state solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
January 12, 2010 - 1:00am

ROME (JTA) -- Pope Benedict XVI called for "universal recognition" of both Israel's right to exist and the rights of Palestinians to an independent state. In his traditional New Year's address Monday to world diplomats accredited to the Vatican, the pope recalled that during his trip to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority last May, he had "urgently appealed" for dialogue and respect between Israelis and the Palestinians.

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U.S. ambition alone won't forge Mideast peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jackson Diehl - (Opinion) January 11, 2010 - 1:00am

Give George Mitchell points for perseverance, at least. Last year the attempt by President Obama's Middle East envoy to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, with an ambitious two-year deadline, was an embarrassing flop. Neither Israelis nor Palestinians showed much interest in new negotiations. As the world watched, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu forced the administration to retreat from its demand for a complete freeze on settlement building, while Saudi King Abdullah directly rebuffed Obama after he traveled to Riyadh to ask for a gesture to Israel.

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Obama admin. considers giving letters to Middle East parties on peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
(Editorial) January 11, 2010 - 1:00am

As it ramps up efforts to get Israel-Palestinian peace talks restarted, the Obama administration is considering sending letters to the Middle East parties, diplomatic sources tell POLITICO. The letters the Obama administration is considering giving to the Middle East parties outline what the U.S. expects from Israel-Palestinian peace talks, a diplomat source said. The letters, signed by President Obama, describe terms of reference that serve as the basis for negotiations moving forward, another source who declined to be identified said.

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A difficult path to peace can still be travelled
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) January 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Judging from the intense activity on the Arab-Israeli peace front in recent weeks, there is reason for cautious hope that the current paralysis will end soon. The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was recently in Cairo meeting the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers met the US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and the peace envoy George Mitchell last week, while Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, visited Cairo, Riyadh and Damascus.

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The American Way out and Arab Divisions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Abdullah Iskandar - (Opinion) January 10, 2010 - 1:00am

On the occasion of her talks with Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh and Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Washington last Friday, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought to palter about the real obstacle to resuming the Palestinian peace process. Prior to the visit of the US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell to the region, she relegated the problem of the ongoing Israeli settlements – on Palestinian territory designed to be part of the prospective Palestinian State– into a theoretical or even an academic issue.

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In Israel, a highway that divides
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - January 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Reporting from Highway 443, West Bank — Cruising down this disputed four-lane highway, with all its twists and turns, is like taking a road trip through the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You pass the walls and barriers that keep Palestinians from accessing Highway 443 as it slices through their land. Then there are the hazardous corridors where Israeli drivers have been shot and killed.

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