Failure to advance Middle East peace a setback for Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Howard Lafranchi - September 22, 2009 - 12:00am

Unbowed by the failure to reach an accord to restart Mideast peace talks, President Obama told Israeli and Palestinian leaders he met Tuesday that he would keep up his administration's diplomatic efforts until negotiations are relaunched. He then directed top foreign policy aides, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special Mideast envoy George Mitchell, to continue the intense contacts with Israeli and Palestinian officials the US has pursued since Obama took office.

»

Palestinian PM cites support for statehood plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Karin Laub - September 22, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said in an interview Tuesday that he has won broad international support for his plan to ready the Palestinians for statehood within two years. However, Fayyad sidestepped the question of whether the Palestinians would unilaterally declare statehood at the end of that period if a peace deal with Israel is not in place. He said that decision would have to made by the Palestine Liberation Organization and others when the time comes.

»

To show determination
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

It is no surprise that the US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, left the region empty handed after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A series of meetings were held between the two over the past few days in an effort to convince the Israeli premier that the Israeli settlement activity must end immediately. Netanyahu did not budge; his promises came short of the minimum demands of the Arab side and the rest of the international community, including, of course, the US.

»

Commentary: Middle East tunnel vision
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Press International (UPI)
by Arnaud De Borchgrave - (Editorial) September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

The only bank this Rothschild ever owned was the West Bank. Danny Rothschild, an Israeli general and onetime coordinator of all government activities in the occupied territories, and now one of 1,200 former intelligence officers in Israel's Council for Peace and Security, says the Palestinians should be allowed to have their capital in Arab East Jerusalem. The very thought of allowing Palestinians to set up a government where 200,000 Israeli settlers moved in since the 1967 war, when Israeli forces "liberated" East Jerusalem from Jordanian rule, is sacrilegious.

»

Little hope of breakthrough at Mideast meet
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
by Yana Dlugy - September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli and Palestinian leaders headed on Monday for a summit with US President Barack Obama, with both sides sceptical the "photo-op" encounter will lead to a resumption of stalled peace talks. The US leader is to hold a three-way meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. It will mark Netanyahu's first meeting with Abbas since the hawkish premier was sworn into office nearly six months ago.

»

Obama convenes talks to break Mideast impasse
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Harvey Morris - September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Barack Obama, US president, will host a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in New York tomorrow, seeking to break the Middle East stalemate after a troubled week for US diplomacy in the region. A weekend statement from the White House that Mr Obama would chair a joint session with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, came after the failure of both sides to budge on the issue of Israeli settlement activity had threatened to scupper the encounter.

»

Aide: Netanyahu will defend settlement growth at Obama summit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will defend the expansion of West Bank settlements when he meets U.S. President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, the premier's spokesman said Monday. "You have never heard the prime minister say he would freeze settlement building. The opposite is true," Nir Hefetz told Army Radio when asked about the tripartite summit, which will take place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

»

Akiva Eldar / A summit can be a very dangerous thing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

The all-too-long history of the "peace process" has taught us that a summit can be a desirable goal, but also a place of unsurpassable danger. When participants come with insufficient preparation, and without a safety net, the depth of the fall can be as high as the summit itself. There is a great difference between a fruitless round of shuttle diplomacy between Jerusalem and Ramallah on the part of a presidential envoy and a failed summit called by U.S. President Barack Obama with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

»

Avi Issacharoff / Tripartite summit or PR for Obama?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

The tripartite summit Tuesday between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama is not likely to bring about a breakthrough or so much as a line for the final-status agreement. Both Israel and the PA have been emphasizing at every opportunity that the summit is not about negotiations, but merely a "preliminary meeting."

»

Obama to Meet With Mideast Leaders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - September 20, 2009 - 12:00am

After a frustrating week of shuttle diplomacy here in which the Obama administration failed to persuade Israelis and Palestinians to renew peace talks, leaders of the two sides are heading to the United States to make their cases again that the administration should push the other harder.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017