How to get Mideast peace talks out of 'dark corner' of Israeli settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - September 15, 2009 - 12:00am A group representing prominent Israelis and Palestinians, including former negotiators, released a "cookbook" for peace on Tuesday designed to help decisionmakers reach a two-state solution to the conflict. The release of the Geneva Accord and Annexes coincided with the visit of US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who met Tuesday with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. He is just the kind of diplomatic "chef" that the group, known as the Geneva Initiative, is targeting. |
Squandering the Moment
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times (Editorial) September 15, 2009 - 12:00am Unless something happens soon, Israelis, Palestinians and other Arabs may squander the best chance for Middle East peace in nearly a decade. President Obama is committed to serious negotiations and, for now, there is a lull in regional violence. But all of the region’s major players are refusing to do what is needed to keep their own people safe and move the peace process forward. Mr. Obama has called on the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to freeze all settlement construction as a way to demonstrate his government’s commitment to trading land for peace. |
Mitchell hopes to wring concessions on settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Amy Teibel - September 15, 2009 - 12:00am Washington's special Mideast envoy launched a last-ditch push Tuesday to wring an Israeli promise to curtail settlement construction and persuade the Palestinians to attend a high-profile U.S. meeting meant as a prelude to peacemaking. |
Optimism over Mitchell's Middle East peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Irish Times by Michael Jansen - September 15, 2009 - 12:00am PALESTINIAN CABINET ministers in the West Bank yesterday expressed public optimism about United States envoy George Mitchell’s efforts to start peace talks with Israel, despite yawning differences between the two sides. In separate meetings today with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Mr Mitchell will seek to persuade the two men to meet in New York on the fringes of next week’s UN General Assembly. |
Peres met Erekat in Jerusalem over peace talks; PA firm in stance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency September 15, 2009 - 12:00am Israeli President Shimon Peres reportedly met with Chief Negotiator for the PLO Saeb Erekat last week in what Israeli press called an “effort to ease the way toward a tripartite meeting at the UN.” |
PA Cabinet maintains hope for Obama peace efforts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency September 15, 2009 - 12:00am In their Monday meeting the West Bank cabinet ministers expressed positive sentiments around current US efforts to halt settlement construction and limit Israeli incursions into Palestinian areas. In a statement summing up the proceedings of the meetings, ministers expressed their hope around the visit to the region of US Special Middle East envoy George Mitchell this week. The cabinet said the visit indicates the serious of the US administration around re-launching the peace process. |
Peace in the Middle East is possible
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) September 15, 2009 - 12:00am Benny Morris is one of today's most serious and disturbing pessimists about peace in the Middle East, because he used to be a card-carrying leftist and has been instrumental in uncovering Israel's role in the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem in 1948. He reaffirms his pessimism in a recent article in the Guardian, and says Barack Obama is taking on mission impossible; that his attempt at renewing the peace process is doomed to failure. |
Op-Ed: Changing our campuses from polarized to pro-peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Lauren Barr - (Opinion) September 15, 2009 - 12:00am Last spring, a pro-Palestinian club at American University in this city built a big tent on the main quad. Inside were posters demanding an immediate end to occupation. Outside the tent, some pro-Israel students protested, distributing pamphlets encouraging more U.S. support for Israel to protect against the Palestinian terrorist threat. It ended in bitter feelings and confusion among the onlookers. Did either side win? |
Mitchell in Israel to jumpstart talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - September 14, 2009 - 12:00am US Middle East envoy George Mitchell sounded cautiously optimistic before meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres on Sunday about the prospects for an agreement before October on a settlement freeze that's expected to jump start peace negotiations with the Palestinians. |
U.S. is blind to limits of Palestinian politics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) September 14, 2009 - 12:00am After a drawn-out and frustrated negotiation over several hundred housing units in the settlements, the Obama administration realized that instead of tasting the grapes, it is wasting its time fighting with the vineyard's gatekeeper. They also revealed that the greatest superpower came to the fight unarmed. They discovered that to threaten Benjamin Netanyahu and Moshe Ya'alon with ceasing construction in the West Bank by pain of not resuming the Oslo process, was akin to threatening them that if Israel does not remove the outposts, the United States would bomb Iran. |