Deal on Temporary Settlement Freeze Hinges on What Happens Afterward
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - August 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Attempts to finalize a deal on a settlement freeze are entering the final stretch, although significant differences still exist between American and Israeli negotiators. While those negotiators have reportedly reached an understanding on a nine-month freeze on new construction in the West Bank, both sides are struggling to agree on what should happen the day after the temporary freeze ends. The Israeli government would like to return to previous arrangements that allowed building within settlement blocs, while the Obama administration has refused to commit to any future deal, sources say.

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Peace plans come and go. Obama may have to try a wholly new approach
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Jonathan Freedland - August 25, 2009 - 12:00am

Surely the heart should give a cheer at the hints and signals that suggest Barack Obama will stand before the world next month, either at the UN general assembly or the G20 in Pittsburgh, and launch his own bid for Middle East peace. We have told ourselves for so long that a solution is possible – that everyone knows the contours of an eventual agreement between Israelis and Palestinians – that the urge is almost overwhelming to believe it is within reach.

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Pressure Israel by acting first
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
August 25, 2009 - 12:00am

Salam Fayyad is certainly doing his best to dominate the headlines ahead of his Israeli counterpart’s visit to Europe. As Benjamin Netanyahu met with Gordon Brown to discuss faltering peace talks yesterday, the world was atwitter over the Palestinian prime minister’s stated intention to declare a “de facto” Palestinian state within two years. For an Israeli premier under pressure from both the United States and at home and attempting to overcome a resurgence of anti-Israeli sentiment in Europe, Mr Fayyad’s announcement could not have come at a worse time. That, of course, is the point.

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Work on the core issues in Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) August 21, 2009 - 12:00am

A flurry of activity this week surrounding Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s trip to Washington suggests to many people that we can expect breakthroughs in Arab-Israeli peace-making. Mubarak and US President Barack Obama have both said that things are moving in the right direction. The Israeli government has instituted an unofficial and unannounced “freeze” on new settlements construction, as demanded by the United States.

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The Palestinian position is important
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shlomo Avineri - (Opinion) August 20, 2009 - 12:00am

Prof. Shimon Shamir is right ("Ask Mustafa Khalil," August 17) in stating that, "It is not our concern if Egypt defines itself as Islamic, Arab, African or pharaonic. We recognize Egypt as a political entity..." Based on this premise, Shamir makes the case that we are not to demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people. Yet the analogy is not valid for a number of reasons.

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Drawing borders is the first step
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) August 17, 2009 - 12:00am

We still have no real idea of when or what President Obama will present as an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. In the meantime, the Prime Minister's special emissary, Yitzhak Molcho, is off to Washington to try and reach some understandings with the US administration prior to the next meeting between Senator Mitchell and Netanyahu. The rumors floating around suggest that Obama's plan will aim to focus first on setting borders between the State of Israel and the future State of Palestine, now that Netanyahu has accepted the two-state solution.

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Israel: We 'won't make Jordan Palestine'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz - August 12, 2009 - 12:00am

A delegation of security officials secretly traveled to Jordan last week in an attempt to assuage concerns that Israel plans to transfer Palestinians from the West Bank to the Hashemite Kingdom, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The purpose of the visit was to ensure that strategic ties between the countries are not harmed. The delegation was led by several officials from the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, who met with senior officials close to King Abdullah II.

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Reframing Obama’s Approach to Negotiating Middle East Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Joyce Karam - (Opinion) August 12, 2009 - 12:00am

In addressing one of its most pivotal foreign policy challenges in the Middle East, the Obama administration needs to moderate its lexicon in framing the negotiations and expectations on the Peace Process. Using words such as “normalize” in addressing the responsibilities of Arab governments and sending mixed signals on its call for a “complete” settlement freeze from Israel, is creating misperceptions in the Arab Street of the administration’s efforts and undermining its objectives.

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Israel Is Wary of Calm Days That May End in Turmoil
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - August 11, 2009 - 12:00am

Rocket fire from Gaza has markedly declined. The Lebanese border is quiet. Terrorist attacks from the West Bank are rare. The national airport processed a record number of travelers in the first week of August. The currency is so strong that the central bank has bought billions of dollars to keep the exchange rate down.

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The Two-State Solution Doesn’t Solve Anything
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Hussein Agha, Robert Malley - (Opinion) August 11, 2009 - 12:00am

THE two-state solution has welcomed two converts. In recent weeks, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, have indicated they now accept what they had long rejected. This nearly unanimous consensus is the surest sign to date that the two-state solution has become void of meaning, a catchphrase divorced from the contentious issues it is supposed to resolve. Everyone can say yes because saying yes no longer says much, and saying no has become too costly.

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