The Tehran tangle in Middle East peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Manual Hassassian, Edward Edy Kaufman - (Opinion) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Success in the current Israeli-Palestinian negotiations will depend on active bridging by the third party, the United States. At the same time, we should not forget the destructive role played in the past and present by spoilers on both sides, as well as others further afield. As the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, stated last month, "the enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and derail these talks".

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Mideast needs a peace of the brave
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adel Safty - (Opinion) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

The late Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) used to refer to the peace process he and the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin started in the early 1990s as the "peace of the brave". This was more of a colourful description than an accurate rendition of reality.

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Chief negotiators to meet soon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

The heads of the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, Yitzhak Molcho and Saeb Erekat, are scheduled to meet sometime during the next 48 hours, Palestinian sources told Ynet on Monday. The sources say the two will meet in order to prepare for another round of direct talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which has not been scheduled yet. Meanwhile, In New York Erekat is currently on a visit to New York, while Molcho is in Washington meeting with US officials. Netanyahu's office refused to comment on the report.

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Former Israeli premier details failed peace offer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Matti Friedman - September 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's former premier gave his most detailed description yet of his 2008 peace offer to the Palestinians, saying in a lecture Sunday that if the current talks are to succeed, the agreement would have to resemble the plan the Palestinians turned down two years ago. The Palestinians deemed Ehud Olmert's offer insufficient at the time, but wanted the more hawkish premier who replaced him, Benjamin Netanyahu, to use it as a starting point for negotiations. Instead, Netanyahu has taken it off the table.

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Barak may use legal loopholes to impose de facto settlement freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya, Barak Ravid - September 17, 2010 - 12:00am

Defense Minister Ehud Barak held initial discussions with defense officials this week about the approaching end of the building freeze in the West Bank. He is trying to find ways to restrict settlement construction by the Defense Ministry, which is the de facto authority in the West Bank, without issuing a new order to suspend construction when the moratorium ends on September 26. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday urged Israel to extend the freeze. She told Channel 10 this would be "extremely useful" for making progress in negotiations with the Palestinians.

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A donkey and peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yoel Marcus - (Opinion) September 17, 2010 - 12:00am

It's been a long time since negotiations elicited as many smiles and as positive an atmosphere as the Washington-Sharm-Jerusalem round of talks. The leaders, including two presidents and one king, enter closed sessions and emerge smiling, as though the meetings have turned into joke-telling competitions. Those setting the tone are U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington and his envoy here, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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Hamas Isn't the IRA
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Slate
by Michael Weiss - September 17, 2010 - 12:00am

With the resumption of Arab-Israeli direct talks comes the regurgitation of a minority view that these talks are destined to fail because Hamas is excluded. The first salvo in this ongoing campaign came from Palestinian-American blogger Ali Abunimah, an advocate of the one-state solution, who expounded upon the need for recognizing Hamas in the New York Times. Peter Beinart made the same case in a broader Daily Beast column about Obama's failed foreign policy.

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Israel-Palestinian talks end without settlement deal: What happens next?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - September 16, 2010 - 12:00am

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left the Middle East on Thursday with no sign of a breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, despite three days of intensive mediation. The key sticking point is an unresolved dispute over Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. Only two weeks remain before Israel's settlement freeze expires. With Palestinians threatening to quit the talks if construction resumes, negotiators have a fast-closing window – one filled with a cluster of Jewish holidays – to come up with an end game.

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Mitchell: Obama seeks Mideast normalization
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 16, 2010 - 12:00am

US envoy to the Mideast peace process George Mitchell said Wednesday that Palestinian and Israeli leaders were tackling the tough issues up front during talks in Jerusalem. Mitchell spoke with reporters following a trilateral meeting between President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mitchell himself.

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Abbas: No alternative to peace talks, we will continue efforts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
September 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Offering a positive note after two days of inconclusive Mideast peace negotiations, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he sees no alternative to continuing the talks in search of a peace deal with Israel. "We all know there is no alternative to peace through negotiations, so we have no alternative other than to continue these efforts," Abbas said, speaking through an interpreter during a welcoming ceremony for visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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