Legitimate questions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) July 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Over dinner in Bethlehem recently, I mentioned to my brother-in-law how Israel has strategically succeeded in cutting off Gaza Strip from the West Bank. While agreeing with me, he told me what a senior Israeli officer told him shortly after the beginning of the Oslo process. He said that Palestinians shouldn’t celebrate too much the withdrawal of Israel from Bethlehem, for before too long, Palestinians in Bethlehem will need to have a visa to enter Jerusalem.

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Mitchell arrives to push direct talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - July 15, 2010 - 12:00am

US special envoy George Mitchell was scheduled to arrive on Thursday to push for direct Israeli-Palestinian talks, amid Israeli optimism that these talks will begin well before the 10-month settlement moratorium ends on September 26. On the eve of Mitchell’s visit, one senior government official said the talks would begin “soon,” though probably not in the “next few days.”

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Next Steps
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
(Editorial) July 14, 2010 - 12:00am

All the right words were spoken. Praise was effusive. The handshake made a perfect photo op. The wives had tea. Now that the July 6 summit between President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been duly recorded, the true test of its worth will begin. It is clear that, for both political and pragmatic reasons, Obama seriously wants to preside over a peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians. The question is whether Netanyahu and his Palestinian counterparts want it as bad, and are willing to sacrifice for this elusive but necessary goal.

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Cheer, Then Gloom, on Talks for Peace Deal in Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - July 14, 2010 - 12:00am

In the upbeat atmosphere after their recent meeting in Washington, the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, and President Obama expressed hopes of an imminent resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and of achieving a peace deal — within a year, according to Mr. Netanyahu, or in Mr. Obama’s case, before the end of his term. There has been vague talk in Washington about a narrowing of gaps in the weeks since the indirect, American-brokered negotiations started in May.

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Tough road ahead in Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Hill
by Michael Singh - (Opinion) July 14, 2010 - 12:00am

With their warm words and smiles for the cameras in the Oval Office last week, President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took an important step toward surmounting what has lately been a serious obstacle to progress in the Middle East peace process – a frosty U.S.-Israel relationship. Like galaxies in an expanding universe, each party to the process — Americans, Israelis, Palestinians and Arabs — seems to have been moving farther away from all of the others.

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The unholy peace trinity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Nahum Barnea - (Opinion) July 14, 2010 - 12:00am

Leslie Gelb, who held senior positions in the US Administration and was a New York Times editor, currently, serves as the president emeritus of the US Council on Foreign Relations. Over the weekend, he published a scathing op-ed against President Obama and his team on the Daily Beast website. “Whoever advised President Obama to flay Israel publicly until this week should be fired,” he wrote. “Only advisers with no experience in dealing with Israel could have believed that Israeli leaders like Prime Minister Netanyahu would bow to public attacks.”

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Netanyahu's Success
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Saad bin Tefla - (Opinion) July 14, 2010 - 12:00am

Day after day US President Barack Obama, who is still not a highly seasoned politician, discovers that talk in election campaigns is one thing but political reality is another, and that, as they say, "talk is cheap" during and prior to election campaigns, and even at Cairo University and earlier at the Turkish parliament. However, matching words with deeds is a completely different matter.

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Great atmospherics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) July 14, 2010 - 12:00am

The Obama-Netanyahu meeting in Washington last week was an elegant exercise in short-term realpolitik. Very short-term. US President Barack Obama needs urgently to project an image of tranquility, friendship and cooperation in his relationship with Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu. This helps his administration ensure the support of a variety of pro-Israel sectors of American society as mid-term congressional elections approach. It also seeks to correct the impression that Obama has simply mismanaged his relations with Netanyahu and Israel and fumbled the peace process from the start.

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East J'lem building approved
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Benjamin L. Hartman - July 13, 2010 - 12:00am

The Jerusalem building and planning committee on Monday approved plans for 32 new housing units in the northeast Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev. Kobi Kahalon, chairman of the building and planning committee, had postponed a hearing on the building plan set for last week, so that it would not coincide with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House.

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Only the Palestinians have been serious
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) July 13, 2010 - 12:00am

Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has just finished another trip to the US, this time including an important meeting with US President Barack Obama.

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