Palestinians, Israelis remain skeptical as peace talks begin
Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In Xinhua - May 18, 2010 - 12:00am

It is now one year four months and 21 days since the last official talks between Israelis and Palestinians. During those 506 days the parties have repeatedly blamed one another for that breakdown and the failure to reboot negotiations. Indirect peace talks are expected to resume on Wednesday but Israelis and Palestinians alike are still expressing serious reservations about the chances of their success.

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Mitchell to launch proximity talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - May 18, 2010 - 12:00am

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is scheduled to hold talks in Ramallah on Wednesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, marking the launch of the “proximity talks” with Israel, PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Monday. Mitchell is to arrive in Israel on Tuesday afternoon, and meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday. He is set to leave the region later that day.

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Fayyad's peace plan has merit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Sami Moubayed - May 18, 2010 - 12:00am

What is new is that Fayyad pledged himself to non-violence, "an ironclad commitment, not a seasonal thing" he noted, based on the experience of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. A few days ago, a photo of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad feeding a wrinkled Palestinian farmer out of his hand appeared in the Palestinian press — behaviour common for the late Yasser Arafat, but certainly unexpected from a rigid economist like Fayyad.

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Abbas spokesman: Negotiations likely to fail
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 17, 2010 - 12:00am

Indirect negotiations are not likely to create significant changes or advancements in the peace process, Fatah official and presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh said on Sunday. Blaming "Israeli stubbornness and insistence to continue building in settlements," Abu Rudaineh cast a pessimistic shadow over indirect negotiations scheduled to resume on Monday as US Middle East envoy George Mitchell returns to the region.

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Archaic Israeli convictions and bad faith
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adel Safty - May 17, 2010 - 12:00am

One of the fundamental tenets of political Zionism has been the so-called redemption of the land for the purpose of founding a Jewish state where all the Jews of the world are supposed to gather and find a safe haven from persecution. The early Zionist leaders recognised the difficulty they faced: the land to be redeemed was Palestine and it was inhabited by another people who could not be expected to peacefully acquiesce to the transformation of their country into a Jewish state.

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How to tell if there's progress in Israeli- Palestinian talks?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by David Harris - May 17, 2010 - 12:00am

Indirect talks between Palestinians and Israelis are to kick off on Tuesday with the visit to Ramallah of United States special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell. Later in the week he is slated to hold talks with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem. These initial indirect or proximity talks will first tackle border issues and security. For some regional analysts, this is the best way to begin the process, while others see this approach as doomed to fail.

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Is Netanyahu alienating Israel’s friends in Europe?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Leslie Susser - May 17, 2010 - 12:00am

On the day last week that Israel gained admission to the prestigious Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Israel's continued control over the Palestinians was eroding its global standing. Whereas Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Israel’s joining of the OECD as an economic and diplomatic coup, Barak warned of a growing tide of international isolation unless Israel comes out with a major peace initiative of its own, irrespective of the OECD membership.

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Perfidious son: Aaron David Miller rejects the peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - May 17, 2010 - 12:00am

Depending on your view of the Middle East and the Obama administration, Aaron David Miller is either a hero or a turncoat. Miller, a peace process functionary under both Bush administrations and the Clinton administration, published a declaration of independence last month from what he called the "religion" of the peace process. Critics of the Obama administration's emphasis on peacemaking -- among them neoconservatives who once reviled Miller as an apostle of the process -- embraced his article, published in Foreign Policy, as the repudiation of the process.

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Middle East Plan B
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe
by Sasha Polakow-Suransky - May 16, 2010 - 12:00am

“I think this is a very big deal,” President Clinton declared to a group of American Jews and Arabs after the legions of photographers left the White House grounds on Sept. 13, 1993. However, Clinton warned, it would take commitment and hard work to guarantee that the historic Israeli-Palestinian Accord signed that day would “truly be a turning point.”

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Qrei'a: Negotiations will bring nothing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 14, 2010 - 12:00am

PLO's Jerusalem Affairs department chief and former prime minister Ahmad Qrei'a said Thursday that he expected very little from the next four months if indirect negotiations. Speaking with journalists in Amman, the PLO leader said that beyond his expectation for a fruitless series of talks, that he anticipates real problems, noting the necessity to have a joint track that pulls peace with Syria onto the field. The official said he had advised President Mahmoud Abbas on his suggestions, but said the leader had so far not heeded his advice.



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