Obama's second try at Mideast peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
(Editorial) January 14, 2010 - 1:00am

Last year, the Obama administration urged Israel and Arab players in the region to take several interim steps that might create enough confidence to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. For lack of sufficient step-taking by all sides, it didn’t work. Rather than regroup and suggest another series of steps – because that’s how progress in the Middle East tends to move, incrementally – the administration is now looking to take a giant leap forward.

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U.S. tells Abbas pushing hard for Mideast talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Tom Perry - January 14, 2010 - 1:00am

Earlier, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made clear he still wants U.S. President Barack Obama to press Israel to halt all expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem before he would consider new negotiations. U.S. national security advisor Jim Jones told Abbas in Ramallah that Washington was "trying very hard to find a way to resume the negotiations," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters after the meeting.

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Egypt works on resuming Palestinian-Israeli negotiations soon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
January 14, 2010 - 1:00am

CAIRO, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Egypt is now working to create some common ground between the Palestinians and Israel so as to resume their talks in the near future, said Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki on Thursday. Egypt's official MENA news agency quoted Zaki as saying that negotiations based on a U.S. vision for the final settlement is what Egypt is working to achieve. "We hope to see the U.S. move in this direction," he said, adding that Egypt is talking with all parties in coordination with Washington.

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'Large majority in favor of peace talks'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Haviv Rettig - January 13, 2010 - 1:00am

Both Jewish and Arab Israelis support peace talks with the Palestinian Authority by a large majority, but also trust the government's handling of Israel's security challenges, according to the latest Tel Aviv University "War and Peace Index" survey. 72.5 percent of Israelis support negotiations toward peace, with just 20.9% opposing it. This support for negotiations, however, did not translate into optimism that the efforts would result in peace in the near term.

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Apply American decency to Mideast policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) January 13, 2010 - 1:00am

I am often asked why I maintain the slightly naive expectation that the United States will one day pursue policies in the Middle East that are fair to all in the region, and also comply with international law and core American values. My answer is, in part, Denise Horn’s Globalization and International Affairs class INTL 1101 at Northeastern University in Boston.

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Resumption of Mideast talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Osama Al-Sharif - (Opinion) January 13, 2010 - 1:00am

In normal circumstances — but then what’s normal in the Middle East — one would receive news of recent US efforts to restart peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians with relief, even jubilation. After weeks of deliberate disengagement from mediation, maybe to punish the main parties or as a sign of frustration, anger or all of the above, Washington is once again stepping into the quicksands of the elusive peace process, which it had helped launch and nurture and eventually monopolized for more than 15 years.

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Time for Netanyahu to show Obama he wants peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yoel Marcus - (Opinion) January 12, 2010 - 1:00am

We can deny it all we like, but if it looks like a threat and sounds like a threat, then it's a threat. U.S. special envoy George Mitchell, who is coming to Israel next week, suggested in an interview with the U.S. public television network PBS that Washington might withhold loan guarantees to Israel.

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U.S. Policy Shift Seen As Direct Israeli-Palestinian Talks May Be Near
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Week
by James D. Besser - January 12, 2010 - 1:00am

The Obama administration is set to open a new chapter in Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy with a shift to quiet, below-the-radar negotiations and a new diplomatic juggling act for special envoy George Mitchell.

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With Palestinians painted into a corner, peace talks hinge on US guidance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Omar Karmi - (Analysis) January 12, 2010 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH // With pressure mounting on the Palestinians to return to negotiations with Israel even without a full settlement construction freeze in occupied territory, the onus has very much shifted on to US diplomatic efforts to ensure that talks are renewed. Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, continues to resist the pressure, which is now coming from Arab countries as well as Washington, insisting that Israel must completely end construction work in settlements before he will return to talks.

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Fresh attempt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Hassan Barari - (Analysis) January 12, 2010 - 1:00am

Unlike the early attempt to resume the peace process that began a year ago with much fanfare and no results, this time the Obama administration is gearing up for yet another effort to relaunch the long-awaited peace process between Israelis and Palestinians.

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