U.S. urges world to help revive Mideast talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff, Natasha Mozgovaya, Barak Ravid - (Analysis) January 7, 2010 - 1:00am

Washington wants the international community to issue a joint call next week for renewed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Jerusalem officials said on Wednesday. The American administration wants the statement to be issued at the end of a meeting held in Brussels of the Quartet - the United Nations, United States, Russia and the European Union. U.S. envoy George Mitchell intends to brief the Quartet at the meeting on his talks with Israel and the Palestinian Authority in a bid to resume the negotiations between the sides.

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U.S.: Emanuel 'didn't threaten to walk away' from Mideast peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - (Analysis) January 7, 2010 - 1:00am

The White House had rejected claims that Barack Obama's most senior aide blasted Israel and the Palestinians for foot-dragging and warned that the U.S. could walk away from the Middle East peace process. The comments come after reports that Rahm Emanuel recently told an Israeli diplomat that the U.S. is fed up with both sides, and said that Washington would reduce its involvement in peace efforts if no significant progress was made.

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CHARLIE ROSE: George Mitchell is here. He is President Obama’s
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Charlie Rose
(Interview) January 6, 2010 - 1:00am

CHARLIE ROSE: George Mitchell is here. He is President Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East. The former Maine senator and majority leader has a proven record of brokering agreements. He chaired the peace talks in Northern Ireland that lead to the historic Good Friday agreement of 1998. In 2000, he led presidential commission to end cycle of violence between Palestinians and Israelis. His new mission is to advance President Obama’s commitment to comprehensive peace in the Middle East. He has spent the past year trying

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Restarting Mideast Peace Talks: Back to the Treadmill?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Tony Karon - (Opinion) January 6, 2010 - 1:00am

The Middle East peace process is a lot like a daytime TV soap opera — it has repeated the same dramatic formula for two decades and looks set to continue in the same vein, never reaching a denouement. Word from the region ahead of next week's visit by the Obama Administration's special envoy, the retired Senator George Mitchell, is that the U.S. plans to restart Israeli-Palestinian talks on a two-year deadline for the creation of a Palestinian state. That time frame was immediately dismissed as unrealistic by Israel's Foreign Minister. Skeptics might remember that President George W.

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Saudi Arabia backs Egyptian plan for renewed peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Zvi Barel - (Analysis) January 6, 2010 - 1:00am

Saudi Arabia is adopting an Egyptian plan for the resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and is trying to rally Syrian support for the continuation of the negotiations process. Egyptian sources told Haaretz Tuesday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "has expressed willingness to accept the Egyptian plan on condition that it will also enjoy the support of Arab leaders, which is the reason of the Egyptian and Saudi effort to rally broader Arab support so that Abbas will have the necessary backing."

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PM: World must press PA to return to talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - (Analysis) January 6, 2010 - 1:00am

The international community has to stop "coddling" the Palestinians and tell them unequivocally that they need to return to the negotiating table, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told a visiting US congressional delegation on Tuesday. Netanyahu told the delegation, led by Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), that the refusal of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to enter negotiations is bad for the PA, pushes peace further away, and only strengthens Hamas.

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Is Bibi Ready for '67 Lines? So Says Maariv Report on New U.S. Peace Bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) January 5, 2010 - 1:00am

Maariv published a story (in Hebrew – my translation is below) on Monday, January 4, by its top political correspondent, Ben Caspit outlining what is described as a detailed American initiative to reconvene Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and reach a permanent agreement in two years. What is particularly surprising is the clear implication that Washington has Netanyahu’s consent to enter a negotiation that will result in a return virtually to the 1967 borders.

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Gov't opposes 'borders first' approach
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh, Herb Keinon - January 5, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel's top decision-makers are against discussing the border issue first in future negotiations with the Palestinians, The Jerusalem Post has learned. PM prepared to start immediate talks with PA without preconditions Separating final borders from other core issues would allow negotiators to avoid the thorny settlement construction dispute.

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State official: Some of Abbas' statements positive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roni Sofer - (Analysis) January 5, 2010 - 1:00am

An official at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem said Monday night that some of the remarks made by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas earlier in the day included "positive statements in regards to restarting the negotiations." The official added, however, that until Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman return from Washington, it is unclear when the peace talks would be launched, although there is a possibility that the negotiations could begin by the end of January.

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Fresh US push for Mideast peace: 'More like jazz than chess'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - (Analysis) January 5, 2010 - 1:00am

Tel Aviv The US is launching a fresh diplomatic push to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, this time with the help of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as a go-between. Top officials have held a flurry of high-level meetings in Egypt this week. But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is digging in his heels for a full freeze on Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank before restarting negotiations. Israel is balking at agreeing to a deadline for a peace deal.

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