US waits for Israel's Godot
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adel Safty - (Opinion) June 20, 2011 - 12:00am

A few days ago I read an article in the leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz about US President Barack Obama's recent initiative which suggested that Israelis and Palestinians use the 1967 lines as a starting point for a negotiated delineation of borders between Israel and the future Palestinian state. The article pointed out that the Palestinian leadership had accepted the Obama initiative but that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had reacted furiously, and publicly rejected Obama's initiative, was somehow expected to give a formal answer.

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Peres: Need to strike peace with PA 'urgent'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
June 19, 2011 - 12:00am

President Shimon Peres said Sunday that there was an "urgent" need to reignite the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and an even more urgent need to finalize a peace deal – as both sides were "running out of time." "It is very urgent," Peres said in an interview with CNN. "I think neither side has much time. We have to act dynamically."

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Negotiator: UN bid with or without negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 17, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (AFP) -- Palestinians will seek UN recognition and membership regardless of whether there is a resumption of peace talks, negotiator Mohammed Shtayeh said on Thursday. His comments were made as the international community pushes a raft of new peace initiatives in a bid to head off the Palestinian push for UN membership. But Shtayeh said the Palestinians were determined to seek recognition and that talks could proceed alongside their bid.

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Lieberman: Palestinian UN bid undoes Oslo Accords
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 17, 2011 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Israeli foreign minister said Friday there was zero chance of talks resuming and all past agreements could be broken if Palestinians go to the UN, Israeli press reported. Avigdor Lieberman made the comments at a breakfast with European foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, as she began a day of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials in a bid to revive peace talks between the two sides.

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U.S. Pushes New Effort on Peace in Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Jay Solomon - June 17, 2011 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration and European governments are stepping up efforts to revive Arab-Israeli peace talks, saying they have little time to head off a Palestinian drive to seek United Nations recognition as a state. The White House this week dispatched its top Middle East negotiators, Dennis Ross and David Hale, to the region to try to gain Israeli and Palestinian agreement to resume negotiations based on parameters President Barack Obama laid out last month, according to U.S. and Israeli officials.

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Peres warns: Israel in danger of ceasing to exist as Jewish state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yossi Verter - June 17, 2011 - 12:00am

President Shimon Peres is concerned that Israel might become a binational state, in which case, he warned, it would cease to exist as a Jewish state. "I'm concerned about the continued freeze [in the peace talks]," Peres said to people who visited him this week. "I'm concerned that Israel will become a binational state. What is happening now is total foot-dragging. We're about to crash into the wall. We're galloping at full speed toward a situation where Israel will cease to exist as a Jewish state."

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Hopeful
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) June 17, 2011 - 12:00am

Most everybody seems to have given up on the idea that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians could resume. Not France, however. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has recently proposed holding a peace conference on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict this summer in Paris, rekindling optimism and, in the process, apparently “surprising” the US whose Secretary of State Hillary Clinton questioned the practicality of holding such a conference when the two sides are so far apart.

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Palestinians stick to call for settlement freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
June 16, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — The Palestinians are sticking to their demand for an Israeli settlement construction freeze in the West Bank, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Thursday, complicating President Barack Obama's latest peace drive. Obama recently outlined his vision of two states based on the pre-1967 war lines, with mutually agreed land swaps. The president's call for talks did not mention a new settlement freeze, and U.S. officials have indicated it is not essential to the restarting of talks.

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Netanyahu's "insoluble" conflict
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
by Ori Nir - (Opinion) June 15, 2011 - 12:00am

If you want to understand why the Obama administration is so angry with Binyamin Netanyahu and his government, read what Netanyahu told Etgar Keret, one of Israel's leading young authors. Keret spoke with Netanyahu on a recent trip to Italy. He was reporting for Haaretz, the Israeli daily, which once a year hires Israel's leading authors and poets to serve as reporters.

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1967 borders are key to peace in Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
(Editorial) June 10, 2011 - 12:00am

There is no way of bringing an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict except through a peace agreement that is just and equal, and gives Palestinians their rights. Hence, the 1967 borders are central to any peace talks for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Israel has repeatedly stated that it would not accept the 1967 borders as the basis of negotiations for a Palestinian state, and this was made very clear by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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