Solving the West Bank settler problem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Gabrielle Rifkind - (Opinion) September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

The Israeli construction freeze in the West Bank hangs like a dark cloud over the peace talks. The moratorium expired on 26 September and President Abbas has continuously said he will withdraw from negotiations if settlement activity resumes. Last-ditch attempts to save the talks from an early collapse are taking place behind the scenes. Meanwhile Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has called on the settler movement to show restraint and only allow only small-scale construction to resume. Tensions remain very high.

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Obama demands more than Israel can give
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Richard Cohen - (Opinion) September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Every so often, the sayings of Casey Stengel come to mind. The longtime manager of the New York Yankees, accustomed to a Prussian professionalism in the hitting and fielding of baseballs, moved over to the astonishingly hapless New York Mets in 1962 and, surveying his new team, uttered an exasperated question: "Can't anybody here play this game?" What applied to those Mets applies now to the Obama administration. In the Middle East, it's no hits and plenty of errors.

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Encountering Peace: Declare victory and stop building
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Let’s face it, the leaders of the settlement movement did not oppose the building moratorium because some young couples couldn’t afford their mortgage. They did not oppose it because a new classroom or nursery school could not be added even if needed as a result of natural growth. They did not oppose it because of the compassion they felt for real-estate developers whose profits were falling.

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PA says 'quiet' construction freeze to go on
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - September 27, 2010 - 12:00am

Renewed Israeli construction in the West Bank following the settlement freeze's expiration will be limited and won't prompt the Palestinian Authority to quit direct talks with Israel, a senior PA official says. The senior official, who is closely familiar with the negotiations, told Ynet Monday that construction will not be renewed in a manner that would "embarrass" the PA.

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Jewish settlers claim biblical birthright to land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Maayan Lubell - September 27, 2010 - 12:00am

YITZHAR, West Bank, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Jewish settler Avraham Binyamin says any Israeli withdrawal from occupied land would be like severing a limb from his body. As one of some 300,000 Israelis living in enclaves built on West Bank land that Palestinians seek for a state, Binyamin expresses a view held by many that the area is a Jewish biblical birthright and must never be relinquished, not even for peace.

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Why Palestinian refugees in Lebanon support violence rather than peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Nicholas Blanford - (Analysis) September 27, 2010 - 12:00am

Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, Lebanon — Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations hung in the balance Monday as Israel ignored international pressure to extend a 10-month freeze on Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, under pressure from the United States to stick with the talks, is expected to consult with his partners in the 22-member Arab League next week before announcing a decision. But Mr. Abbas said Sunday, hours before the freeze expired, that Israel had only one choice: "either peace or settlements.”

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Mideast Talks Teeter as the Settlement Freeze Expires
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Mark Landler - September 27, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel’s freeze on Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank expired at midnight, but Palestinians did not immediately carry out a threat to quit peace negotiations as several settlements resumed limited home building on Monday and American-led efforts to save the talks moved into high gear. For President Obama, who had publicly called on Israel to extend the freeze, the Israeli decision was another setback in what has been a tortuous effort to help resolve one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.

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Abbas vows to continue with talks
Media Mention of ATFP In Al-Jazeera English - September 27, 2010 - 12:00am

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has said Palestinians would not immediately walk away from peace talks with Israel even if it does not extend a 10-month limited settlement moratorium due to expire on Sunday at midnight. Abbas's comments on Sunday came as diplomatic efforts intensified to try to get Israel to extend the partial freeze on construction by Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

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Settlement Moratorium Expires: Will Mideast Peace Talks Last?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from PBS
(Interview) September 27, 2010 - 12:00am

TRANSCRIPT GWEN IFILL: For more on what's holding these talks together so far, we turn to Ghaith Al-Omari, the advocacy director for the American Task Force on Palestine and a former adviser to President Abbas, and David Makovsky, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the co-author of "Myths, Illusions, and Peace."

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Settlement Moratorium Expires: Will Mideast Peace Talks Last?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from PBS
by Ghaith Al-Omari, Gwen Ifill, David Makovsky - (Analysis) September 27, 2010 - 12:00am

GWEN IFILL: For more on what's holding these talks together so far, we turn to Ghaith Al-Omari, the advocacy director for the American Task Force on Palestine and a former adviser to President Abbas, and David Makovsky, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the co-author of "Myths, Illusions, and Peace." Let's talk about myths, illusions and peace, Ghaith Al-Omari. What happened today? Why didn't the Palestinians walk away from the table, as they had promised they would if these settlements were not frozen? ARTICLE TOOLS Print E-mail * Share

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