Interior Minister Yishai: Direct peace talks are completely pointless
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
September 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Interior Minister Eli Yishai said Tuesday that he sees "absolutely no point" in holding direct peace negotiations with the Palestinians. In an interview with the Shas newsletter Day to Day, the party chairman said that "as long as there is no significant change on the Palestinian side, there should be no advancement in talks." "I do not in any way believe that these talks should be held, point-blank," said Yishai. Another summit, another conference, another meeting, from the Madrid conference to the Sharm conference, and nothing has come out of this."

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Barely months into talks, will the freeze freeze a peace deal?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - (Analysis) September 21, 2010 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- When the fat lady sings on Sept. 26, it may only be an intermission. That’s the word from an array of Mideast experts across the political spectrum. They are predicting that the seeming intractability between Israel and the Palestinians over whether Israel extends a settlement moratorium beyond its end date will not scuttle the peace talks. Instead, the observers say, the sides are likely employing the brinksmanship that has come to characterize Middle East peacemaking.

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AP Exclusive: Palestinian hints at settlement deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Josef Federman - September 21, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian president has left the door open to continuing peace negotiations with Israel even if it resumes settlement construction in the West Bank, offering a glimmer of hope that a compromise will be reached in a key dispute that has threatened to torpedo the newly relaunched talks. But in a reminder of the fragile negotiating climate, a private Israeli security guard shot and killed a Palestinian man in a volatile east Jerusalem neighborhood early Wednesday, sparking clashes between stone-hurling youths and Israeli forces.

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Fayyad, Ayalon meeting ends abruptly over two-state solution dispute
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shlomo Shamir - September 21, 2010 - 12:00am

A meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, which coordinates financial aid for Palestinians, ended abruptly Tuesday in New York due to a disagreement between Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on the terms of a two-state solution. Ayalon canceled a scheduled joint press conference with Fayyad after the meeting. "We did not reach an agreement because the Palestinians did not agree to the terms of a two-state solution," Ayalon told Haaretz.

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West Bank settlements can now be tracked on your iPhone
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - (Analysis) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Want to know what's happening in the West Bank settlements in real time? In addition to 'Sudoku' and 'Street Fighter,' iPhone owners will now be able to install the "Facts on the Ground" application, which monitors the expansion of settlements in Judea and Samaria, created by Americans for Peace Now.

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Peace Now Flight Highlights West Bank Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - (Analysis) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

TEL AVIV — Local leaders often take visitors to Jewish settlements occupying the high ground of the northern West Bank to lookout points from where, on a clear day, they can see the glass towers of Tel Aviv, the shimmering waters of the Mediterranean and the contours of Israel’s heavily populated coastal plain. The aim is to underline the strategic dangers that the leaders say would be inherent in any Israeli withdrawal from the area to make way for a Palestinian state.

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Israelis Float Settlement Deal Involving Spy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - (Analysis) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israeli officials have tried to float a trade-off in which they would extend the temporary moratorium on settlement construction in exchange for the release by the United States of Jonathan Jay Pollard, the American who pleaded guilty to spying for Israel and is serving a life term in an American jail, Israel’s Army Radio reported Monday.

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Chief negotiators to meet soon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

The heads of the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, Yitzhak Molcho and Saeb Erekat, are scheduled to meet sometime during the next 48 hours, Palestinian sources told Ynet on Monday. The sources say the two will meet in order to prepare for another round of direct talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which has not been scheduled yet. Meanwhile, In New York Erekat is currently on a visit to New York, while Molcho is in Washington meeting with US officials. Netanyahu's office refused to comment on the report.

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For Palestinians, settler abuse is only the beginning of the ordeal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - (Analysis) September 19, 2010 - 12:00am

  Almost every few weeks (or days, depending on the season), the following ceremony repeats itself in Palestinian villages around Nablus: A group of Israeli settlers from one of the outposts in the West Bank hills attacks Palestinian farmers while they are grazing sheep or working the fields, hoping to throw them off Palestinian land.

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Former Israeli premier details failed peace offer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Matti Friedman - September 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's former premier gave his most detailed description yet of his 2008 peace offer to the Palestinians, saying in a lecture Sunday that if the current talks are to succeed, the agreement would have to resemble the plan the Palestinians turned down two years ago. The Palestinians deemed Ehud Olmert's offer insufficient at the time, but wanted the more hawkish premier who replaced him, Benjamin Netanyahu, to use it as a starting point for negotiations. Instead, Netanyahu has taken it off the table.

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