Who Lives in Sheik Jarrah?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Kai Bird - (Opinion) May 3, 2010 - 12:00am

As a boy, I lived in Sheik Jarrah, a wealthy Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Annexed by Israel in 1967 and now the subject of a conflict over property claims, my former home has come to symbolize everything that has gone wrong between the Israelis and Palestinians over the last six decades. Despite talk of a slowdown in Israeli construction in East Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, Jerusalem’s mayor, toured Washington earlier this week and told officials that the expansion into Arab neighborhoods is going ahead at full speed.

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Settlers devise new strategy to scare away Palestinian neighbors
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - May 3, 2010 - 12:00am

Some settlers are employing a new strategy to get Palestinians evicted from their land in the northern region of the Jordan Valley, Haaretz has learned. A number of settlers, some of whom are residents of the Maskiot settlement, set up a "protest" tent next to a tent belonging to Bedouin herdsmen near Wad el Maleh, on private Palestinian land. Last Thursday, after the Palestinians complained to the civil administration, both the Israelis and Palestinians there were handed decrees declaring the area a closed military zone, signed by brigade commander Yochai Ben-Yishai.

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A struggle to change public opinion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shaul Arieli - May 3, 2010 - 12:00am

How serious Benjamin Netanyahu really is about resuming talks with the Palestinians will be reflected in the extent of his effort to reshape Israeli public opinion, where the concept "there is no partner" has been thoroughly assimilated, partly because of the prime minister's own utterances.

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Ayalon: Palestinian boycott to be discussed in proximity talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Zvi Lavi - May 3, 2010 - 12:00am

The Knesset's Economic Affairs Committee on Sunday discussed possible responses to a new law passed last week in the Palestinian Authority, which bans Palestinians from selling or buying products produced by Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said that Israel would urge the Palestinians to cancel the boycott at a preliminary stage of the proximity talks. However, he stressed that continuation of the talks would not hinge on the removal of the ban, due to Israel's decision to commence talks without prior conditions.

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Normalizing Relations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The American Conservative
by Scott McConnell - May 1, 2010 - 12:00am

President Obama has probably studied the first President Bush’s standoff with Israel. Then as now, the issue of contention was Israeli settlement-building in the West Bank and Jerusalem. George H.W. Bush was hopeful about moving toward a comprehensive peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

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US gives Abbas private assurances over Israeli settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Rory McCarthy - April 30, 2010 - 12:00am

The US has given private assurances to encourage the Palestinians to join indirect Middle East peace talks, including an offer to consider allowing UN security council condemnation of any significant new Israeli settlement activity, the Guardian has learned.

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Price tag: Who's to blame for settler violence?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Anat Shalev - April 30, 2010 - 12:00am

Torching fields, vehicles and houses, uprooting olive trees, vandalizing kindergartens – these are part of a long list of almost routine violent acts of settlers against Palestinians, dubbed "price tag." The latest incident occurred Thursday in the village of Hawara, when residents from the settlement of Yitzhar hurled stones, torched fields and caused havoc in a kindergarten and in private homes.

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'Israel must remove 23 outposts'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Hilary Leila Krieger - April 30, 2010 - 12:00am

The US pushed back against indications Israel has abandoned its commitment to take down authorized outposts Thursday, calling on Jerusalem to live up to its obligations. “The Israeli government has pledged to take specific actions,” US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. “They have responsibilities and we would expect them to fulfill those responsibilities.”

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Minister Yishai officially invited to White House
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roni Sofer - April 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Interior Minister Eli Yishai has been officially invited to visit the White House. The decision is apparently the result of the US Administration's desire to forge closer ties with the minister they perceive to be behind the east Jerusalem construction turmoil during Vice President Joe Biden's visit in Israel. During Biden's visit last month, the Interior Ministry approved the construction of 1,800 housing units in east Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood.

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Wanna buy a bridge, Mr. Mitchell?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) April 29, 2010 - 12:00am

We make a point of judging everybody on their deeds, not their words – everybody but ourselves. When we say every Israeli wants peace, when two out of three Israelis consistently tell pollsters they’d give up settlements for peace, when our Likud prime minister tells the world he now accepts the two-state solution, we say: You hear that? Listen to our words. What further proof does anyone need of our peaceful intentions? But then there’s this little matter of deeds, of what Israel actually does. On the ground. And our deeds tell a somewhat different story than our words.

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