Israel PM seeks new plan as US envoy visits-report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Allyn Fisher-Ilan - April 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has proposed Palestinian statehood with temporary borders, to sidestep a deadlock over settlements ahead of talks on Friday with a U.S. envoy, a newspaper said. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected past Israeli suggestions for a state with provisional borders, but the Haaretz newspaper said Netanyahu was proposing a new interim deal to try and entice him back to the negotiating table.

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Netanyahu's 'no freeze in Jerusalem' declarations are hollow
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - April 23, 2010 - 12:00am

The prime minister's response Thursday on Channel 2 that "there will be no freeze [in construction] in Jerusalem," is like Bill Clinton's "I did not have sex with that woman." Benjamin Netanyahu did not insist this time that he will continue construction in Ramat Shlomo, Gilo and Har Homa - something he is leaving for Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to do. Based on the speeches the two gave on Independence Day, Jerusalem Day came early this year.

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Obama offered Netanyahu a gentlemen's agreement on Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

If the Independence Day speeches delivered this week by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin were any indication, Jerusalem Day came early this year. As they took the podium to vow that "united Jerusalem" would never be divided, both were no doubt aware that President Barack Obama's adviser, Dan Shapiro, was making his way to the region.

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Settlers set up West Bank tourism ventures
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Karni Eldad - April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

"Just as the Golan Heights became part of the Israeli consensus because people came and vacationed and saw that it was good, it was lovely, it was fun, and it would be a shame to give it to the Arabs, the same thing could happen in Samaria," says Doron Nir Zvi, who lives in the unauthorized outpost of Yad Yair, in northern Samaria. He and his family run a restaurant and rent out a luxury vacation cabin (called a "zimmer" in Israel) at the outpost, and even have a swimming pool. "I don't talk about the land of our forefathers and ideology. I direct myself toward it. Toward love.

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Protest rally against ‘settler provocation’ in Jaffa
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Benjamin L. Hartman - April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Dozens of activists and residents held a rally in Jaffa’s Ajami neighborhood on Wednesday, to protest what organizers called “a series of provocations from settlers active in Jaffa,” following the alleged attack of an elderly neighborhood woman by settlers three days earlier. Wednesday’s rally, which was held in front of the house organizers say was infiltrated by a group of settlers on Sunday, included speeches by Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Raed Salah and a number of community organizers from Jaffa.

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Is Israel willing to freeze East Jerusalem construction?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

US Middle East Peace Envoy George Mitchell arrived here late Thursday for talks with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an attempt to get the two to agree to terms for so-called proximity talks. Mr. Mitchell's trip comes despite recent indications from President Barack Obama that his administration is losing patience with the two parties in the conflict.

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PA: Palestinian work in settlements will stop this year
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

By the end of the calendar year there will be no Palestinians working in Israeli settlements, Ramallah-based Minister of Labor Ahmad Majdalani announced Thursday. The move comes amid a government campaign to boycott settlement products, following the prohibition of such goods in Palestinian markets, and the implementation of a ban on the sale of phone cards and SIM chips for Israeli cellphone providers with mobile towers in settlements.

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US Mideast envoy launching new mission--officials
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Mohammed Assadi - April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

A White House envoy planned to begin a new Middle East peace mission on Thursday that could determine whether Israel and the United States sink deeper into discord over Jewish settlement policy. George Mitchell's visit to Jerusalem and the West Bank will be his first since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned a month ago from low-profile talks with U.S. President Barack Obama that underscored a rift between the two leaders.

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Israeli PM rejects calls for east Jerusalem freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Amy Teibel - April 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's prime minister has rejected U.S. calls to halt construction in disputed east Jerusalem, clouding a new peace mission by Washington's Mideast envoy. Benjamin Netanyahu's made the comments to Channel 2 TV, shortly after the arrival of envoy George Mitchell on Thursday. Netanyahu declared: "There will be no freeze in Jerusalem." Netanyahu was repeating a long-standing position, but the timing of the statement threatened to undermine Mitchell's latest efforts to restart peace talks.

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Palestinians to step up "Popular Resistance" against Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian officials, Arab, Israeli and foreign members of international solidarity movements on Wednesday announced that they would step up "Popular resistance " to challenge the Israeli settlement's expansion and the construction of the West Bank Separation Wall. The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told an international conference held in the village of Bel 'ein, west of Ramallah in the West Bank, that the Palestinians will keep their "popular resistance as part of a step towards establishing their future independent Palestinian state."

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