Israel's Barak concerned by rift with U.S.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Jeffrey Heller - April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak voiced concern on Monday over a deep rift with the United States over settlement policy and said Israel should do more to try to achieve peace with the Palestinians. "The alienation that is developing with the United States is not good for Israel," said Barak, head of the centre-left Labour Party in right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition.

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PNA denies report on possible control of East Jerusalem suburb
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Sunday denied reports that Israel was going to hand areas in East Jerusalem to the PNA. "We don't have any information about these reports and there is nothing on the ground indicating that the PNA" was going to impose its control on Abu Dies town, said Saeb Erekat, the chief peace negotiator.

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Israeli actions are turning Jerusalem into a settlement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zeev Sternhell - (Opinion) April 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Thanks to an attempted settler takeover of the Sheikh Jarrah quarter, that quiet neighborhood of East Jerusalem has turned into a kind of microcosm of the illnesses that are poisoning relations between Jews and Arabs. The worst of these is the refusal to recognize the finality of the situation that was created at the end of the War of Independence. It is possible to understand the settler right, whose existential aim is the continued conquest of the land. But how is it possible that state institutions will lend a hand to an act that destroys the very land under our feet?

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Illegal outposts marked for destruction got millions in state funding
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Residents of Hayovel, an illegal outpost whose homes are due to be razed, received NIS 77,000 per family from the state when they settled the site, according to documents Haaretz received. The status of Hayovel came before the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Defense Minister Ehud Barak asked the court to give the state another six months to respond to the question of when it plans to raze 12 illegal homes at Hayovel and six others in Horsha. For their part, the settlers and politicians on the right have began lobbying to legalize the outpost.

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Clinton: Israel must do more for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
April 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel must do more to pursue peace with the Palestinians and to strengthen their institutions or risk empowering militant groups such as Hamas, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday. US President Barack Obama's efforts to revive peace talks have been stymied by a disagreement over Jewish settlement construction that has strained ties between Washington and its close ally Israel and by divisions among the Palestinians.

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'No need to remove any settlements'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel should not have to remove any settlements in a peace agreement with the Palestinians, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon has told The Jerusalem Post, adding that just as Arabs live in Israel, so, too, should Jews be able to live in a future Palestinian entity. “If we are talking about coexistence and peace, why the [Palestinian] insistence that the territory they receive be ethnically cleansed of Jews?” Ya’alon asked during a wide-ranging interview that will appear in the Post’s Yom Ha’atzmaut supplement on Monday.

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Obama to Sarkozy: I'll keep up pressure on Israel, Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - April 15, 2010 - 12:00am

U.S. President Barack Obama has told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that he is determined to keep the pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to renew peace talks and implement confidence-building measures. Obama made his comments despite potential political damage at home ahead of the mid-term congressional elections in November.

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'Obama taking reins on policy towards Mideast conflict'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yitzhak Benhorin - April 15, 2010 - 12:00am

US President Obama has taken control over US policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly since Israel announced the construction of 1,600 new housing units in Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood during Vice President Joe Biden's visit, according to an opinion piece published in the New York Times on Thursday.

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IDF preps soldiers for settler violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz, Tovah Lazaroff - April 15, 2010 - 12:00am

The IDF Central Command has prepared a special crash course for soldiers in the Judea and Samaria Division amid concern about a possible escalation in settler violence should the government extend the moratorium on new settlement construction in the West Bank beyond the end of September, senior officers have told The Jerusalem Post. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened top cabinet ministers earlier this week to discuss the US’s demands to extend the freeze, which were presented during his visit to the White House in March.

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More e. J'lem construction on agenda
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Abe Selig - April 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Building projects over the Green Line, including a school and a synagogue in the Gilo neighborhood, and an extension to a synagogue in Pisgat Ze’ev, will be on the agenda when the Jerusalem Municipality’s Local Planning and Building Committee meets on Thursday. Despite reports that the Jerusalem Regional Planning and Building Commission is observing a de facto freeze with regard to east Jerusalem construction, the committee is set to meet on Thursday morning for back-to-back sessions dealing with building requests and permits for those and other potential projects.

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