Housing plan for Jerusalem neighborhood spurs criticism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

City officials moved forward Tuesday with a plan to build 900 homes in a disputed neighborhood of Jerusalem, prompting sharp criticism from the White House, the Palestinians and others who feel it will further undermine the chance of renewing peace talks. The new units will expand the Jewish neighborhood of Gilo, one of several built on land taken by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed to the city in a step not recognized by the international community.

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A wheelless cart before a lame horse
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Zalman Shoval - (Opinion) November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

One should never underestimate the propensity of the Palestinians for shooting themselves in the foot, to wit, the situation Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has put himself in with regard to the peace process. True, this may not have been entirely his fault - mixed signals from abroad also had something to do with it, but Abbas seems to be bent on doing everything to get himself into an even deeper hole by adopting ever more intransigent positions. Then there was his zigzagging on the Goldstone Report, after first having asked Israel during the Gaza war to "smash" Hamas.

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ANALYSIS / Netanyahu senses Obama's weakness on Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Analysis) November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

If there is anything that irks the White House more than news from the American consulate in Jerusalem about new West Bank settlements, it is a newspaper report on a new neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Thus when U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's envoy, Yitzhak Molcho, on Monday about a new construction project in Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood, which is beyond the 1967 lines, Mitchell was hoping to settle the matter quietly.

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Poll: Record high support of peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

According to the monthly War and Peace Index, some 75% of the Jewish public in Israel support holding peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. This marks the highest support rate recorded on the War and Peace index in recent years. Despite the optimistic numbers, the public is split vis-à-vis the demand to freeze construction in settlements in order to advance negotiations.

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Ban Ki-moon condemns plan to expand Gilo
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yitzhak Benhorin - November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly denounced Wednesday Israel's plan to expand the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo, calling it a blatant expansion of a settlement. A spokesman for the secretary general said that Ban "believes that such actions undermine efforts for peace and cast doubt on the viability of the two-state solution". The Secretary-General reiterated his position that settlements are illegal, and called on Israel to respect its commitments under the Road Map to cease all settlement activity, including natural growth.

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America speaks Arabic
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Moshe Elad - (Opinion) November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

US Special Envoy Mitchell’s demand that the Israeli government refrain from building in Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood is merely the prelude to a process meant to erode the legitimate status of Israel’s Jerusalem neighborhoods. These neighborhoods (including Gilo, Ramot Alon, French Hill, and Neve Yaakov) were built after the Six-Day War within the jurisdiction of Israel’s capital; now, they are finally being granted American recognition of their traditional Palestinian name: Settlements.

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Israel’s double standards
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Faisal Al Rfouh - (Opinion) November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

Israel orchestrated a drama, interdicting a cargo ship on November 3 for allegedly carrying Iranian arms for Hizbollah and then releasing it after nothing incriminating was found. Israel’s reported justification for its action under UN Resolution 1747 looks paradoxical in view of its utter and open defiance of all UN resolutions pertaining to the Palestinian issue, particularly resolutions 242, 338 and 194.

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Let down by Obama, Palestinians see few options
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Tom Perry - (Opinion) November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

With US diplomacy seemingly going nowhere, Palestinians are exploring desperate and at best symbolic measures to press a demand for a state that even firm believers in peace among them fear may never emerge. Appeals to the United Nations and European Union to consider recognizing a state that Israel says it cannot accept on the Palestinians’ terms look unlikely to break the deadlock.

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Editorial: Time for action
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

If both Israel and Hamas condemn the proposal of a UN declaration of independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, as they have, it suggests it must be the right idea. The Palestinian Authority has come up with it because nothing is happening to the peace process. It is their way of forcing it back onto the international agenda.

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The Obama Presidency and the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Brandeis University Crown Center for Middle East Studies
by Shai Feldman, Khalil Shikaki - November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

The first ten months of the Obama administration’s efforts to achieve a breakthrough in Arab-Israeli peacemaking have led to widespread disappointment among Palestinians and to growing anxiety among Israelis. Inevitably, this unsatisfactory interim report card is partly a result of the high expectations created by President Barack Obama himself, during the presidential campaign as well as in his inaugural address and following his inauguration.

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