Netanyahu's Settlement Smoke Screens
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Gershom Gorenberg - (Opinion) June 27, 2009 - 12:00am

It has become a fixed feature in the Israeli media, almost like the weather forecast. Nearly every day come reports that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government is on the verge of a deal with President Obama to avoid a full freeze on construction in West Bank settlements. The sources are normally Israeli government officials, with an occasional American source speaking very far off the record.

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Hillary Is Wrong About the Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Elliott Abrams - June 25, 2009 - 12:00am

Despite fervent denials by Obama administration officials, there were indeed agreements between Israel and the United States regarding the growth of Israeli settlements on the West Bank. As the Obama administration has made the settlements issue a major bone of contention between Israel and the U.S., it is necessary that we review the recent history.

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Israeli settlements vs.Tuscan towers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Press International (UPI)
June 25, 2009 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, June 25 (UPI) -- Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says constructing towers like those in a Tuscan village would solve the natural growth needs in West Bank settlements. A reporter from the Maariv newspaper who accompanied Netanyahu on his European trip, said Thursday Netanyahu revealed his vision to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, citing the Tuscan village of San Geminano as an example. The report said Berlusconi told Netanyahu the towers in the village are empty, to which Netanyahu retorted, "With us they will be full."

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Netanyahu - a slow learner
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Paul Woodward - June 25, 2009 - 12:00am

During his historic speech in Cairo earlier this month, the US president Barack Obama said: "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop." On Tuesday, The Guardian reported: "Israel's defence ministry has proposed legalising 60 existing homes at a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, and building another 240 homes at the site, despite US calls for a halt to settlement growth.

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Want to Stop Israeli Settlements? Start With Americans
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Ronit Avni - (Opinion) June 25, 2009 - 12:00am

This month, both at Cairo University and from the Oval Office, President Obama has called on the Israeli government to stop the expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. He should send the same message to the Americans who are funding and fueling them.

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Netanyahu delays U.S. talks due to settlement debate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
June 24, 2009 - 12:00am

An Israeli official said Wednesday that the government had postponed a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Washington's top Mideast envoy George Mitchell because it wanted more time to iron out differences over West Bank settlements. The meeting with Mitchell was to have taken place in Paris where Netanyahu is visiting. Netanyahu aides said Defense Minister Ehud Barak would instead meet Mitchell next week in Washington. A senior official traveling with Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel sought more professional work before the meeting.

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Migrants boost Jewish settler numbers in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Amy Teibel - June 24, 2009 - 12:00am

Israelis moving to the West Bank accounted for more than a third of settler population growth in recent years, government statistics show, undercutting Israel's argument that it is continuing settlement construction only to accommodate growing families already living there. The so-called "natural growth" rationale for building on land the Palestinians claim for a future state has vaulted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into an unusually vocal and public clash with the Obama administration, which has come out strong against continued settlement expansion.

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PM: J'lem, US working on settlement deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - June 24, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel and the US are continuing to negotiate the parameters of a settlement construction freeze, diplomatic officials said Tuesday, soon after it was announced that a scheduled meeting Thursday in Paris between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US Middle East envoy George Mitchell to discuss the matter had been postponed.

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Israel mulls temporary freeze on settlement construction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - June 24, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel is considering enacting a temporary freeze on settlement construction, excluding projects already underway, if the United States agrees to continued construction for natural growth once the freeze ends, an Israeli government source has told Haaretz. U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell has been conducting low-profile talks with Israel in a bid to reach an agreement on the settlement issue, the government official said.

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PM takes heat in Paris for settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - June 24, 2009 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu continued to refuse to yield ground on the settlement construction issue Wednesday, even though French President Nicolas Sarkozy squarely backed the US position and called for a complete halt to the construction. Netanyahu, speaking with reporters after his meeting in Paris with Sarkozy, said that Israel and the US had an "unbreakable bond," but that "there can be differences of opinion between friends."

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