Clinton asks Arabs to oppose Iran nukes, support Palestinian government
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
January 10, 2011 - 1:00am

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lobbied Arab governments on Monday to help tighten the screws on their Iranian neighbors, saying that sanctions and other measures are hurting Tehran and undermining its ability to acquire components for its nuclear program. Clinton, in the Middle East for four days of talks, also pushed oil-rich Persian Gulf states to do more to back fragile governments in the West Bank and Iraq to create stability in a region that has so frequently veered into war.

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Wanted: Adult Supervision
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) January 5, 2011 - 1:00am

Call me a foreign-policy geezer, a traditionalist from back in the day. But when it comes to conducting the affairs of the country abroad, particularly toward the seemingly endless, seemingly intractable Arab-Israeli peace process, one historically proven bureaucratic model trumps all others: the willful president empowering the strong secretary of state who, in turn, runs everything.

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Barack Obama must move ahead to final-status talks over Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Joschka Fischer - (Opinion) January 4, 2011 - 1:00am

Two years have passed since Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. Much to his credit – and in contrast to his predecessor – Obama tried, from his first day in office, to work toward a resolution of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

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U.S. renews Mideast peace bid after holiday break
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Maayan Lubell - January 3, 2011 - 1:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday senior U.S. officials will return to the Middle East this week to renew peacemaking efforts with Israel and the Palestinians. Direct peace talks collapsed late last year in a dispute over Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank, part of the land Palestinians seek for a state. Netanyahu said White House Middle East aide Dennis Ross and other U.S. officials would arrive later in the week. On Thursday, Netanyahu plans to hold talks in Egypt with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

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U.S. Middle East peace efforts to resume
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Laura Rozen - (Blog) January 3, 2011 - 1:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Monday that U.S. officials led by White House Middle East peace advisor Dennis Ross will come to Israel this week to try to revive the Middle East peace process. Netanyahu made the announcement speaking to members of his right-wing Likud party, adding that all the parties share one goal -- “to strengthen security and reach peace,” Reuters reports.

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Abbas backs UN attack on Israeli settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - January 1, 2011 - 1:00am

The Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, has voiced his personal backing for the first time for a draft UN resolution condemning Israeli West Bank settlements, which he said had been worded in an effort to attract US support. The Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership is promoting the UN resolution as part of a diplomatic effort to secure international declarations of support in the absence of progress towards direct negotiations with Israel.

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US shift may mean end of bilateral approach
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - December 22, 2010 - 1:00am

The recent shift in the American approach for running the peace process left the Palestinians with different and sometimes contradicting reactions. Initially, the Palestinians were very worried after news leaked about possible American-Israeli negotiations over a deal that would involve American incentives to convince Israel to freeze settlement activities for two or three months. As one leading Palestinian politician put it, each one of these incentives could be potentially more dangerous to the Palestinians than the continuity of settlement activities themselves.

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Arabs’ priorities
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Hassan Barari - (Opinion) December 21, 2010 - 1:00am

Aquestion Westerners often ask is whether solving the Arab-Israeli conflict constitutes a priority for Arab regimes. No matter how one answers this question, a majority of them are convinced that political survival for the ruling regimes is the number one priority, and not the Palestinian cause. Some in our part of the world wonder if there is a contradiction between the two matters in the first place.

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WikaLikes: US ME policy recalibration, Dec. 2010
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Horovitz - (Opinion) December 17, 2010 - 1:00am

Secretary of state: This cable sets out amended assessments, priorities for relevant interactions on Israeli-Palestinian Issues. Friday, 10 December 2010, 15:25 S E C R E T STATE NOFORN DECL: 11/18/2035 SUBJECT: (S) REORIENTATION OF POLICY PRIORITIES: ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT 1. (S/NF) SUMMARY: This cable sets out amended assessments, priorities for relevant interactions on Israeli-Palestinian Issues (paragraph 2-end) by Department personnel and other Country Team members.

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US mediation faces its biggest test
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) December 17, 2010 - 1:00am

The American government’s decision to change its approach to mediating an Arab-Israeli comprehensive peace agreement, by dropping its insistence on an Israeli freeze in settlement construction as a prerequisite for moving ahead, confirms several important things. It proves that the US can be decisive, persistent, realistic, patient, pragmatic and humble - all admirable and important qualities in a mediator. The problem is that the US has proved again that the most important attribute for a mediator is the one it has never mastered in recent years: success.

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