U.S.: Direct talks can achieve Mideast peace in one year
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - September 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Direct peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority can be concluded within a year, U.S. special Mideast envoy George Mitchell said Tuesday, hours before the talks were set to begin in Washington. U.S. President Barack Obama considers the possibility of achieving peace in the Middle East a top priority, Mitchell told reporters at a briefing.

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Don't over-expect peace from Washington
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) September 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Conventional wisdom says that President Barack Obama will not seriously pressure Israelis and Palestinians in their peace negotiations before the United States’ mid-term congressional elections in November, for fear that the wrath of the pro-Israel lobby might hurt the Democrats and perhaps give the Republicans control of the House of Representatives. Well, conventional wisdom will be put to the test in a serious way this week, as Obama participates in the first session of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in Washington on Thursday.

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In search of the invisible Arab lobby
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Book Review) September 1, 2010 - 12:00am

This week HarperCollins released a new book by Mitchell Bard called The Arab Lobby: The Invisible Alliance that Undermines America’s Interests in the Middle East, an obvious and ham-handed effort to counter the influential 2007 book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt.

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Barack Obama seeks peace within a year
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Carrie Budoff Brown, Laura Rozen - September 1, 2010 - 12:00am

President Barack Obama opened the first round of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations Wednesday in nearly two years by challenging Mideast leaders to put aside decades of antagonism and reach a peace accord within the next year. "Do we have the wisdom and the courage to walk the path of peace?" Obama asked, standing alongside leaders of Jordan, Egypt, Israel and the Palestinians in the East Room of the White House.

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Time stands still in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Richard Cohen - (Opinion) August 31, 2010 - 12:00am

Say what you will about the Arab world, it's hard to earn its gratitude. President Obama went to Egypt and not Israel. He demanded that Israel cease adding new settlements in the West Bank. He treated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with a chilling disdain. For all of that, though, Obama's approval rating in Arab countries has sunk. Unlike almost a fifth of Americans, the Arab world clearly knows Obama is no Muslim.

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Once more into the breach
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Freep
(Editorial) August 30, 2010 - 12:00am

"When you're dealing with the Middle East, 2,000 years is the normal wait for something to happen." So said Marlin Fitzwater, White House spokesman under the first President George Bush, more than 20 years ago. And, indeed, it seems as though in the generations-long quest for Middle East peace, Israel and the Palestinians have been in an endless cycle of negotiations punctuated by violence and hope destroyed by hatred.

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Direct talks will fail – is that what the US is planning on?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Tony Karon - (Opinion) August 30, 2010 - 12:00am

There is more chance of Saddam Hussein’s elusive weapons of mass destruction suddenly turning up in Iraq than there is of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas agreeing on the terms for a two-state solution in Washington this week. That does not mean the direct talks being orchestrated by President Barack Obama are pointless. On the contrary, they represent a moment of truth, not for the Israelis or the Palestinians, but for Mr Obama, who is creating a crisis by forcing irreconcilable differences between the two sides onto the table.

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Obama goes out on a limb for Middle East peace talks
Media Mention of ATFP In The Los Angeles Times - August 30, 2010 - 12:00am

After 18 months of faltering efforts to launch Middle East peace negotiations, President Obama is dramatically increasing his personal stake and his own political risk by hosting direct talks this week. Obama personally helped coax Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to come to Washington to meet with him Wednesday and resume talks the next day.

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Outlines Emerge of Future State in the West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - August 30, 2010 - 12:00am

As preparations intensify for a Palestinian-Israeli summit meeting in Washington on Thursday, the crude outlines of a Palestinian state are emerging in the West Bank, with increasingly reliable security forces, a more disciplined government and a growing sense among ordinary citizens that they can count on basic services.

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New Chance for Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
(Editorial) August 30, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, will open talks on a two-state solution on Thursday in Washington. These will be the first direct negotiations between the two sides in 20 months, and there will be an early test of the two leaders’ seriousness of purpose.

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