A Mideast opportunity Obama shouldn't ignore
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jackson Diehl - April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

"Timing is everything in life," George Mitchell said this year while discussing his daunting job as a Middle East envoy. It's a piece of wisdom that applies perfectly to the Obama administration's troubles in the region -- and one that, curiously enough, Mitchell and his boss have willfully ignored.

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The False Religion of Mideast Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

On October 18, 1991, against long odds and in front of an incredulous press corps, U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Boris Pankin announced that Arabs and Israelis were being invited to attend a peace conference in Madrid.

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Obama Speech Signals a U.S. Shift on Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Helene Cooper, Mark Landler - (Analysis) April 15, 2010 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON — It was just a phrase at the end of President Obama’s news conference on Tuesday, but it was a stark reminder of a far-reaching shift in how the United States views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how aggressively it might push for a peace agreement. When Mr. Obama declared that resolving the long-running Middle East dispute was a “vital national security interest of the United States,” he was highlighting a change that has resulted from a lengthy debate among his top officials over how best to balance support for Israel against other American interests.

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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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Acting for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Hassan Barari - (Opinion) April 13, 2010 - 12:00am

His Majesty King Abdullah has stepped up diplomatic efforts to create momentum for the restart of the peace process. A week ago, he gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal in which he made it clear that Israel is leading the region into a mess. The interview was timed well before the King’s visit the United States to meet with President Barack Obama. Jordan, a country that worked more than any other to realise a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, is thus sending the message to the American administration that enough is enough.

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To achieve Mideast peace, Obama must make a bold Mideast trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Stephen Solarz - (Opinion) April 11, 2010 - 12:00am

More than three decades ago, Israeli statesman Moshe Dayan, speaking about an Egyptian town that controlled Israel's only outlet to the Red Sea, declared that he would rather have Sharm el-Sheikh without peace than peace without Sharm el-Sheikh. Had his views prevailed, Israel and Egypt would still be in a state of war. Today, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, with his pronouncements about the eternal and undivided capital of Israel, is conveying an updated version of Dayan's credo -- that he would rather have all of Jerusalem without peace than peace without all of Jerusalem.

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Golan, not Jerusalem, is key to Mideast peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ari Shavit - (Analysis) April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

The solution to the Jerusalem problem is widely known: The Jewish neighborhoods stay in Israel, the Arab ones are given to Palestine and the Holy Basin becomes part of a special regime. The solution to the refugee problem is also commonly known: Palestinians' right of return will apply to the territory of the Palestinian state, while such claims will not apply to the territory of the Jewish state. Just as well known is the solution to the settlement problem: Territory swaps and annexing large settlement blocs to Israel, and the eviction of isolated settlements.

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Genie out of the bottle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

The taboo was finally broken and the genie is out of the bottle, despite some attempts to force it back. America's military leaders have had enough and decided to speak out about the liability that a hardline Israel causes to America's national interest. Popular American General David Petraeus finally said the words that many have been saying behind closed doors for decades. The statement of the star-studded general puts American blind support for Israel in direct opposition to the country's most sacred institution, the military.

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Armchair warriors
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Press International (UPI)
by Arnaud De Borchgrave - (Analysis) April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

It is becoming increasingly difficult to sort fact from fiction between legacy media and the new media of libel-proof blogs sans editors. Blogmocracy is a time-consuming exercise in democracy. Media-watchers say to be well informed and up to speed one must scan at least 100 blogs. Also "Wikileaks," a Web-based investigative journalism outfit that recently released a video that showed a U.S. Apache helicopter opening fire on a group of men, killing 12, including two Reuters employees, on July 12, 2007. The Apache carried a gun camera. Wikileaks posted 38 minutes of what the gun was doing.

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On how not to forget about Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Martin Indyk - (Opinion) April 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Long after the recent humiliation in Israel of Vice President Joe Biden is forgotten, if not forgiven, and President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recommit themselves to the “rock solid” relationship with Israel, and the Israeli ambassador in Washington, Michael Oren, downgrades the hurricane to a tropical storm, there will still be the issue of Jerusalem.

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