Barak deceives Barack
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Hassan Barari - (Opinion) January 4, 2011 - 1:00am

The American administration seems to have got cold feet about the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Since the advent of the Obama administration, there has been a lot of talk and much hope, but the American administration has yet to deliver on its promises. If anything, its failure to convince Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze settlement building has exposed the impotence of American diplomacy vis-à-vis Israel.

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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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Israel: An Appeal for a Spy’s Release
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - January 4, 2011 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday read aloud in Parliament a letter asking President Obama for clemency for Jonathan Jay Pollard, left, the American serving a life term in a United States prison for spying for Israel. The letter, which was sent this week, constitutes the first formal and public Israeli appeal for Mr. Pollard’s release. “Even though Israel was in no way directing its intelligence efforts against the United States,” Mr. Netanyahu wrote, “its actions were wrong and wholly unacceptable.” After 25 years in prison, he added, Mr.

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Netanyahu: Israel agreed to new settlement freeze, but U.S. retracted offer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jonathan Lis - January 3, 2011 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he had agreed to the U.S. suggestion of a three-month extension to the West Bank settlement freeze, but the Americans were the ones who retracted the offer. "The United States asked us to consider extending the freeze by three months, and the truth is that we were prepared to do so," Netanyahu said while speaking before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

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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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The Lieberman Question
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
(Editorial) December 29, 2010 - 1:00am

What are Diaspora Jews to make of Avigdor Lieberman? In his latest outburst before 170 of Israel’s senior diplomats, the pugnacious, rebellious foreign minister called the Palestinian Authority illegitimate, the Turkish prime minister a liar, and ridiculed the central policy of his own government.

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Israel Plans Public Appeal to Ask U.S. to Free a Spy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - December 22, 2010 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel will officially and publicly appeal to President Obama in the coming days for the release of Jonathan Jay Pollard, the American serving a life term in a North Carolina prison for spying for Israel, Mr. Netanyahu’s office announced Tuesday. A public request, as opposed to Israel’s discreet efforts in the past, would constitute a new approach in the campaign for Mr. Pollard’s release and an additional twist in a long and painful chapter in Israeli-American relations.

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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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How did Obama go so wrong with Israel-Palestine peace?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) December 21, 2010 - 1:00am

Where it comes to the Mideast, the craft of peacemaking often bears marked resemblance to the art of war. Especially when it goes wrong. And where it comes to Israel-Palestine diplomacy in the two years of the Obama administration, little has gone right. Now, with the White House and State Department having gone back to the worn-thin drawing board, this would seem as good as any to invoke Sun Tzu's ancient The Art of War, to examine how things went awry, and how much point there is in trying, in the coming two years, to set it right.

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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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