U.S. Presses Israelis on Renewal of Freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Helene Cooper, Mark Landler - September 30, 2010 - 12:00am

The Obama administration is trying to cajole the Israeli government into a 60-day renewal of the freeze on Jewish settlement building by offering it security guarantees, ranging from military hardware to support for a long-term Israeli presence in the strategically sensitive Jordan Valley, according to lawmakers and other officials briefed on the proposals.

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White House offers Israel a carrot for peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - September 30, 2010 - 12:00am

In its scramble to salvage Middle East peace talks, the Obama administration has dangled incentives before the Israeli government that touch on some of the most sensitive issues of final status talks between the two sides, administration sources said.

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Obama sets out guarantees to Netanyahu for 60-day freeze extension
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

The Obama administration reportedly is promising Israel broad security and diplomatic guarantees in exchange for extending a settlement moratorium by 60 days. According to an article posted Wednesday evening by David Makovsky, a senior analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a letter from President Obama to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledges that the United States will: *Not ask for additional extensions on the partial ban on settlement building, which expired Sunday;

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Netanyahu to US: I'm leading Israel's policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Atilla Somfalvi - September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Wednesday with US special envoy George Mitchell, who arrived in Israel in a bid to save the peace talks following the end of the settlement construction freeze. The two officials were forced to deal with another issue – Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's UN General Assembly address on Tuesday, in which he mentioned his land exchange plan and said that it could "take decades" to reach a comprehensive peace agreement with the Palestinians.

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Obama demands more than Israel can give
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Richard Cohen - (Opinion) September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Every so often, the sayings of Casey Stengel come to mind. The longtime manager of the New York Yankees, accustomed to a Prussian professionalism in the hitting and fielding of baseballs, moved over to the astonishingly hapless New York Mets in 1962 and, surveying his new team, uttered an exasperated question: "Can't anybody here play this game?" What applied to those Mets applies now to the Obama administration. In the Middle East, it's no hits and plenty of errors.

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Amid settlements impasse, signs peace talks may continue
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Laura Rozen - September 27, 2010 - 12:00am

Despite intense American negotiations going on into the night, a partial Israeli West Bank settlement freeze expired Sunday with no apparent deal reached. Yet there were signs Monday that the U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace talks might continue in spite of the current settlements impasse.

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Amid settlements impasse, signs peace talks may continue
Media Mention of ATFP In Politico - September 27, 2010 - 12:00am

Despite intense American negotiations going on into the night, a partial Israeli West Bank settlement freeze expired Sunday with no apparent deal reached. Yet there were signs Monday that the U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace talks might continue in spite of the current settlements impasse.

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'Palestine new UN member in 2011 if talks succeed'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Jordana Horn - September 24, 2010 - 12:00am

In his address to the UN General Assembly Thursday, US President Barack Obama called for a continuation of the settlement freeze and expressed the hope that by next year, current Israeli-Palestinian negotiations will have resulted in “an independent, sovereign state of Palestine. “We believe that the moratorium should be extended. We also believe that talks should press on until completed,” Obama said, adding later that “now is the time for this opportunity to be seized, so that it does not slip away.”

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UNITED NATIONS: Israel's absence during Obama speech draws attention
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - (Blog) September 23, 2010 - 12:00am

President Obama's call Thursday in an address before the U.N. General Assembly for Israel to extend its West Bank construction moratorium got little reaction from the Israeli delegation. That's because they weren't there. As Obama spoke about the importance of supporting U.S.-brokered peace talks, television cameras panned to empty chairs at Israel's U.N. desk.

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Israeli leaders condemn Clinton immigrant comments
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Aron Heller - September 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli leaders have sharply criticized Bill Clinton over comments the former U.S. president made this week calling Russian immigrants in Israel an obstacle to peace. Clinton, who is generally a well-loved figure in Israel for his efforts to broker a Mideast peace deal in the 1990s, also said at a round-table group this week in New York that the most recent arrivals in Israel have the hardest time agreeing to share the land with the Palestinians.

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