Rightist MKs slam Obama remarks at UN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
September 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Rightist Knesset members slammed American President Barack Obama Thursday over his remarks during a speech at the United Nations General Assembly. Responding to the president's call for an extension of the West Bank settlement freeze, Likud MK Danny Danon said "Obama is invited to turn on CNN Sunday and watch the bulldozers resuming construction in Eretz Yisrael." "A person who presents the freeze as a condition for peace is completely detached (from reality,) and will apparently not get to be a partner for peace in the Middle East," he said.

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Gov’t prepares ‘contingency plans’ if direct talks blow up
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - September 22, 2010 - 12:00am

With five days left until the settlement construction moratorium ends, talks are continuing in the US between Israeli, Palestinian Authority and American officials to find a “creative” solution to the issue, even as Jerusalem was preparing for the possibility the PA may indeed walk away from direct talks over the matter.

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Abbas: Talks may go on without freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Laura Rozen - September 22, 2010 - 12:00am

NEW YORK — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told American Jewish leaders Tuesday that direct talks with Israel could continue even if a partial moratorium on West Bank settlement construction is not extended.

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Hillary Clinton faces huge challenge in Mideast talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Paul Richter - September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders 11 times in three Middle Eastern cities last week, a diplomatic marathon that produced only promises that the adversaries remain committed to the latest U.S.-led peace initiative. Clinton couldn't extract the result she needs: that the two sides put aside their differences over Jewish construction in the occupied West Bank and move on. "All of this is complicated," Clinton acknowledged at the end of a disappointing week.

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Former Israeli premier details failed peace offer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Matti Friedman - September 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's former premier gave his most detailed description yet of his 2008 peace offer to the Palestinians, saying in a lecture Sunday that if the current talks are to succeed, the agreement would have to resemble the plan the Palestinians turned down two years ago. The Palestinians deemed Ehud Olmert's offer insufficient at the time, but wanted the more hawkish premier who replaced him, Benjamin Netanyahu, to use it as a starting point for negotiations. Instead, Netanyahu has taken it off the table.

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Israel-Palestinian talks end without settlement deal: What happens next?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - September 16, 2010 - 12:00am

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left the Middle East on Thursday with no sign of a breakthrough in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, despite three days of intensive mediation. The key sticking point is an unresolved dispute over Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. Only two weeks remain before Israel's settlement freeze expires. With Palestinians threatening to quit the talks if construction resumes, negotiators have a fast-closing window – one filled with a cluster of Jewish holidays – to come up with an end game.

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Report: US wants borders set in 3 months
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roee Nahmias - September 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Washington is trying to circumvent the obstacle posed by the settlement freeze in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and has devised a compromise which will allow the sides to make progress on other issues. The London-based Arabic-language al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Thursday that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has suggested a compromised according to which Israel will prolong the settlement freeze by three months and the time period wil be used by both parties to reach an agreement on the border issues.

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PM to Abbas: We'll continue building in settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Atilla Somfalvi - September 16, 2010 - 12:00am

During their meeting in Jerusalem Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Israel plans to resume construction in the West Bank settlements once the moratorium expires on September 26. A senior Palestinian official reported that following the meeting Abbas threatened to quit the direct peace talks if building is resumed in the settlements

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Undermining line of argument
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
September 16, 2010 - 12:00am

George Mitchell, the US special envoy to the Middle East, and Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, were in Sharm El Sheikh to mediate between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators. Unfortunately, and although talks are set to continue in Jerusalem, judging from the public statements made after the meetings, US mediation is spectacularly failing. Settlements, Mitchell told reporters, are a "politically sensitive issue" in Israel, so he urged Mahmoud Abbas, the PLO leader, to "take steps" to "facilitate the process".

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Abbas Says Israel Talks Will Continue
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Mark Landler - September 16, 2010 - 12:00am

After two days of difficult peace negotiations with Israel over the issue of Jewish settlements, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, sounded a modestly positive note on Thursday, declaring that he saw no alternative but to keep talking. The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of the talks if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not extend a partial moratorium on the construction of settlements, something he has refused to do.

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