Classified report: PA to step up anti-Israel diplomacy despite proximity talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - May 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says in a classified document that despite the indirect talks with the Palestinian Authority, the PA is expected to conduct a diplomatic struggle against Israel abroad. Lieberman makes his case in the document handed out to the forum of seven senior ministers. The report also states that the Palestinians will seek to use the so-called proximity talks to increase American pressure on Israel so the freeze on settlement construction will continue well beyond its September deadline.

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Arab funding could be a game changer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - May 20, 2010 - 12:00am

The Israeli narrative — thanks to Israel's wealthy and well-connected supporters and the many politicians who, in turn, are desperately in need of their financial backing and votes — is prevalent in the West, especially in the United States. This is evident in the halls of Congress, in the American media, in mushrooming think-tanks in key cities, particularly Washington, and, needless to say, among some senior US officials.

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The path to a true peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Hill
by Lanny Davis - May 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Recently, I had lunch with an Israeli friend who, despite being a strong supporter of a two-state solution (as this writer is), was skeptical that the U.S.’s basic approach to the peace process — emphasizing negotiating the details of a peace agreement — would be enough to bring true peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

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Obama reassured Jewish members on 'Obama plan'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Ben Smith - May 19, 2010 - 12:00am

President Obama and Jewish members of Congress emerged from an hour-and-a-half meeting yesterday presenting a united front on the touchy subject of Middle East peace, but the meeting itself featured some sharp exchanges as Obama sought to quell concerns that he would impose a peace plan on Israel without the country's consent, two attendees said.

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Palestinians complain of Israeli actions to US
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - May 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian leaders on Wednesday complained to a U.S. envoy about what they said were Israeli provocations, as the second round of indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks got under way. White House emissary George Mitchell met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and is to hold talks later in the week with Israeli leaders. The negotiations were launched earlier this month, and Mitchell will be shuttling between the sides for up to four months to try to narrow their vast differences on the terms for Palestinian statehood.

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Museum of Tolerance Special Report / Part I: Holes, Holiness and Hollywood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nir Hasson - May 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Sometimes a lack of sensitivity or even an innocent mistake exposes a major truth. On the Web site of Moriah, a public company for infrastructure work that belongs to the Jerusalem municipality, one can find descriptions of various projects in which the company is involved. Among them is the Museum of Tolerance: “The Simon Wiesenthal Center, the entrepreneur for the construction of the Museum of Tolerance in central Jerusalem, asked Moriah to carry out preparatory and infrastructure work for the project,” says the site.

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Museum of Tolerance Special Report / Part II: Secrets from the grave
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nir Hasson - May 18, 2010 - 12:00am

The first one to excavate the site and come upon human remains was archaeologist Gideon Sulimani. Sulimani, a senior archaeologist with the Antiquities Authority, would come to play a key role in the affair. In December 2005 he began a “rescue excavation” financed, as mandated by Israeli law, by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, intended to remove antiquities, or in this case, human bones, before the area was cleared for construction.

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Declaring war on the intellect - Israel and Noam Chomsky
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) May 18, 2010 - 12:00am

By stopping the illustrious American scholar Prof. Noam Chomsky at the Allenby Bridge and barring his entry into Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the government's outrageous treatment of those with the audacity to criticize its policies has reached new heights. Israel looks like a bully who has been insulted by a superior intellect and is now trying to fight it, arrest it and expel it.

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Mitchell to launch proximity talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - May 18, 2010 - 12:00am

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is scheduled to hold talks in Ramallah on Wednesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, marking the launch of the “proximity talks” with Israel, PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Monday. Mitchell is to arrive in Israel on Tuesday afternoon, and meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday. He is set to leave the region later that day.

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Israel Roiled After Chomsky Barred From West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - May 17, 2010 - 12:00am

A fierce debate broke out in Israel on Monday amid finger pointing and hand wringing over the country’s refusal to permit the linguist Noam Chomsky, an icon of the American left, to enter the occupied West Bank from Jordan. Majed Jaber/Reuters Front-page coverage and heated morning radio discussions asked how Professor Chomsky, an 81-year-old professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, could pose a risk to Israel and how a country that frequently asserts its status as a robust democracy could keep out people whose views it found offensive.

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