U.S. pushing Netanyahu to accept demands for peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - March 16, 2010 - 12:00am

In an effort to get peace talks back on track, the Obama administration is pressing Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to reverse last week's approval of 1,600 housing units in a disputed area of Jerusalem, make a substantial gesture toward the Palestinians, and publicly declare that all of the "core issues" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the status of Jerusalem, be included in upcoming talks, U.S. officials said.

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The U.S. quarrel with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
(Editorial) March 16, 2010 - 12:00am

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S Middle East diplomacy failed in his first year in part because he chose to engage in an unnecessary and unwinnable public confrontation with Israel over Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Over the past six months Mr. Obama's envoys gingerly retreated from that fight and worked to build better relations with the government of Binyamin Netanyahu. Last week the administration finally managed to strike a deal for the launching of indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks. So it has been startling -- and a little puzzling -- to see Mr.

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Israel rejects U.S. calls to halt East Jerusalem plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Paul Richter, Edmund Sanders - March 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Reporting from Washington and Jerusalem A day after trying to ease tensions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday rejected U.S. demands to end the construction of new housing units in disputed East Jerusalem, leaving the two allies in the middle of an increasingly uncomfortable diplomatic feud. The United States wants Netanyahu to order a halt to the construction and make a gesture to Palestinians that could help lead to peace negotiations.

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Row with U.S. questions Netanyahu's fitness to lead
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yoel Marcus - March 16, 2010 - 12:00am

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declares at a cabinet meeting that the media exaggerated in describing the grave crisis with the United States and throws in a few more phrases from the "it'll all be fine" department, it is clear that he has neither learned nor forgotten anything. You didn't have to read Thomas Friedman's devastating column in The New York Times to know that there is a limit to the Americans' patience and their willingness to let us pour mud on their heads and call it rain.

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U.S. confident Mideast peace talks to continue
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - March 16, 2010 - 12:00am

The U.S. is confident proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians will continue, despite recent tension over Israel's plan to construct 1,600 new housing units in an East Jerusalem neighborhood, State Department official Philip J. Crowley said on Monday. "They have begun," Crowley said referring to indirect peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. "I'm confident that there will be another round of proximity talks." He added, however, that the administration wants to make sure that both sides are committed to making progress.

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US-Israel crisis - this time it's serious
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Barbara Ferguson - March 16, 2010 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON: Tension between the United States and Israel went up a notch on Monday when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said construction in occupied East Jerusalem would continue as usual. "Construction will continue in Jerusalem as has been the case over the past 42 years," Netanyahu told members of his Likud party.

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Israel Feelings Rising Anger From the U.S.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Mark Landler - March 15, 2010 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON — An ill-timed municipal housing announcement in Jerusalem has mutated into one of the most serious conflicts between the United States and Israel in two decades, leaving a politically embarrassed Israeli government scrambling to respond to a tough list of demands by the Obama administration.

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The Biden Effect
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) March 15, 2010 - 12:00am

NEW YORK — I’m tempted to see Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel as a parable: Nice guy wanders into mess and truth is revealed. We’ve had, for example, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarifying the fact that, “Israel and the U.S. have mutual interests, but we will act according to the vital interests of the state of Israel.” Of course, the United States, too, has “vital interests.” They include reaching a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine for which the physical space erodes daily as Israeli settlements in the West Bank expand.

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Mitchell Mideast travel in flux amid US-Israel row
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Arshad Mohammed - March 15, 2010 - 12:00am

* Housing announcement has strained U.S.-Israel ties * Some lawmakers rebuke U.S. criticism of Israel By Arshad Mohammed WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - A U.S. envoy's plans to visit the Middle East were up in the air on Monday, the State Department said, as it waited for Israel to respond to U.S. demands it show that it is serious about peace talks with the Palestinians.

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U.S.-Israel flap: What comes next?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Laura Rozen, Ben Smith - (Opinion) March 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Bibi can hear us now. A drumbeat of angry statements from senior administration officials has produced a domestic crisis for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a sense of crisis in the U.S.-Israel relationship. The unusually angry words from Cabinet members and top White House officials – including “insult” and “affront” – were a rare public display of unresolved tensions over the question of settlements and what some U.S. officials see as Netanyahu’s attempts to sabotage a peace process.

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