US relations with Israel unchanged
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Marwan Al Kabalan - (Opinion) November 13, 2009 - 1:00am

The fact that US President Barack Obama sent White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to meet with the leaders of the pro-Israel lobbies in the US this week did nothing but feed speculation about how much power and influence these groups wield on US Middle East policy. The purpose of the meeting was to ask these groups to help convince Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze colony expansion in the Occupied Territories and facilitate the resumption of Middle East peace talks.

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Amid Growing Crisis, U.S. Asks Israel for Action To Boost Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - November 12, 2009 - 1:00am

Facing a political crisis in the Palestinian Authority, the Obama administration has privately presented Israel with a list of measures it should take to bolster embattled leader Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas’s recent decision not to run again for the P.A. presidency was one of the main topics discussed in a November 9 meeting between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Perfect Storm: Wide Gaps, Weak Leaders, Elusive Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Aaron David Miller - (Analysis) November 12, 2009 - 1:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s threat to withdraw from Palestinian Authority politics — an act that could have grave consequences should he make good on it — is only the tip of a large iceberg threatening to sink the very structure of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

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Obama must get tough
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) November 12, 2009 - 1:00am

Like most of his predecessors, US President Barack Obama has failed to come up with a logical approach to resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, now in its 62nd year. Many optimists on both sides of the great divide had believed that he would this month take his first, tough step towards bringing the two sides to agree on the outlines of a settlement.

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Abbas’ move signals end of Oslo phase
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) November 12, 2009 - 1:00am

In the midst of discussions regarding possible scenarios following Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision not to run for president, few have paid attention to the larger picture. Abbas’ refusal to run for a second term as president of the Palestinian Authority signals a clear end of the Oslo phase in which he, Yitzhak Rabin, Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres were key players.

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A Palestinian Response to David Suissa
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Journal
by Ameen Estaiteyeh - (Opinion) November 12, 2009 - 1:00am

David Suissa thinks that what is needed now “more than anything today is not a J Street but an A Street,” “an Arab organization that would…rally peace-seeking Arab moderates to the cause of peaceful coexistence with a Jewish state” (November 5, 2009, We Need ‘A Street,’ Not J Street). Perhaps he should take a look at the work of the American Task Force on Palestine. (ATFP). It is precisely the “pro-Arab, pro-peace” group he imagines does not exist, and performs exactly the work he should learn is, in fact, being done.

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Fatah official: Palestinian elections likely to be deferred
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - November 12, 2009 - 1:00am

Most of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's White House meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama this week took place in private, and it centered mainly on the Palestinian issue. This is what Netanyahu told the people he briefed after the meeting.

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Washington Insider: "Politics always interferes with policy"
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Michael Friedson - (Interview) November 12, 2009 - 1:00am

Dr Ziad J Asali, founder and president of the American Task Force on Palestine, in conversation with Michael Friedson, executive editor of The Media Line News Agency. Dr. Ziad J. Asali is the president and founder of the American Task Force on Palestine, an organization that in a few short years has made a strong presence in Washington and Capitol Hill speaking on behalf of the Palestinian people. Dr. Asali was interviewed at The American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem by The Media Line’s Executive Editor Michael Friedson.

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Settlement construction contradicts negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) November 11, 2009 - 1:00am

The issues of Israeli settlement activity and the need for a settlement construction freeze are again at the top of the political agenda.

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Palestinian despair for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) November 11, 2009 - 1:00am

It is almost impossible to adequately convey the present degree of Palestinian despair, but the recent announcement that President Mahmoud Abbas might resign and that the rest of the Palestinian Authority leadership may follow -- in effect dissolving the PA -- should provide some indication.

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