The facts and fictions of Netanyahu's address to Congress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jonathan Lis - May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

Here is some of what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Congress on Tuesday - and what he failed to mention: Netanyahu to Congress: "The vast majority of the 650,000 Israelis who live beyond the 1967 lines reside in neighborhoods and suburbs of Jerusalem and Greater Tel Aviv." Netanyahu presented a figure to Congress, according to which 650 thousand Israelis live over the Green Line (1967 borders). This is an inflated figure, based on a report published by the Israeli Civil Administration on June 30, 2009, at the height of the settlement freeze.

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Netanyahu wasted his chance to present a vision for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had an outstanding opportunity yesterday to present a vision of a just and sustainable peace for Israel and the Palestinians. Millions watched his speech at the U.S. Congress with bated breath. They anticipated a momentous address that would break the stalemate in the diplomatic discourse over a final peace agreement and lead to the end of the bloody conflict between the two peoples. Many hoped the new winds blowing in recent months in the Middle East would also sweep the prime minister along a new path.

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Don't be fooled by the applause, Binyamin Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Jane Eisner - (Opinion) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, his first audience was the assembly of federal lawmakers and other government dignitaries seated before him. His second audience was President Obama, who was off hobnobbing with the Queen of England, but who, only days earlier, had set out his vision for achieving a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And his third audience was the American Jewish community. People like me.

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The speech of panic
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq al-Homayed - (Opinion) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

There can be no doubt that the Arabs and Palestinians will preoccupy themselves with refuting the speech made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in front of the US Congress, which was full of mistakes and which represents an attempt to frustrate the peace efforts. However the Arabs and Palestinians must pay attention to one important thing in Netanyahu's speech, which is as follows:

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Israeli settlers, rightists, slam Netanyahu over U.S. Congressional speech
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli settlers living in the West Bank expressed their disappointment on Wednesday regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's U.S. Congressional address, where he suggested Israel would be willing to swap land with Palestinians in exchange for peace. "His discourse was ambivalent," Danny Dayan, Head of the Council of Jewish Communities in the West Bank told Xinhua.

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Netanyahu's Congress speech: Will it change his relationship with Obama or ruin it forever?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - May 24, 2011 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech Tuesday before the U.S. Congress will be the formative event of his term, if not his entire political career. A statement released by his bureau promises that the speech will "garner major international attention," alluding to a surprise. The speech, whose purpose is to curb international pressure on Israel, gives Netanyahu a rare opportunity to reboot his leadership. Just a few months ago, he appeared to be directionless. Now, people are hanging on his every word.

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Netanyahu's end game
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Osama Al-Sharif - (Opinion) May 24, 2011 - 12:00am

There are now two divergent views/policies on the issue — a settlement based on Israeli withdrawal to the June 4, 1967 armistice borders, with mutually accepted land swaps, allowing for an independent Palestinian state to be created in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and a unilateral arrangement that does not recognize these borders or any of the fundamentals needed to achieve a just and sustainable deal.

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What was Netanyahu so enraged about?
In Print by Hussein Ibish - NOW Lebanon (Opinion) - May 24, 2011 - 12:00am

President Barack Obama’s Middle East speech last Thursday did not break any particularly new ground on Israeli-Palestinian peace or Washington’s basic positions on negotiations. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and many of his supporters reacted furiously. Why? The reasons are deeply illuminating.

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Netanyahu Gives No Ground in Congress Speech
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Helene Cooper - May 24, 2011 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, broadly laying out the Israeli response to President Obama’s peace proposals, called on the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Tuesday to accept what Mr. Netanyahu framed as a tenet: that Palestinians will not get a right of return to Israel. In so doing, he made clear that he was giving no ground on the major stumbling blocks to a peace agreement.

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Obama and Netanyahu: The scorecard
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jackson Diehl - (Opinion) May 24, 2011 - 12:00am

Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu have now spent six days lecturing each other about the “realities” of the Middle East, either face-to-face or with Congress, the State Department or the AIPAC lobbying group as an audience. They have managed to focus the attention of Washington and much of the world on their differences over Palestinian statehood, and their evident animosity toward each other. So it’s worth asking: Did either of them accomplish anything positive?

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