Let’s sit and do nothing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ahmad Tibi - (Opinion) May 23, 2011 - 12:00am

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished Congress members. Again we meet, while the world remains the same. Israel faces threats of extermination; we are being persecuted and are getting no rest. As your ally, I came here to draw encouragement for the “sit and do nothing” policy I’ve been leading with great skill.

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Obama Presses Israel to Make ‘Hard Choices’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Helene Cooper - May 22, 2011 - 12:00am

President Obama struck back at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in a speech to a pro-Israel lobbying group on Sunday, defending his stance that talks over a Palestinian state should be focused on Israel’s pre-1967 borders, along with negotiated land swaps, and challenging Israel to “make the hard choices” necessary to bring about a stable peace.

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Netanyahu aides play down differences with Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg - May 22, 2011 - 12:00am

After a bruising confrontation with President Obama over his call for a peace deal based on Israel’s 1967 boundaries, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his aides are playing down the dispute, calling reports of a crisis overblown. Their comments came as Obama gave a reassuring speech to the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC on Sunday, and Israeli commentators noted that the boundaries in question have long been considered the baseline for any future agreement with the Palestinians.

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Obama's AIPAC comments can't conceal mutual mistrust, say Israeli analysts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - May 22, 2011 - 12:00am

President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday sought to tone down a fresh crisis after the two clashed in public at the White House two days earlier over Mr. Obama's call for a border between Israel and a Palestinian state to be based on the 1967 line demarcating the West Bank.

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Obama eases Israeli anger on Mideast peace vision
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Caren Bohan, Matt Spetalnick - May 22, 2011 - 12:00am

President Barack Obama on Sunday eased Israeli anger over his new Middle East peace proposals when he made clear that the Jewish state would likely be able to negotiate keeping some settlements in any final deal with the Palestinians. Obama repeated his view that long-stalled peace talks should start on the basis of Israel's 1967 borders, an assertion that had infuriated Israeli leaders, exposed a rift between the two allies and raised further doubts about peace prospects.

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Netanyahu caught unprepared by Obama's stern message
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Adam Gonn - May 22, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried on Sunday to smooth over speculation of a personal falling out with United States President Barack Obama. It was during a televised meeting between the two at the White House on Friday that Netanyahu, in unusually blunt words, criticized Obama for his Middle East policy speech delivered the previous day.

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When peace met partisanship
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by David Halperin, Peter Joseph - (Opinion) May 22, 2011 - 12:00am

The criticism of President Obama’s speech this week, in particular the reaction to the statement that “the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps,” underscores the lamentable, polarized discourse in our nation – and in the Jewish community – when it comes to Israel and the pursuit of a lasting two-state solution.

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Netanyahu pushes back on Obama's peace plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Christi Parsons, Paul Richter, Edmund Sanders - May 21, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly lectured President Obama on the shortcomings of his plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks during a tense Oval Office appearance that laid bare the strained relations between the leaders. Admonishing a president of the United States on international television, Netanyahu rejected the plan outlined by Obama that would use the borders in effect before the 1967 Middle East War as the starting point for negotiations, saying that doing so would risk Israel's security and force it to negotiate with "a Palestinian version of Al Qaeda."

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A substantial shift toward the Palestinian position
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Robert Satloff - May 20, 2011 - 12:00am

US President Obama did a great service in sketching out a new paradigm for American engagement with the Middle East in his State Department "winds of change" speech this afternoon, in which he raised the goal of reform and democracy to a top-tier US interest. Nevertheless, after critiquing Arab regimes that have used the Arab-Israeli conflict to distract their peoples from the important business of reform, he undermined the potency and effect of his own message by unveiling a new -- and controversial -- set of principles guiding US efforts to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace.

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Mid-East: Obama and Netanyahu to hold Washington talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
May 20, 2011 - 12:00am

Mr Obama has said a future Palestinian state must be based on the borders that existed prior to the 1967 war. He said "mutually agreed swaps" would help create "a viable Palestine, and a secure Israel". But Mr Netanyahu said the pre-1967 borders were "indefensible". An estimated 500,000 Israelis live in settlements built in the West Bank, which lies outside those borders. The settlements are illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

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