Middle East News: World Press Roundup

PLO officials say negotiations will be difficult but an agreement is possible. The settlement freeze issue is unresolved, being debated within the Israeli cabinet, and the US says will be discussed in negotiations. David Makovsky says there is reason for optimism. The CSM says international support is critical. Pres. Abbas appoints a new Chief of Staff. Palestinian students in occupied East Jerusalem face a critical shortage of classrooms. Facing a budget crunch, the PA cuts spending on vehicles. A strike by Israeli diplomats threatens PM Netanyahu's trip to Washington. Aziz Abu Sarah sees hope for the future. The UN says Israel is not cooperating with its investigation into the flotilla attack. Bilal Hassen says the US is not supporting its Palestinian allies. Ghassan Khatib says negotiations still lack clear terms of reference. Yossi Alpher says the negotiations will be useful, but probably not on final status issues. Hussein Ibish welcomes negotiations but says Palestinian state building remains essential.

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Talks ‘Doable,’ Says Palestinian Official ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - August 23, 2010 - 12:00am The chief Palestinian negotiator said Monday that he believed reaching an agreement with Israel within a year was “doable,” echoing remarks by the Israeli prime minister a day earlier that a peace agreement would be difficult but “possible.” But the otherwise sharply differing declarations presented as the basis for going into the direct talks, scheduled to start in Washington on Sept. 2, reflect the complexity of the effort required to get the two sides to this point, and the daunting challenges that lie ahead. » Read more

End of settlement freeze could derail Mideast talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Times by Eli Lake - August 23, 2010 - 12:00am Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians that are set to begin next week in Washington may be scuttled before they even get going. Israel has yet to commit to extending a freeze on construction of settlements that the Palestinian side says it needs to continue negotiations. That settlement freeze is set to expire Sept. 26. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stated in a letter to President Obama that he would not participate in the direct talks if Israel continued construction in the West Bank and Jerusalem. » Read more

Mideast peace talks to look forward to? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by David Makovsky - August 24, 2010 - 12:00am The announcement Friday that Middle East peace talks would be launched Sept. 2 was not exactly met with an outpouring of enthusiasm. Yet progress on security and other issues suggests there is reason to believe peace talks can produce results. » Read more

WEST BANK: Big obstacles in road to direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) August 23, 2010 - 12:00am Even before direct Palestinian-Israeli negotiations kick off in Washington on Sept. 2, the road there is littered with political landmines. The Palestinians stated when they agreed on Friday, under U.S. and international pressure, to resume direct negotiations that if Israel resumed settlement construction in the West Bank, the talks would stop. » Read more

How to bolster the coming Mideast peace talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor August 23, 2010 - 12:00am When Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the US had invited the leaders of Israel and the Palestinians to resume direct peace talks next week, the secretary of State did not mince words about the obstacles to success. “The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and to derail these talks,” she said Aug. 20. That is why the negotiations will need “actions by all sides” to support the process. » Read more

US 'mindful' of Palestinian stance on settlements ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency August 24, 2010 - 12:00am The US said it remained "mindful" of the Palestinian position on an end to settlement construction, a State Department spokesman said Monday. US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters that Israel's temporary moratorium, which expires three weeks after talks launch, would be up for discussion when leaders meet on 2 September. "We’re very mindful of the importance the issue is within the negotiation. That’s why we want to get in the negotiation. None of these issues can be resolved outside of this negotiation," Crowley said. » Read more

Abbas appoints new chief of staff following scandal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency August 24, 2010 - 12:00am President Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree appointing a new chief of staff to replace Rafiq Husseini, who was dismissed in February over a sex scandal, Ma'an learned Tuesday. Dr Hussein Al-A'raj previously served as governor of Hebron, undersecretary of the ministry of local governance from 2004 to 2005, and served as the chief of staff of Palestinian Authority civil servants. Before working in government, Al-Araj lectured at the An-Najah National University in Nablus in the Faculty of Economy and Administrative Sciences. » Read more

Dismal lack of classrooms in East Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency August 24, 2010 - 12:00am The education of Palestinian children in East Jerusalem is subject to "ongoing neglect," a joint report issued by two Israeli rights group said Tuesday. The Association of Civil Rights in Israel and Jerusalem-based NGO Ir Amim say the education system in East Jerusalem remains short of 1,000 classrooms for Palestinian students. According to the report, only 39 schools were built for Palestinians over the past year despite promises made in court to build 644 by 2011. » Read more

Palestinian Authority slashes spending on vehicles ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Mohammed Assadi - August 23, 2010 - 12:00am The Palestinian Authority said on Monday it would implement measures to save on fuel and maintenance for its fleet of 2,000 vehicles, as part of spending cuts spurred by a decline in funding from Arab countries. Transport Minister Saadi al-Kronz told Reuters the cuts taking effect on Oct. 1 would restrict the use of government vehicles to working hours, and seek efficiency measures for further savings on fuel and licensing. Kronz hoped the measures would save millions of dollars each year and minimise a need to purchase new vehicles at an annual cost of about $10 million. » Read more

Israelis, Palestinians feud ahead of direct talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters August 23, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli and Palestinian leaders sparred on Monday over Jewish settlements and Israeli calls for security guarantees before the launch of Quartet-sponsored direct peace talks in Washington next week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement he would demand any Palestinian state established under a peace deal be demilitarised. But he said he was not laying down any terms for the talks set to convene on Sept. 2. » Read more

Mideast peace talks: Are Israel, Palestine just going through the motions? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Matthew Rusling - August 24, 2010 - 12:00am Friday's announcement of a new round of Middle East peace talks has stirred skepticism over whether the negotiations will amount to any meaningful progress. Moreover, some experts said both the Israelis and Palestinians are simply going through the motions in a bid to placate Washington. "In effect you have both sides just doing this to please the United States," said Michele Dunne, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Neither side believes that a negotiated solution can result from the talks, nor are they prepared to make major concessions, she said. » Read more

Israel diplomats' strike threatens PM's Washington trip ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - August 24, 2010 - 12:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks set to face serious obstacles as he travels to Washington for a high-profile peace summit – but this time it is his own diplomats, not the Palestinians, who are causing him strife. On Tuesday the foreign ministry's workers' committee sent a telegram to Israel's Washington embassy, instructing staff there not to assist the prime minister during his visit. At a meeting early Tuesday, the committee decided to ramp up labor sanctions it imposed a few weeks ago to demand more pay. » Read more

US, Israel seek 'creative' solution for settlements ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews August 24, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli officials confirmed Monday that the government is in quiet talks with the United States in search of a "creative" solution that will allow at least some limited construction to take place after Israel's 10-month moratorium ends on Sept. 26. "Many options are being discussed. It's not that simple," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor. In Washington, a US official confirmed the dialogue with Israel and said no decisions have been taken. » Read more

Hope for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Aziz Abu Sarah - August 23, 2010 - 12:00am There many reasons to be pessimistic and at times to despair about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet even when things look hopeless, hope has a way of appearing, offering a vision of what can be rather than what is. Recently, I caught a glimpse of this hope in an unlikely place – the Israeli health care system. » Read more

Coalition rhetoric heats up as W. Bank freeze nears end ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Rebecca Anna Stoil - August 24, 2010 - 12:00am A month before the end of the West Bank new-construction moratorium and on the eve of direct peace talks in Washington, tensions rose Monday among government ministers regarding building in settlements on the day that the freeze expires. “Building will continue as usual, as normal,” promised National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau (Israel Beiteinu) during a midday interview on Radio Kol Chai. “Everyone will build as he wants to and needs to.” » Read more

UN official criticises Israel over flotilla probe ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press August 24, 2010 - 12:00am Israel is not co-operating with the UN Human Rights Council's probe of May's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, a UN official said today. Juan Carlos Monge said the fact-finding mission is speaking to witnesses and government officials in Turkey and Jordan. But Mr Monge said Israel has not granted the team an invitation. Israel's UN mission said today it was not commenting on the investigation. Israeli commandos killed nine pro-Palestinian activists trying to break the Jewish state's blockade of Gaza. Israel says the soldiers acted in self-defence. » Read more

When America Forsakes its Palestinian Ally ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Bilal Hassen - August 24, 2010 - 12:00am US planning, European pressure, Arab complacency, and fragility of the Palestinian negotiator; these are the four factors that have made the racist right-wing government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, seem as if it is the victorious power that can impose everything it wants in the farce of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. » Read more

Negotiations lack clear terms of reference ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - August 23, 2010 - 12:00am The recent US-led efforts to resume direct talks, that ended with the two sides agreeing to renew direct negotiations, reminded many observers of US efforts to establish a peace process and Palestinian-Israeli negotiations in the early 1990s, then described as "constructive ambiguity". » Read more

Where these negotiations could be useful ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - August 23, 2010 - 12:00am The resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that is projected for September 2 in Washington serves a number of useful purposes. Sadly, none of them is directly connected to the effort to "resolve all final status issues" trumpeted last Friday in statements by the Quartet and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. » Read more

Direct talks, yes, but with state-building too ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon by Hussein Ibish - August 24, 2010 - 12:00am The resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in early September offers significant opportunities and pitfalls for all parties. For the Obama administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s announcement of the talks represents the culmination of almost a year of intensive diplomacy. Whether or not the United States has a backup plan if talks founder is entirely unclear. The administration’s assumption appears to be that direct talks will generate their own dynamics; but if they don’t, it’s not evident what the next American step will be. » Read more

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