Akiva Eldar / A summit can be a very dangerous thing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) September 21, 2009 - 12:00am The all-too-long history of the "peace process" has taught us that a summit can be a desirable goal, but also a place of unsurpassable danger. When participants come with insufficient preparation, and without a safety net, the depth of the fall can be as high as the summit itself. There is a great difference between a fruitless round of shuttle diplomacy between Jerusalem and Ramallah on the part of a presidential envoy and a failed summit called by U.S. President Barack Obama with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. » Read more

Aide: Netanyahu will defend settlement growth at Obama summit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz September 21, 2009 - 12:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will defend the expansion of West Bank settlements when he meets U.S. President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, the premier's spokesman said Monday. "You have never heard the prime minister say he would freeze settlement building. The opposite is true," Nir Hefetz told Army Radio when asked about the tripartite summit, which will take place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. » Read more

Israeli shelling leaves two dead in northern Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency September 21, 2009 - 12:00am Two men were killed and three others injured after Israel's military shelled targets in northern Gaza on Sunday evening, according to Palestinian and Israeli sources. The two slain Palestinians were later identified by medics as Abdel Hafez As-Silawi, 21, and Muhammad Nasir, also in his 20s. According to Dr Mu'awiyah Hassanein, the head of emergency and ambulance services in Gaza's Health Ministry, As-Silawi's body arrived at Kamal Adwan Hospital along with another three wounded, one critically. » Read more

Israel's Gaza Vindication ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Jackson Diehl - (Opinion) September 21, 2009 - 12:00am When it was launched last December, Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip looked to most people in Washington to be risky, counterproductive and doomed to futility. Not only pundits like me but senior officials of the Bush administration predicted that the Israeli army would not succeed either in toppling Gaza's Hamas government or in eliminating its capacity to launch missiles at Israeli cities. Instead it would subject the Jewish state to another tidal wave of international opprobrium and risk its relations with West Bank Palestinians and Egypt. » Read more

Settling for Failure in the Middle East ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Stephen Walt - (Opinion) September 20, 2009 - 12:00am Like so many of his predecessors, President Obama is quickly discovering that persuading Israel to change course is nearly impossible. » Read more

Can Hamas spoil Obama's three-way Mideast summit? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - September 20, 2009 - 12:00am Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh slammed the Obama administration's plan to meet Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying that Palestinians will reject anything Mr. Abbas agrees to during discussions on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. His comments come one day after militants in Gaza fired two rockets into Israel and as a flare up in violence along the Gaza border left two militants dead. » Read more

Obama convenes talks to break Mideast impasse ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times by Harvey Morris - September 21, 2009 - 12:00am Barack Obama, US president, will host a meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in New York tomorrow, seeking to break the Middle East stalemate after a troubled week for US diplomacy in the region. A weekend statement from the White House that Mr Obama would chair a joint session with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, came after the failure of both sides to budge on the issue of Israeli settlement activity had threatened to scupper the encounter. » Read more

Little hope of breakthrough at Mideast meet ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) by Yana Dlugy - September 21, 2009 - 12:00am Israeli and Palestinian leaders headed on Monday for a summit with US President Barack Obama, with both sides sceptical the "photo-op" encounter will lead to a resumption of stalled peace talks. The US leader is to hold a three-way meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. It will mark Netanyahu's first meeting with Abbas since the hawkish premier was sworn into office nearly six months ago. » Read more

Why Israelis and Palestinians will meet ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico by Laura Rozen - September 21, 2009 - 12:00am A day after U.S. special envoy George Mitchell left Israel with no deal on a resumption of peace talks in the region, the White House announced Saturday that President Barack Obama will meet Tuesday in New York with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. That meeting will be immediately preceded by separate meetings between Obama and each leader, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. » Read more

Obama to Meet With Mideast Leaders ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - September 20, 2009 - 12:00am After a frustrating week of shuttle diplomacy here in which the Obama administration failed to persuade Israelis and Palestinians to renew peace talks, leaders of the two sides are heading to the United States to make their cases again that the administration should push the other harder. » Read more