September 14th

Passions High Ahead of Talks On Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - September 14, 2009 - 12:00am

The scene from the Dr. Billye Brim Community Pool, named after the American pastor from Branson, Mo., who helped underwrite it, is decidedly suburban and removed from the international fray over Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The modern design lets in ample sunlight and fresh air for swimmers doing laconic laps in the midafternoon, while sunbathers lounge on a courtyard of clipped grass spotted with white umbrellas. The more energetic pound away on treadmills in a swanky fitness center.

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Israeli Cities Differences With U.S. on Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Mark Lavie - September 14, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, speaking ahead of a key meeting with the White House's Middle East envoy, said Sunday that differences remain with the United States over resuming peacemaking with the Palestinians. Netanyahu delivered the assessment before flying to Cairo for talks with Egypt's president, a main mediator in efforts to restart peace talks, and ahead of a meeting with George J. Mitchell, the U.S. envoy, later in the week.

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Resolve of West Bank Settlers May Have Limits
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Isabel Kershner - September 14, 2009 - 12:00am

Of the hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, those who live in unauthorized hilltop outposts like this one, a hardscrabble unpaved collection of 20 trailers, are considered the most dangerous.

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September 11th

An article in the Economist finds that life is improving in the West Bank. Speculation continues regarding prospects for revival of a US-led peace process in the Middle East. Special Mideast envoy George Mitchell is scheduled to visit both Israel and the Palestinian territories this weekend. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Egyptian President Mubarak are scheduled to meet in Cairo. Senior Fatah member, Azzam Al-Ahmad, expresses reservations over Egypt’s proposal for Palestinian elections. The severing of ties between the Bank of Israel and Gaza banks has severe repercussion for disabled Palestinian laborers. Israeli Defense Minister Barak urges Israel's left to tone down its criticisms. Police forces of Israel and the Palestinian Authority have reportedly demonstrated increasing cooperation.

Not as horrible as it was
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
September 10, 2009 - 12:00am

A COUPLE of brown sheep squeal and squirm as they are dragged into the backyard of the Alian family’s house in the Jalazun refugee camp, north of the West Bank city of Ramallah. A man slits their throats, spraying the wall with blood. Once the sheep are motionless, women silently start cutting the meat into neat portions to be distributed to the camp’s poorest families in honour of the family’s “martyr”, 15-year-old Muhammad, who was recently killed by Israeli soldiers.

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Build Palestine, and they will come
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Ziad Asali - September 11, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s blueprint for what he has called “de facto Palestinian statehood” offers a new and important element to the quest for peace in the Middle East. Peace between Israel and the Palestinians hinges on recognition and security for Israel and freedom and independence for a Palestinian state. Fayyad’s model emphasizes the importance of the reality of the Palestinian state as a functioning entity, irrespective of international recognition and grand diplomatic gestures.

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Towards a Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Ziad Asali - September 11, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s blueprint for what he called “de facto Palestinian statehood” offers a new and important element to the quest for peace in the Middle East.

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Israel stops money for Gaza’s disabled
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jonathan Cook - September 10, 2009 - 12:00am

Yunis al Masri was luckier than his two brothers in Gaza. Although the truck that ploughed into their car as they travelled to work in Israel 24 years ago killed Jaber and Kamal instantly, Mr al Masri survived with shattered bones, internal bleeding and brain damage. Today, aged 49 and after many operations, he has difficulty walking and problems remembering to do things. Any hope of working again was crushed in 1985 amid the car wreckage.

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Pitfalls in US timetable for Middle East peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Sharmila Devi - September 10, 2009 - 12:00am

A rough timetable in the US push for Middle East peace is likely to emerge in the next few weeks after several months in which the administration has gone against some sceptical expectations and pressured Israel for a settlement freeze. Numerous pitfalls lie ahead, as always in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, but US resolve remains firm, said officials and analysts.

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Obama's impossible ambition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Benny Morris - (Opinion) September 11, 2009 - 12:00am

President Obama's efforts to revive the Middle East peace process are bound to fail because of the unbridgeable divide separating Israel's and Palestine's political goals. The minor problems are Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's unwillingness to partition Jerusalem and enable the Palestinians to constitute the eastern half of the city as their capital, and his reluctance to freeze the settlement enterprise in the West Bank.

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American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017