Obama's evenhanded Mideast policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
(Editorial) July 31, 2009 - 12:00am

Evenhandedness usually is considered to be a positive attribute in diplomacy, but when it comes to the Middle East, many Israelis and their supporters see it as code for a pro-Arab policy. In that view, President Obama's insistence that Israel freeze Jewish settlement construction is anti-Israeli and a sop to the Arab street. That's wrong. Obama has committed himself to a comprehensive peace that would give Palestinians a state of their own and provide Israel with security and recognition from the wider Arab world.

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The Settlements Issue
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
(Editorial) July 30, 2009 - 12:00am

The last American president to openly challenge Israel on settlements was George H.W. Bush and we commend President Obama for demanding that Israel halt all new construction. The controversy must not obscure Mr. Obama’s real goal: nudging Israel and the Palestinians into serious peace negotiations.

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July 30th

The New York Times reports that Israeli settlers disparage President Obama using “an insulting Hebrew slang for a black man and the phrase ‘that Arab they call a president.’” Another Israeli settler complains in the LA Times that the State Department still uses the term “West Bank” to describe the West Bank. Several commentaries touch on growing skepticism, especially among Arabs, that President Obama can broker progress on peace. The Washington Post continues its campaign of criticism against President Obama’s efforts to secure an Israeli settlement freeze. Senior Fatah official Abu Maher Ghneim to the West Bank after 40 years in exile in Tunisia. Saudi Arabia says Israel is “not serious about peace,” but the National argues that Arabs should take steps to support President Obama’s peace initiative.

‘Israel should be serious about peace’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
by Paul Handley - July 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday rebuffed US calls for diplomatic overtures toward Israel and said the Jewish state’s settlement expansion is jeopardizing efforts to revive peace talks. “It is Israel that has to move seriously toward the peace process,” Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman Osama Nugali said. “As we all know, Israel is continuing to take unilateral measures by changing the geographic and demographic facts on the ground, by building settlements and expanding the existing ones,” he told AFP.

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Hamas arrests 45 Fatah men in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Mohammed Mar’i - July 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Fatah said that its rival Hamas movement arrested 45 of its movement in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. The movement said in a press statement that Abdulrahman Hamad, a former minister and a member of Fatah Revolutionary Council, was one of the 45 detainees who were summoned to a Hamas police post. According to Fatah, most of the arrests took place in southern Gaza Strip towns of Rafah and Khan Younis.

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Contradictory Messages
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Michael Jansen - (Opinion) July 30, 2009 - 12:00am

The array of envoys dispatched by the US this week to launch a regional peace process reveals that the Obama administration has not learnt the lesson of past failures. The envoys’ personalities and public stands sent contradictory messages to both Arabs and Israelis. From the Arab point of view three of the envoys projected a positive image of the administration and its plans while the Arabs were discouraged and Israel was heartened by the presence of two particular envoys.

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Survey: 64% want Temple rebuilt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
July 30, 2009 - 12:00am

About two thirds of the public want the Temple rebuilt, including about half of secular Israelis, a new survey conducted for Ynet and the Gesher organization revealed. The survey was held by the Panels Institute among 516 respondents that are a representative sample of the adult Jewish population. The margin of error was 4.3%. Initially, the respondents were asked what happened on Tisha B'Av (Ninth of Av), and showed impressive knowledge. Ninety-seven percent responded that the Temple was destroyed, while only 2% said they did not know.

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No peace without support from all parties
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) July 29, 2009 - 12:00am

It has emerged that the US president Barack Obama delivered letters to the leaders of several Arab nations in June, including the UAE, requesting their support in a renewed peace process. While some have responded positively to the request, and some tentatively, others have criticised the effort so long as Israel refuses to budge on the settlements, Gaza remains under crippling blockade, and Israel continues to promote policies aimed at making the country exclusively Jewish in nature.

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Palestinian finance minister: Economic peace failed
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Tani Goldstein - July 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian Minister for National Economy Bassem Khoury, speaking Wednesday at a conference at the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv on economic peace, a concept being promoted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, explained why the Palestinians are not jumping at the opportunity of economic peace.

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Isolation and division take their toll in Gaza Strip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Omar Karmi - July 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Just across the street from the rubble of the Palestinian parliament building, which was bombed on the first day of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip in late Dec ember 2008, and a few houses down from the crater that marks the site where a Palestinian police station was destroyed on the same day, a cheery little shop nestles among the grey concrete.

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