April 9th

Netanyahu to skip Obama summit
Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In Politico - April 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has abruptly canceled his plans to attend President Barack Obama’s nuclear security summit next week, creating an embarrassing distraction on the eve of a high-profile meeting the White House has sought to carefully choreograph. An Israeli official confirmed Netanyahu’s decision not to attend, which was revealed by Israeli media outlets Thursday afternoon Washington time.

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PM Netanyahu cancels a trip to Washington. NSA Jones says "no decision" has been taken on drafting a US peace plan. Mathias Mossberg and Mark LeVine propose a "parallel state structure" for Israel and the Palestinians. Hamas calls for the seizing of more Israeli soldiers. Pres. Obama waives restrictions on fund transfers to the PA and PLO. Arnaud De Borchgrave analyzes the US and Israeli strategic positions. Rival Palestinian factions clash in Lebanon. Hamas prepares executions in Gaza. Palestinian FM Riak meets with IBSA leaders in Brazil. Refugees say they need more services from UNRWA. PLO officials say the US should pledge to recognize a Palestinian state. Ha'aretz says the replacement of the IDF Chief of Staff gives DM Barak a free hand. Adi Mintz and Uri Dromi both say Netanyahu needs a plan, not more ambiguity. U.S. Treasury officials praise PA efforts to crack down on Hamas funding. The PA says a Ramallah street was named after a Hamas bomb maker by local officials 12 years ago. Asharq Al-Awsat interviews PM Fayyad. Charles Cogan says Israel is not yet desperate enough to seek to break the impasse with Washington by attacking Iran. Robert Satloff defends Dennis Ross following criticisms from Stephen Walt.

Defending Dennis Ross
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Robert Satloff - April 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Give Stephen M. Walt his due. After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tense visit to Washington last month, a cowardly U.S. government official lobbed an "Israel vs. America" dual loyalty canard at my former colleague, National Security Council advisor Dennis Ross. But while he or she hid behind a cloak of journalistic anonymity shamelessly provided by Politico's Laura Rozen, Walt at least has the gumption to stand up and make his McCarthyite case in his own name.

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Breaking the Middle East Impasse: How it Might Happen
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Dr. Charles G. Cogan - (Opinion) April 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Negotiations in the Middle East are at an impasse. What two former Israeli Prime Ministers have recognized - that there can be no settlement in the Middle East as long as Israel claims all of Jerusalem -- has been rejected by Benjamin Netanyahu and his rightist cohort. Offers by Ehud Barak to Yasir Arafat, and later by Ehud Olmert to Mahmoud Abbas, of a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem (both of which were declined), have now been taken off the table by Netanyahu.

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Netanyahu in a pickle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Miami Herald
by Uri Dromi - (Opinion) April 9, 2010 - 12:00am

This week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summed up the first year of his term. Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu boasted that, ``We have made 1,500 decisions.'' The good souls here were quick to remind us that this government was formed in a hurry on March 31, 2009, just minutes away from All Fools Day. Pundits ridiculed the abundance of decisions, saying that it was better to check how many of them actually were implemented. Others said that actually, for every one of 750 decisions made, there was one reversing it and so on.

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PA rebuts terrorist street name critique
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Government Media Center on Thursday rejected the Prime Minister’s Office’s harsh critique of the naming of a Ramallah street after arch terrorist Yehiyeh Ayash. The organization told The Jerusalem Post that “the street was named over twelve years ago and it is nothing new,” adding that “the decisions to name streets are made independently by local authorities and municipalities like any other democratic and open society.”

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President Obama is right
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Adi Mintz - (Opinion) April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

One year is sufficient in order to examine the direction our government is heading to. At least this is the view of our prime minister, who recently presented his government’s achievements. However, while Netanyahu boasted of some economic achievements, he could not do the same in respect to the diplomatic front, and hence did not talk much about it. So is the diplomatic approach he adopted this year appropriate, or does he need to change direction at this time?

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With Ashkenzi out of the way, Barak can finally have his way
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel - (Opinion) April 9, 2010 - 12:00am

The sky did not fall on Tuesday afternoon. Israel's security situation will apparently survive even the latest petty scrap between the defense minister and the army chief of staff. Indeed, it is not at all certain that Ashkenazi's term needed to be extended by another year. As is quite usual with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the problem was not with the content, but with the style and the timing of his announcement that the chief of staff's term would be over as planned, after four years, in February 2011.

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PNA urges Washington to endorse Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Thursday called on the United States to take the initiative and announce it would recognize the future Palestinian state. "The Palestinians don't want to see new ideas to settle the conflict in the Middle East. They want international resolutions to be implemented," Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio. Erekat explained that the Palestinians want Washington "to go to the Security Council and announce its acceptance of the international law which accepts a Palestinian statehood, with Jerusalem as its capital."

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Palestinian refugees need more service from UNRWA: poll
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Syria expected more services from U.N. Refugees Works Agency ( UNRWA), according to the results of a poll, released here on Thursday. The poll was conducted from October 17 to 25, 2009 by the Beirut-based Organization for the Right of Return (Thabit), Palestinian Return Center (PRC) in London and Damascus-based Palestinian Return Community (Wajeb). It showed that among the 1,460 Palestinian refugees participating the poll, 92 percent of those in Lebanon and Syria support UNRWA's work, though 85 percent said that its work is "not enough".

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