August 24th

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.


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.


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.


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.


August 23rd

ATFP Advocacy Director Ghaith Al-Omari discusses direct negotiations on the PBS Newshour. A new mall opens in Gaza. Charles Glass says the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about politics, not religion. Palestinians express concern about negotiations, but PM Netanyahu expresses optimism. Activists say support is growing for boycotts against Israel. PLO officials say renewed settlement activity could threaten negotiations. Amira Hass looks at the politics of road paving in the occupied territories. Ha'aretz interviews a leading settler rabbi who wants all non-Jews in Israel and the occupied territories expelled to Saudi Arabia. The Jerusalem Post finds some reason for optimism about the negotiations. A group of women Israeli soldiers denounce the treatment of Palestinians. Lara Friedman says two states are the only solution. Israeli authorities question the authenticity of Muslim gravestones in a cemetery at the heart of a major controversy in occupied East Jerusalem. The Gulf News says the deck is stacked against Palestinians in the negotiations, and the Arab News says the one-year time frame is too ambitious. Hussein Ibish looks at the new PA education initiative.

One Solution: Two States
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Lara Friedman - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am


The steady march of settlements, the rightward shift in Israeli politics, the growing sense that a conflict-ending peace agreement is impossible — all these things are feeding some pundits’ impulse to declare the death of the two-state solution as a means of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But what are the alternatives?


Palestinians: No talks if settlement freeze ends
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - August 23, 2010 - 12:00am


The Palestinian leader has warned President Barack Obama that he will pull out of upcoming peace talks if Israel ends a slowdown of West Bank settlement construction, a Palestinian negotiator said Monday. Direct negotiations aimed at ending the decades-old Mideast conflict are to resume in Washington next week after months of U.S. diplomatic efforts. Both sides seem pessimistic about the talks, their first in 20 months.


Support builds for boycotts against Israel, activists say
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe
by Farah Stockman - August 22, 2010 - 12:00am


In May, rock legend Elvis Costello canceled his gig in Israel. Then, in June, a group of unionized dock workers in San Francisco refused to unload an Israeli ship. In August, a food co-op in Washington state removed Israeli products from its shelves. The so-called “boycott, divestment, and sanctions’’ movement aimed at pressuring Israel to withdraw from land claimed by Palestinians has long been considered a fringe effort inside the United States, with no hope of garnering mainstream support enjoyed by the anti-apartheid campaign against South Africa of the 1980s.


Israel's Netanyahu scores big victory with direct peace talks – for now
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - August 22, 2010 - 12:00am


Savoring the diplomatic victory of renewed direct peace talks announced last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet today that a peace treaty with the Palestinians would be "a difficult thing, but it is possible."


Palestinians see danger for Abbas in resumed Israel peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ben Lynfield - August 20, 2010 - 12:00am


There was little for Palestinians to be upbeat about Friday as they waited for an official invitation to join Israel at resumed direct peace talks to be hosted by President Obama on Sept. 2.



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