March 23rd

Analysis: Blundering toward disaster
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Horovitz - March 23, 2010 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON – They applauded her entrance. They applauded intermittently throughout her speech. The loudest and most sustained ovation, predictably, came when she demanded that “Gilad Schalit must be released immediately and reunited with his family.” Overall, the reception, if not euphoric, was warm.

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Britain to Expel Israeli Diplomat Over Dubai Case
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Ian Deitch, Aron Heller, Gregory Katz, Raphael G. Satter - March 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Britain will expel an Israeli diplomat on Tuesday to rebuke Israel for its alleged use of forged British passports in the assassination of a Hamas operative in a suspected Mossad hit, a U.K. government official said. Foreign Secretary David Miliband was scheduled to address Parliament over the issue, following an investigation into the use of 12 fake U.K. passports in the incident. Britain's Foreign Office would not provide any details of Miliband's statement in advance.

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Time to act
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Hassan Barari - (Opinion) March 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Arabs are enamoured with senior officials in the American administration who are at a loggerhead with Israel over the controversy of new development in East Jerusalem. Explicit in the plethora of articles in the Arabic press is the hope that the American administration will follow through on its effort to force the Israeli government to submit to American pressure.

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Make Israe pay an 'occupation tax'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Ezzedine Choukri Fishere - (Editorial) March 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Arab intellectuals and policymakers have often accused Europe of using financial generosity to cover up its political impotence over the Arab-Israeli conflict. If Europe is to be taken seriously as a global player, they argue, it must also flex some muscle when it delivers the money. In Arab eyes, European officials implicitly plead guilty to these charges by pointing to Europe’s complex multilateral politics and the European Union’s bureaucratic nature. Europe’s Arab interlocutors are unimpressed: they want Europe to stop talking like a Great Power and start acting like one.

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Netanyahu Takes Hard Line on Jerusalem Housing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Mark Landler - March 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, under extraordinary pressure from the Obama administration to curb the construction of Jewish housing in Jerusalem, served notice on Monday that his government would not yield easily to American demands. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the gala banquet of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual policy conference on Monday night.

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March 22nd

Both Washington and Tel Aviv claim success in the recent standoff over settlements. Jackson Diehl blames Pres. Abbas for lack of progress, but Stephen Walt blames the pro-Israel lobby. Tensions rise in the occupied territories as at least four Palestinians are killed by Israeli forces, the official version of events is heavily challenged, and the US urges restraint. Strains in the US-Israel relationship are evident in Sec, Clinton's speech at AIPAC. Palestinians say they're looking for a complete settlement freeze before returning to talksm and the EU calls for such a freeze.. UNSG Ban decries the Gaza blockade, The PA distributes aid to the poor and needy. A play in Gaza raises rare criticisms of Hamas. Abbas reiterates Palestinians have a right to resist occupation. A Ha'aretz analysis says there is a danger of another uprising. ATFP Advocacy Director Ghaith Al-Omari warns that Palestinians may be the next to face US pressure. The Arab News says the US faces a final opportunity for peace progress.

Israeli-Palestinian peace hopes rise as US envoy prepares to get talks moving
Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In The Guardian - March 22, 2010 - 12:00am

The US special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, is due to fly to the region on Sunday to try to secure a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks amid optimism about a breakthrough. Mitchell had been due to visit Israel on Tuesday but his trip was cancelled – a victim of US-Israeli tensions. It was reinstated after Israel's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, bowing to US pressure, phoned the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, last night to offer concessions.Mitchell is scheduled to see Netanyahu in Israel and the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah.

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A message for Palestinians in the Israel-U.S. disagreement?
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) - March 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Jeffrey Goldberg lamented the other day that the AIPAC policy conference had too many speakers from the center-right and not enough from the left. One exception he did cite was Ghaith al-Omari, advocacy director for the American Task Force on Palestine, who spoke Sunday afternoon on a panel entitled "Prognosticating Peace: Are Direct Israeli-Palestinian Talks in Sight?" And al-Omari had an interesting perspective on the recent flareup in tensions between the U.S. and Israel, believing there was an important message in the episode for Palestinians, as well.

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Clinton to AIPAC: Settlement activity undermines U.S. role in peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
March 22, 2010 - 12:00am

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians should be serious and substantive, warning that new Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank were jeopardizing progress and undermining U.S. mediation. "New construction in East Jerusalem or the West Bank undermines mutual trust and endangers the proximity talks that are the first step toward the full negotiations that both sides want and need," Clinton said in a speech to AIPAC, an influential pro-Israel lobby group, at its annual conference in Washington.

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Abbas: Palestinian people have national right to resistance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
March 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday said that the Palestinian people had a national right to resistance against Israeli occupation, adding that his government would not acquiesce to any Israeli demands with which it disagreed. Abbas was speaking after a meeting in Amman with U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell, who in turn urged the two sides to exercise restraint. The Obama administration was seeking to establish conditions for the stalled Israel-Palestinian talks to resume," he said. Advertisement

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