Rahm Emanuel: Self-hating Jew or peace-broker?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - (Opinion) July 31, 2009 - 12:00am


When I ask a liberal American Jew involved in politics what he thinks of the claim that Rahm Emanuel is an anti-Israeli fifth column in the Obama administration, he laughs. "So, do they really think in Israel that Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, Dan Shapiro, Mara Rudman, Dennis Ross and the other good American Jews who work with Obama are a fifth column?" And then he says slowly, like someone explaining something to a person who has difficulty understanding: "How many times do you have to be told ... " "... that you love us?" I try to complete the sentence.


Not quite as gloomy as they look
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
(Editorial) July 31, 2009 - 12:00am


BACK in the autumn of last year, Ehud Olmert, then Israel’s fading prime minister, and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinians’ more durable president, were astonishingly close to a peace deal. Judging by an interview with Mr Olmert published in Newsweek in June, after he had given up his post, they appeared to have been only a whisker apart—though Mr Abbas has since called the gap “wide”. But it is worth spelling out what Mr Olmert says he offered, in an account that other senior Palestinians have pretty much verified.


Get stuck in, Mr President
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
July 30, 2009 - 12:00am


THE American president may think he has enough on his plate without worrying about the dog’s dinner simmering away in the corner: the sickly Middle East peace process, with its often nauseous ingredients. This week he has sent an array of colleagues to stir the pot, including his envoy, George Mitchell, who has been in and out of the region; Robert Gates, his secretary of defence; and Jim Jones, his security adviser, who knows the Palestinians from the past. But Mr Obama is the indispensable head chef. However preoccupied, it is he who must decide what to serve up—and when.


Hamas Chief Outlines Terms for Talks on Arab-Israeli Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Julien Barnes-Dacey, Jay Solomon - July 31, 2009 - 12:00am


The chief of Palestinian militant group Hamas said his organization is prepared to cooperate with the U.S. in promoting a peaceful resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict if the White House can secure an Israeli settlement freeze and a lifting of the economic and military blockade of the Gaza Strip.


Settlement Foes Take Fight to Israel's High Court
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - July 31, 2009 - 12:00am


It has been nearly a decade since the Jewish settlement of Migron appeared on the hilltop opposite this Palestinian village, beginning with a communications tower and followed by a cluster of homes and a fence around approximately 90 acres of land. Data tucked onto the hard drive of anti-settlement activist Dror Etkes's computer indicates that the land belongs to the residents of Burqa and nearby Deir Dibwan, and Etkes said he expects that information will one day force the settlers to leave.


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.


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.


July 30th

‘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.


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.


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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