August 11th

Senators to Obama: Lean on Arabs to normalize Israel ties ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Natasha Mozgovaya - August 11, 2009 - 12:00am A bipartisan group comprising 71 U.S. senators is urging President Barack Obama to lean on Arab states to normalize relations with Israel. In a letter addressed to Obama on Monday, the senators praised Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for lobbying the Arab states to take steps toward supporting the Palestinian Authority, though more was needed to advance peace. » Read more

Jailed Fatah strongman Marwan Barghouti elected to party leadership ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters August 11, 2009 - 12:00am Marwan Barghouti, jailed for life in Israel on charges of organizing the killing of Jews, was elected to a top post in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group on Tuesday, initial results showed. Barghouti, 50, who denies the charges, is a popular and articulate figure among many Palestinians and was once seen as a successor to Yasser Arafat. Some members of the Fatah "Old Guard" lost their positions when the faction elected a new executive body, the initial results showed after more than 90 percent of votes had been counted for the 18-member Central Committee. » Read more

The Two-State Solution Doesn’t Solve Anything ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Hussein Agha, Robert Malley - (Opinion) August 11, 2009 - 12:00am THE two-state solution has welcomed two converts. In recent weeks, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, have indicated they now accept what they had long rejected. This nearly unanimous consensus is the surest sign to date that the two-state solution has become void of meaning, a catchphrase divorced from the contentious issues it is supposed to resolve. Everyone can say yes because saying yes no longer says much, and saying no has become too costly. » Read more

Saudi Arabia to deliver 200 million USD to PA ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency August 11, 2009 - 12:00am Saudi Arabia will deliver 200 million US dollars to the Palestinian Authority (PA), caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced on Monday. In a press conference at his Ramallah office, Fayyad said that “this generous delivery from Saudi Arabia will enable the PA to fulfill its commitments to the Palestinians who are living under siege, mainly in Gaza.” The funds are to be transferred to the PA treasury over the coming days, he said. » Read more

Fatah Turns to Nation Building, Though It Doesn’t Discard the Rifle ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - August 11, 2009 - 12:00am Hoping to satisfy as wide a constituency as possible, the Palestinian delegates to the Fatah conference, scheduled to conclude here on Tuesday, have tried to broadcast a message both peaceful and militant. It was a delicate balancing act for Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian nationalist party, as it sought to rise above past failures, rejuvenate itself and head off the challenge from Hamas, the Islamic group that is Fatah’s rival. But it remains an open question whether the weeklong conference, Fatah’s first in 20 years, has hastened or slowed the prospect of a Palestinian state. » Read more

August 10th

The push for Mideast peace hinges on Benjamin Netanyahu 2.0 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Daily News by David Makovsky - (Opinion) August 10, 2009 - 12:00am As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently passed his first 100 days in office, there are early signs that the Israeli leader has evolved since he held the post a decade ago. This could mean - on the Israeli side at least - a real commitment to a durable peace. » Read more

Losing Patience with Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Atlantic by Robert Kaplan - August 10, 2009 - 12:00am Not since the days of Henry Kissinger’s Mid-East shuttle diplomacy in the 1970s has America’s foreign policy toward Israel been characterized by such an attitude of unsentimental realism. After eight years of fighting, the stalemate in Afghanistan and the loss of 4,000 American troops in Iraq – not to mention the deaths of perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraqis – has rendered the search for stability, rather than democracy, paramount, and created a climate in which interests are to be valued far more than friends. » Read more

Green Shoots in Palestine II ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Thomas L. Friedman - August 8, 2009 - 12:00am Ever since the collapse of the Oslo peace accords in 2000, and the horror-show violence that followed, there has been only one thing to say about the West Bank: Nothing ever changes here, except for the worst. That is just not the case anymore — much to my surprise. » Read more

Netanyahu calls Gaza withdrawal ‘a mistake’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Emile Hokayem - August 9, 2009 - 12:00am Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, yesterday said the withdrawal of nearly 9,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip four years ago was a mistake, bringing mixed reaction from Middle East experts on the significance of his comments to relations with the United States and the peace process. » Read more

Israeli settlement freeze 'not enough for Saudis' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) by Paul Handley - August 7, 2009 - 12:00am Saudi Arabia believes that Arab recognition of Israel should only come after a final peace deal with the Palestinians and not simply be a quid-pro-quo for freezing settlement expansions, analysts say. Haaretz newspaper reported Thursday that Washington had proposed a one-year freeze last week to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as a way of persuading Arab states to move toward normalising ties with Israel. » Read more