March 22nd

Tensions rise as Israeli soldiers kill 2 Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - March 22, 2010 - 12:00am Hours before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embarked Sunday on a trip to Washington to mend U.S.-Israeli ties, tensions built in the West Bank when Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinian teenagers they say threatened them with a pitchfork and ax. The shootings brought the Palestinian death toll to four during the last two days in the Nablus region. On Saturday, two Palestinian teens were shot by soldiers after a clash with Jewish settlers over a water well. » Read more

In the fight over settlements, who are Israel's real friends? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Stephen Walt - (Opinion) March 22, 2010 - 12:00am When Vice President Biden arrived in Israel on March 8, seeking to smooth U.S. ties with the Netanyahu government and jump-start peace talks, he began by reaffirming America's "absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel's security." The nearly simultaneous announcement by Israel that it plans to build another 1,600 homes in disputed East Jerusalem was not the warm embrace he was expecting. » Read more

A message for Palestinians in the Israel-U.S. disagreement? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Eric Fingerhut - March 21, 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. » Read more

A familiar obstacle to Mideast peace: Mahmoud Abbas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Jackson Diehl - (Opinion) March 22, 2010 - 12:00am U.S. diplomats had labored for months to persuade Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace negotiations. Just as it appeared they had succeeded, there came a provocation: Israel took a step toward expanding a Jewish settlement in Jerusalem. Headlines appeared around the globe; the European Union protested; Palestinians cried foul. Some threatened to boycott the new talks unless the decision were reversed. » Read more

Last opportunity ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News March 21, 2010 - 12:00am Netanyahu is to travel to Washington where he is expected to meet Clinton and possibly President Barack Obama in their first meeting since the extraordinary flare-up that took Israel and much of the world aback. The eruption was ignited by Israel’s announcement of 1,600 more settler homes in East Jerusalem which coincided not only with a visit by Vice President Joe Biden but also with the eve of the proximity talks America had at last persuaded Mahmoud Abbas to enter with Netanyahu. » Read more

Both Sides Claim Success as Diplomatic Row Wanes ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - (Analysis) March 20, 2010 - 12:00am After 10 days of public quarreling over Jewish building in East Jerusalem, the Israeli government and the Obama administration have each declared victory and started to make up. The Americans believe they have extracted important concessions from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; the Israelis think they have yielded little. U.N. Chief Urges Israel to End Settlement Building (March 21, 2010) » Read more

March 19th

Lieberman on Quartet call: You can't make artificial peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - March 19, 2010 - 12:00am Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman responded Friday to the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators' call to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, saying that peace is not something which can be created artificially and with unrealistic timetables. "Peace will be established through actions and not by force," Lieberman told Belgium's Jewish community ahead of his scheduled talks with the ministers of several European nations. » Read more

US military moves towards a harder line against Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Alan Philps - (Editorial) March 18, 2010 - 12:00am For many years, American diplomats have had to approach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a rigidly pro-Israeli position. On a personal level, that is no doubt the way they had been taught to see the world. But careerism required that they never deviate, whatever they learned on the job. The result was that, during the 1990s, all US proposals were put to the Israeli government in advance for approval. » Read more

PNA to reduce dependence on Western training programs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua March 18, 2010 - 12:00am The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) tends to reduce dependence on U.S. and European officers in training its forces in the West Bank, a spokesman said Thursday. Adnan Al-Dumiri, spokesman for the PNA's forces, said Palestinian officers who received training would start shifting their experience to newly-admitted cadets. "The PNA's dependence on the Americans and Europeans is decreasing," he told Xinhua. » Read more

A Confrontation That Was Inevitable ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) March 17, 2010 - 12:00am No, it wasn’t embarrassment that caused a blowup in U.S.-Israel relations when Vice President Joe Biden came to Jerusalem. Nor was it a weakening of America’s bond with Israel. It wasn’t timing, either — at least not the timing of Israel’s announcement of new housing plans in East Jerusalem moments after the vice president arrived. That provided a trigger, but the confrontation was coming anyway. » Read more