The peace process needs some new facts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Opinion) September 14, 2009 - 12:00am

If all goes according to Barack Obama’s plan, there will be a Palestinian state within two years. Relative to the 60 years of Palestinian suffering, that is an extremely short period of time. Despite this, there has been little enthusiasm shown for the plan from either Palestinians, Israelis or the Arab world. This is hardly surprising.

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Normalisation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Nermeen Murad - (Opinion) September 14, 2009 - 12:00am

I don’t know exactly when and how the word “normalisation” came to signify visiting occupied Palestinian land or dealing with Palestinians. Ever since I can remember I have heard or read statements from professional associations lambasting one party or another for “normalising”. Of course I have yet to hear these professional associations lead a campaign on anything that has to do with their mandate as unions representing the rights of professionals, but that is another story for another day.

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Israeli Cities Differences With U.S. on Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Mark Lavie - September 14, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, speaking ahead of a key meeting with the White House's Middle East envoy, said Sunday that differences remain with the United States over resuming peacemaking with the Palestinians. Netanyahu delivered the assessment before flying to Cairo for talks with Egypt's president, a main mediator in efforts to restart peace talks, and ahead of a meeting with George J. Mitchell, the U.S. envoy, later in the week.

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Mitchell in Israel to jumpstart talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - September 14, 2009 - 12:00am

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell sounded cautiously optimistic before meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres on Sunday about the prospects for an agreement before October on a settlement freeze that's expected to jump start peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

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'Urgency' in US Middle East talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
September 14, 2009 - 12:00am

The US has launched a new effort to finalise terms for fresh negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Mr Mitchell has been discussing the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank - a key stumbling block. He said: "It is our intention to conclude this phase of our discussions in the very near future." "This will enable us to move on to the next and really the more important phase," he added. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.

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A Peace Process Momentum Plan to Move Quickly to Actual Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Samuel Lewis, Edward Walker - (Analysis) September 11, 2009 - 12:00am

After his major speeches in Turkey and Egypt, President Obama established his ownership of the Arab-Israeli issue. With countries in the region testing whether he has the wherewithal to deliver the goods, his challenge is to keep the momentum going forward on an almost daily basis with practical steps and leadership. The President needs to create a "peace process momentum plan" leading to negotiations by mid-fall, which recent reports suggest he is trying to do through his Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, who is traveling to Israel again at the end of the week.

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Rattling the Cage: The mother of all missed opportunities
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) September 11, 2009 - 12:00am

So there's a stalemate in the peace process, so what else is new? Actually, there is something new. What's new is that the Palestinians in the West Bank are doing what we've dreamed the Palestinians would do for more than a century - and we refuse to see it. They've effectively stopped terrorism. They're building up their economy. They're enforcing the law. They're being trained by the Americans and they're cooperating with Israeli military and intelligence. They're arresting Islamic militants by the thousands, and they're not hesitating to shoot it out with them.

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Seized Israeli Writes of Deep Depression
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
September 10, 2009 - 12:00am

An Israeli soldier seized by Palestinian fighters more than three years ago described his captivity as an "intolerable and inhumane nightmare" in a 2006 letter to his parents that was made public Wednesday. In carefully printed script, Sgt. Gilad Shalit reported deteriorating health and deep depression, making an anguished appeal to the Israeli government to release him from his "closed and solitary prison." Shalit, now 23, wrote the 14-line letter three months after gunmen affiliated with the Gaza Strip's Islamist Hamas rulers captured him in a cross-border raid.

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Pitfalls in US timetable for Middle East peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Sharmila Devi - September 10, 2009 - 12:00am

A rough timetable in the US push for Middle East peace is likely to emerge in the next few weeks after several months in which the administration has gone against some sceptical expectations and pressured Israel for a settlement freeze. Numerous pitfalls lie ahead, as always in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, but US resolve remains firm, said officials and analysts.

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Israel pushes ahead with East Jerusalem building
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Jonathan Adams - September 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel announced building plans in contested East Jerusalem today in a move likely to complicate US-Israel talks over a freeze on Israeli settlements in disputed territories. The reports came days after Israel announced other plans to build new settlements in the West Bank (see a map of the settlements here). The Obama administration has pressed Israel for a freeze on all settlement activity as a condition for a return to peace talks with the Palestinians. Israel has shrugged off that demand.

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