Israel defies US and destroys Palestinian home
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Ben Lynfield - April 23, 2009 - 12:00am

Brushing aside international criticism, Israel demolished a Palestinian house in East Jerusalem in the latest in a series of actions that critics say is racheting up tensions in the city, harming chances for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ammar Hudidon, a resident of the Jebel Mukaber neighbourhood and a father of seven children, said a bulldozer flattened his home yesterday after the Jerusalem municipality said he lacked building permits. Palestinians complain that the permits are virtually impossible to obtain.

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Bibi and Obama: Could a Clash Be in the Offing?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Jeffay - April 22, 2009 - 12:00am

Are they headed for a diplomatic divorce? Or can this relationship be saved? The growing number of differences between the new Obama administration and the newer Netanyahu government is coming into view at a sensitive time. American envoy George Mitchell seemed, during his recent Middle East visit, to draw attention to the apparent disconnect between his vision and Benjamin Netanyahu’s by making a mantra of the very policy that Netanyahu has declined to support — the “two-state solution.”

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Connect Gaza and West Bank now
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) April 22, 2009 - 12:00am

US presidential envoy George Mitchell is touring the region searching for signs of progress to report back to his boss and to move the peace process forward.

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Obama, Netanyahu, and Zionists Against Occupation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Analysis) April 20, 2009 - 12:00am

It occurred to me while leaving St. Peter in Chains. I decided to do the very last thing the Jewish People needs: start a new Jewish organization. The inspiration was the unassuming but sublime church of San Pietro in Vincoli [St. Peter in Chains]. Tucked into a back corner of the city, it is home to Michelangelo's monumentally wistful marble of Moses.

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The American Change
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Abdullah Iskandar - (Opinion) April 19, 2009 - 12:00am

The US has taken a big step forward in its outlook on the Arab-Israeli conflict and how to resolve it, ending decades of complete adherence to Israel's stance. It has begun to sense the need to look into the demands of Arabs, i.e. into the demands of the other party to the conflict. Perhaps for the first time in the history of the US dealing with the conflict in the region, Presidential Envoy George Mitchell expressed a truth the Arabs have been pointing out for decades: peace in the Middle East is in the US's interest, with the Arab peace initiative constituting one of its bases.

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Israel, Iran and Fear
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) April 19, 2009 - 12:00am

When I lived in Germany in the 1990s, the return of the capital from Bonn to the scene of the crime, Berlin, prompted agonizing over how to memorialize the Holocaust. Germans thirsted for a “Schlussstrich” — closure with Hitler — even as they acknowledged its impossibility. A large Holocaust memorial was built in Berlin, but not before a leading writer, Martin Walser, had prompted outrage by railing against “the permanent presentation of our shame” and use of Auschwitz as “a moral stick.”

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Reckoning nears for the US and Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - April 18, 2009 - 12:00am

The moment of reckoning in US-Israeli relations is approaching much more quickly than could have been anticipated months ago, due to two related developments: the hard-line position of the new Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the obvious, but undeclared, linkages between progress in US-Iranian relations and progress in Arab-Israeli peace-making.

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Eminently possible
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) April 16, 2009 - 12:00am

George Mitchell, the US envoy to the region with a special brief to kick-start meaningful talks between Palestinians and Israelis, has his work cut out for him.

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US envoy meets Israeli officials
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English
April 16, 2009 - 12:00am

The US special envoy to the Middle East is meeting senior Israeli officials in an attempt to kickstart the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. George Mitchell met Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's foreign minister, on Thursday and will meet Benyamin Netanyahu, the country's prime minister, later in the day. Mitchell is also expected to discuss progress on peace negotiations with Tzipi Livni, leader of the opposition Kadima party. Shortly after arriving in the country on Wednesday evening, Mitchell met Ehud Barak, Israel's defence minister. Commitment urged

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Mitchell urges two-state solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
April 16, 2009 - 12:00am

The US president Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy today told Israel’s ultranationalist foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, that Washington wants to see the creation of a Palestinian state. With Mr Libeerman at his side, George Mitchell told reporters: “I reiterated to the foreign minister that US policy favours, with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a two-state solution which will have a Palestinian state living in peace alongside the Jewish state of Israel. “We look forward also to efforts to achieving comprehensive peace throughout the region.”

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