Netanyahu to US: I'm leading Israel's policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Atilla Somfalvi - September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Wednesday with US special envoy George Mitchell, who arrived in Israel in a bid to save the peace talks following the end of the settlement construction freeze. The two officials were forced to deal with another issue – Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's UN General Assembly address on Tuesday, in which he mentioned his land exchange plan and said that it could "take decades" to reach a comprehensive peace agreement with the Palestinians.

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Ministers: Lieberman causing Israel damage
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's speech before the UN, which was in stark contradiction with the official position of Israel's government, has set Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on edge, prompting them to shake all connection with his statements. They were not the only ones. Minister Isaac Herzog went so far as to say that the peace process may even alter the coalition's makeup, adding that he hopes "this happens as soon as possible."

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Negotiating Until the End
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Ali Ibrahim - (Opinion) September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is in a difficult position. The Palestinian negotiators linked the continuation of direction negotiations with Israel – which were launched with great difficulty and are still at an early stage – with an extension to the partial freeze on settlement construction; something that has not materialized from the Israeli side, despite international pressure, in particular from Washington, who are sponsoring the current negotiations.

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Focus on the far horizon of settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

The problem with the immediate controversy over whether or not Israel will continue to suspend most expansion of its Jewish settlements in occupied Arab land is that it is both tangential and central to the Arab-Israeli conflict. This means that the principal actors – especially Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas – have much flexibility to hold their ground or make concessions, because in either case they can claim to be winners.

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EU's Ashton to join Middle East peace push
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Jeff Mason, Andrew Quinn - September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON, Sept 29 (Reuters) - European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she would depart for the Middle East on Wednesday as diplomatic pressure intensified to save faltering Israel-Palestinian peace talks. "I'm going to the Middle East tonight and and I'll meet (U.S. Middle East peace envoy) George Mitchell when I land tomorrow," Ashton told Reuters in an interview in Washington, adding that she also planned to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

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In blame game, arrow tilts to Abbas
Media Mention of ATFP In Politico - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Israelis and Palestinians have yet to achieve any substantive progress in the nascent peace talks that resulted from President Barack Obama’s high-profile push for negotiations, but a subtle shift in the political balance between the two antagonists seems clear: Israel is now winning the blame game. The blame game always proceeds on a parallel, subterranean track to actual negotiations, the cynical mirror of the process’s insistent optimism. Some prominent figures on both sides barely disguise their assumption that peace talks will fail, as they almost always do.

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Separating gimmickry from reality on settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel’s temporary, partial settlement construction moratorium has finally expired without being renewed in any way. This is in spite of repeated American entreaties to the Israeli government to extend the moratorium and repeated Palestinian warnings that negotiations could not continue if building resumes. As things stand, the issue is unresolved and poses a serious threat to the future of negotiations, with the United States urgently looking for a compromise and the Palestinians putting off any final decision for at least another week.

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Separating gimmickry from reality on settlements
In Print by Hussein Ibish - NOW Lebanon (Opinion) - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel’s temporary, partial settlement construction moratorium has finally expired without being renewed in any way. This is in spite of repeated American entreaties to the Israeli government to extend the moratorium and repeated Palestinian warnings that negotiations could not continue if building resumes. As things stand, the issue is unresolved and poses a serious threat to the future of negotiations, with the United States urgently looking for a compromise and the Palestinians putting off any final decision for at least another week.

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Israeli Foreign Minister Distances Himself From Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Neil MacFarquhar - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Sharp differences within the Israeli government over peace negotiations played out in the unusual setting of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman using the podium to say that peace with the Palestinians required an intermediate agreement lasting “decades” and that the issue of Iranian belligerence should be addressed first.

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Netanyahu says Mideast peace talks must go on
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Joseph Nasr - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday agreed to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a summit in Paris next month, a joint effort to overcome the threat of their peace talks collapsing. A statement from Netanyahu's office said the prime minister had held phone conversations with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and told them he hoped "positive negotiations" with Abbas would continue.

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