US 'disappointed' after settlement freeze ends
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Analysis) September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- US envoy George Mitchell will hold meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week to discuss the consequences of Israel's decision not to extend a temporary moratorium on settlement building. The US administration is "disappointed" at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley was quoted as saying by The Associated Press. Crowley praised the "restraint" of the Palestinian response to resumed building.

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Israel minister's UN speech disowned by Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Patrick Worsnip - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's foreign minister said on Tuesday a peace deal with the Palestinians could take decades and pressed his own plan which seeks to get rid of as many Israeli Arab citizens as possible in a land swap. In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York that was quickly disowned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman again exposed the serious differences between Netanyahu and him over peace prospects.

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“Pleasant Surprise” From Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Elias Harfoush - (Opinion) September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

When Benjamin Netanyahu refused to extend the settlement freeze in the West Bank, he was not doing anything surprising. Indeed, he was not expected to respond to the calls of the sponsor of the direct negotiations, President Barack Obama, or to the positions of the European Union which urged Israel to provide the necessary climate for the success of the negotiations.

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Solving the West Bank settler problem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Gabrielle Rifkind - (Opinion) September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

The Israeli construction freeze in the West Bank hangs like a dark cloud over the peace talks. The moratorium expired on 26 September and President Abbas has continuously said he will withdraw from negotiations if settlement activity resumes. Last-ditch attempts to save the talks from an early collapse are taking place behind the scenes. Meanwhile Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has called on the settler movement to show restraint and only allow only small-scale construction to resume. Tensions remain very high.

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Obama demands more than Israel can give
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Richard Cohen - (Opinion) September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Every so often, the sayings of Casey Stengel come to mind. The longtime manager of the New York Yankees, accustomed to a Prussian professionalism in the hitting and fielding of baseballs, moved over to the astonishingly hapless New York Mets in 1962 and, surveying his new team, uttered an exasperated question: "Can't anybody here play this game?" What applied to those Mets applies now to the Obama administration. In the Middle East, it's no hits and plenty of errors.

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Encountering Peace: Declare victory and stop building
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Let’s face it, the leaders of the settlement movement did not oppose the building moratorium because some young couples couldn’t afford their mortgage. They did not oppose it because a new classroom or nursery school could not be added even if needed as a result of natural growth. They did not oppose it because of the compassion they felt for real-estate developers whose profits were falling.

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U.S. envoy speeds to Mideast in effort salvage peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Washington's special Mideast envoy, using a slim lifeline from the Palestinians, rushed to the region on Tuesday on an emergency mission to keep peace talks from collapsing just weeks after they began. Israel's decision to resume new West Bank settlement construction after a 10-month moratorium expired on midnight Sunday has provoked Palestinian threats to walk out of the talks. It has also caused new friction between Israel and its powerful U.S. patron, which said it was disappointed with Israel's refusal to relent.

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World leaders criticize Israel for refusing to extend West Bank construction moratorium
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Reporting from Jerusalem — World leaders Monday criticized Israel's refusal to extend its construction moratorium on the West Bank even after Palestinians threatened to quit Mideast peace talks, but they vowed to prevent the stalled negotiations from collapsing.

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US 'disappointed' after settlement freeze ends
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 28, 2010 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- US envoy George Mitchell will hold meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders this week to discuss the consequences of Israel's decision not to extend a temporary moratorium on settlement building. The US administration is "disappointed" at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley was quoted as saying by The Associated Press. Crowley praised the "restraint" of the Palestinian response to resumed building.

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Jewish settlers claim biblical birthright to land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Maayan Lubell - September 27, 2010 - 12:00am

YITZHAR, West Bank, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Jewish settler Avraham Binyamin says any Israeli withdrawal from occupied land would be like severing a limb from his body. As one of some 300,000 Israelis living in enclaves built on West Bank land that Palestinians seek for a state, Binyamin expresses a view held by many that the area is a Jewish biblical birthright and must never be relinquished, not even for peace.

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