Israeli-Palestinian peace talks look less likely as settlers fret over freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Christa Case Bryant - August 13, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli and Palestinian leaders are coming under growing US pressure to enter direct peace talks. But despite international mediation this week, they have been unable to close the gap between what their respective constituents will accept. A key sticking point is the 10-month freeze on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, set to expire next month.

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INTERVIEW-"Direct talks" no Mideast miracle cure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Douglas Hamilton - August 13, 2010 - 12:00am

Moving from indirect talks to direct negotiations on the Middle East conflict may yield little unless Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a surprise in store, says a U.S. veteran of the peace process. "It would be a mistake of epic proportions to conclude that we've now reached a fundamental turning point that is going to produce quick or easy progress let alone results," former Middle East adviser Aaron David Miller told Reuters.

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Abbas 'very close' to direct talks with Israel: EU
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
August 13, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is very close to agreeing to direct talks with Israel, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said in a letter to foreign ministers seen by AFP on Friday. Abbas "has requested a few more days for final consultations with Arab partners as well as with the Fatah and PLO executive bodies," Ashton wrote, and "should be in a position to give a definitive answer by Sunday or early next week."

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Direct negotiations to begin next week
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
August 13, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas may agree to direct talks next week if Israel agrees to pre-1967 borders, according to a letter found by Reuters on Thursday. The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton reportedly said in the letter that Abbas would release a statement as early as next week, if both parties agreed to direct talks. Negotiations would begin before the end of the month.

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Palestinians await Israeli response on involving Quartet in peace discussions: official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 12, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian leadership is waiting for Israel's response on the proposal that the international Quartet issues a statement to define the references for direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, a senior Palestinian official said on Thursday. "We are waiting for the Americans to tell us the Israeli response on our proposal," Saleh Ra'fat, a member of the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) told Radio of Palestine.

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Netanyahu rejects '67 borders as basis for talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 12, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his request that direct peace talks with Palestinians go ahead without preconditions, during a meeting with US envoy to the peace process George Mitchell on Wednesday. President Mahmoud Abbas, following his Tuesday meeting with Mitchell, told the press that he emphasized the need to base talks on a March statement by the Middle East Quartet, which outlined its position that a future Palestinian state should be based on the 1967 borders.

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Netanyahu rejects peace talks based on 1967 borders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - August 12, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday rejected a Palestinian demand that direct negotiations be based on a statement by the Quartet confirming its position that the future Palestinian state will be based on the 1967 borders. Meeting in Jerusalem with U.S. envoy George Mitchell, Netanyahu repeated his demand for the renewal of direct talks without preconditions. Mitchell briefed Netanyahu on his meeting on Tuesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and gave the prime minister the Palestinian proposal.

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Abbas Between the Plague and Cholera
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Abdullah Iskandar - (Opinion) August 12, 2010 - 12:00am

Will the sixth tour of American Envoy George Mitchell between Ramallah and occupied Jerusalem since last May - which marked the launching of the indirect talks between Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu’s government - be the last tour that will make Abu Mazen head toward direct negotiations?

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Palestinians receive U.S. approval of proposal of reference for direct talks with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Osama Radi - August 12, 2010 - 12:00am

A senior official revealed on Wednesday that the Palestinian leadership received a preliminary approval from the United States over a proposal that the Quartet committee for peace in the Middle East issue a statement defining a reference for direct peace talks with Israel. Hana Amira, member of Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) executive committee, told Xinhua that U.S. peace envoy George Mitchell informed President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday that the U.S. has accepted in principle the proposal that the Quartet Committee issues the statement.

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For Israel, There’s Only One End Game
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Leonard Fein - August 11, 2010 - 12:00am

The “two state solution” to the Israel/Palestine conflict has become the glamourless default position of most of those who think about the conflict. It has achieved that lumpy status despite the flaws in its logic, the problematics of its implementation, the dangers that inhere in it and the determined hostility to it from some on both sides of the conflict. Still, it’s been the only end game in town for quite some time, and it has had as its foundation stone the belief that only with two viable states can Israel preserve itself as both Jewish and democratic.

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