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Proximity talks have their uses
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) July 28, 2010 - 12:00am Later this week, the Arab League will decide whether to recommend that the PLO move from proximity to direct talks in its negotiations with the Netanyahu government. The American-led Quartet and the moderate Arab states are reportedly pressuring President Mahmoud Abbas to request precisely such a recommendation. This, then, is a good opportunity to reflect on the advantages of US-brokered proximity talks as opposed to direct talks in the Israeli-Palestinian context. |
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Pressure mounts for Mideast talks as Israel's settlement freeze nears end
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Janine Zacharia - July 28, 2010 - 12:00am While Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited Washington this week to talk about peace gestures toward the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was planting a tree in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank -- an indication of permanence that few Palestinians would welcome. The contrast showed the confusion U.S. officials face in figuring out how willing Israel might be to cede territory as part of a two-state solution to the conflict. |
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US revamps its ‘Muddle East’ policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Ehud Yaari - July 28, 2010 - 12:00am The foreign policy team of US President Barack Obama is undertaking a reassessment of its policy all over the Middle East, including Israel. No one has made or will make a public declaration about such a change, but a reassessment is nonetheless under way, and we can already detect the first products of this rethinking of policy. |
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Israeli premier talks to Jordanian king about need for direct Mideast peace negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Jamal Halaby - July 28, 2010 - 12:00am In a surprise visit to Amman on Tuesday, Israel's prime minister tried to mobilize Jordan's king in his effort to persuade the Palestinians to resume direct peace talks, though the chief Palestinian negotiator again rejected the idea. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's quick trip to neighboring Jordan came after a Palestinian document, obtained Monday by The Associated Press, noted that President Barack Obama's envoy is also pressing the Palestinians to restart direct peace negotiations with Israel. |
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Israel: Palestinians have set 'impossible' conditions for direct peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters July 28, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has laid down "impossible" conditions for moving to direct peace talks, Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom said on Wednesday, according to French news agency AFP. "The Palestinians have set three impossible conditions: that the negotiations start from the point they left off at the end of 2008 when Ehud Olmert was prime minister, that they be based on a total Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines and that the freeze of [settlement] construction continue," Shalom was quoted as saying. |
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Insufficient steps taken
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Hassan Barari - (Opinion) July 27, 2010 - 12:00am I was not moved this week when I read that the American administration decided to upgrade its diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) by granting its mission in Washington a higher status, yet still less than embassy. The upgrade is not expected to put an end to the Israeli occupation nor to improve the PA’s battered imaged among the Palestinians. |
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Abbas to ask for extension to proximity talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 27, 2010 - 12:00am President Mahmoud Abbas will request an extension to US-mediated indirect talks with Israel from the Arab Peace Initiative Committee when in Cairo on Thursday, a PLO official said Monday. Executive Committee member Hannah Amireh told Ma'an radio that Abbas would ask for talks to continue until 8 September, one month over the 4-month deadline sanctioned by the Arab League. Abbas will also discuss the possibility of re-entering into direct negotiations with Israel, Amireh said. |
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Q&A with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Janine Zacharia - (Interview) July 27, 2010 - 12:00am Edited excerpts of interview by Washington Post's Janine Zacharia, with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Friday, July 23, 2010 WP: You arrive in Washington on Monday. What is the primary objective of your trip? |
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Q&A with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Janine Zacharia - (Interview) July 27, 2010 - 12:00am Edited excerpts of interview by Washington Post's Janine Zacharia, with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, Friday, July 23, 2010 WP: You arrive in Washington on Monday. What is the primary objective of your trip? |
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Why Binyamin Netanyahu tape is no real shocker
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Seth Freedman - (Opinion) July 26, 2010 - 12:00am A recently released tape revealing Binyamin Netanyahu's contempt for both the Palestinian and US administrations has caused far less of a diplomatic storm than his opponents hoped it might. For all that Netanyahu's innate arrogance and self-aggrandisement was laid bare by the contents of the nine-year-old recording, the collective shrugging of shoulders implies that few expected anything else from a man who has been boasting of his own political prowess throughout his tumultuous career. |