Kerry's visit to Mideast hopes to pave way for talks
Media Mention of ATFP In - April 4, 2013 - 12:00am

Secretary of State John Kerry will head to the Middle East this weekend to encourage the Israelis and Palestinians to follow up on President Obama's recent call for the two sides to restart peace talks. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Wednesday that Kerry will visit Turkey, Israel and Ramallah, West Bank. He will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, she said. The visit is a chance to figure out what Israeli and Palestinian leaders "think is possible," Nuland said.

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Obama Trip Renews Debate over Israeli-Palestinian Solution
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In Voice of America - March 26, 2013 - 12:00am

U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have re-ignited the prospect of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, after meeting with officials on both sides in the region. 

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Next few months crucial for Israeli-Palestinian peace process: UN envoy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

The next few months will be " make-or-break" time for the fate of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, UN Middle East peace envoy said here Monday. "We feel that the two-state solution for the Israeli- Palestinian conflict is on life support and see 2013 as a critical year to get things moving in the stalled peace talks," Robert Serry, who has served as a special regional coordinator for the past five years, said during an event hosted by the One Voice non- governmental organization in the Tel Aviv University.

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The Old Peace Is Dead, but a New Peace Is Possible
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ari Shavit - March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

HERE is the bad news: the Old Peace is dead. It was first wounded in 1994 when, a year after the Oslo accords, Israel let Yasir Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, return to the West Bank, and a result was a deadly bus bombing in central Tel Aviv.

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Mr. Obama Goes to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Thomas L. Friedman - (Opinion) March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

In case you haven’t heard, President Obama leaves for Israel next week. It is possible, though, that you haven’t heard because it is hard for me to recall a less-anticipated trip to Israel by an American president. But there is a message in that empty bottle: Little is expected from this trip — not only because little is possible, but because, from a narrow U.S. point of view, little is necessary. Quietly, with nobody announcing it, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has shifted from a necessity to a hobby for American diplomats.

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The three issues that could torpedo Obama's visit to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Eric H. Yoffie - March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

During President Obama’s upcoming visit to Israel, the reactions of the average American will range from mild interest to indifference.  Most Americans are not very concerned about foreign policy.  Still, they have good feelings about Israel and will likely see the trip positively.

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Needed: A New Approach to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Robert K Lifton - (Opinion) March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

The expectation that President Obama will visit Israel and the West Bank around March 20th has generated renewed focus on how he should approach the Israel-Palestinian issues. Israel's President Shimon Peres has said that the President's visit is a "good occasion" to restart the stalled peace process. At the same time, Obama's press spokesman has said, "while the President is not going with any specific peace plan in hand, the president thinks...it's in the interests of both parties, Palestinians and Israelis to pursue a peace agreement."

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The Case For Incrementalism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Week
by Martin Raffel - (Opinion) March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

Secretary of State Kerry and President Obama are hitting the road to the Middle East this month, and, among other important strategic objectives, they will try to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that can lead expeditiously to a permanent peace agreement.

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Why Middle East Peace Is So Elusive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Mortimer B. Zuckerman - (Opinion) March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

This month President Obama makes his first visit to Israel since he became president. His first term did not begin auspiciously in this regard, with critical remarks on settlements that pre-empted negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Indeed, in the following four years, the prospects of peace have seen only a savage deterioration. In Israel, Obama has been regarded as the least friendly U.S. president ever, and in the region the United States is perceived as having lost both interest and clout.

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Why Israel Is Calling For Jonathan Pollard's Release Now
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by J.J. Goldberg - March 12, 2013 - 12:00am

In advance of President Obama’s scheduled March 20 visit, Israeli society at every level is waging an unprecedented, all-out public effort to press for the release of Jonathan Pollard, the American Jew serving a life sentence for spying for Israel. The past month has seen figures as diverse as President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, far-right Likud lawmaker Moshe Feiglin and former Hamas hostage Gilad Shalit calling on Obama to commute Pollard’s sentence to time served and set him free.

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