A message Obama can’t ignore
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Osama Al-Sharif - April 15, 2009 - 12:00am


President Barack Obama will receive a message from the Arab world next week when he meets King Abdallah of Jordan in Washington. It will be an important message that the American president and his administration should appreciate because of its timing and content.


Moratinos: We won't let Netanyahu evade peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roni Sofer - April 14, 2009 - 12:00am


Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos met Tuesday with former Minister Yossi Beilin in Madrid and told him that "Europe will not accept a situation in which the Netanyahu government evades its predecessors' decisions in regards to the peace process."


Mitchell visit to see if Netanyahu really against 2-states
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yitzhak Benhorin - April 14, 2009 - 12:00am


Prominent voices from within Benjamin Netanyahu's government have already made it clear they oppose the two-state solution and the understandings agreed upon at the Annapolis Peace Summit. Ascertaining whether this is indeed the genuine position of the new Israeli government is the top priority for US President Barack Obama's special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, during his visit this "It's one thing to hear statements in the press, it's another to hear it in a one-on-one meeting," a source in Washington told Ynet on Monday evening.


Candidly Speaking: Netanyahu & the two-state solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Isi Leibler - April 14, 2009 - 12:00am


When our government enters into formal discussions with Washington, it will be obliged to make decisions that may set the tone for its long-term relationship with the new administration. President Barack Obama has yet to fully show his hand, but his policy of engaging with jihadists is likely to encourage efforts to pressure Israel into additional unilateral concessions to the Arabs that will need to be vigorously resisted.


Netanyahu and Obama Prepare for First Round
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Times
by Mel Frykberg - April 13, 2009 - 12:00am


The new U.S. administration and the new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are preparing for a possible confrontation on the future of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as well as several other issues. A collision course between the two countries seems inevitable as U.S. President Barack Obama reiterates his support for a two-state solution to the protracted conflict while Netanyahu's new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman states that Israel is no longer obliged to honor previous peace agreements with the Palestinians.


Borderline outcast?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck, Roula Khalaf - (Analysis) April 13, 2009 - 12:00am


It has been a tough few months for Israel's diplomatic corps. At the start of the year, diplomats were fending off accusations that Israel was using excessive force in its offensive against the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. After that conflict they faced a torrent of allegations that their actions had amounted to war crimes, claims that they deny.


US envoy in fresh bid to kickstart peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Vita Bekker - April 13, 2009 - 12:00am


George Mitchell, the US special envoy to the Middle East, returns to the region today for the first time since the new Israeli right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu took power in a bid to push forward the stalled peace process.


Israel: New govt and old policies
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) April 13, 2009 - 12:00am


Lest it not be clear or be forgotten, Palestinians and other Arabs are spelling out what a peace settlement in their view entails: The two-state formula in accordance with the agreed references, particularly the Arab peace initiative. These policy positions, recently expressed by the chief Palestinian negotiator in Palestine, and in neighboring Jordan where Arab foreign ministers met to review of the Middle East peace process, were meant to reiterate the ways of reaching peace.


Netanyahu pledges Palestinian talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English
April 12, 2009 - 12:00am


Benyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has said he will hold peace talks with the Palestinians. Netanyahu's comments on the stalled peace process - his first since he took office at the beginning of the month - came in a phone call with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, on Sunday. Abbas had called Netanyahu to extend holiday greetings for the Jewish Passover ceremony. The two had a "friendly and warm" conversation, according to a statement from Netanyahu's office.


Washington Watch: Might Lieberman be the Arab world's best friend?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) April 12, 2009 - 12:00am


Even those who expected friction between the Obama and Netanyahu governments over pursuing Israeli-Arab peace were surprised that it came so quickly. About 20 minutes, by one count. Tzhat's how long it took Israel's new foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, to scrap the US-led Annapolis peace talks on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, take the Golan Heights off the negotiating table with Syria, and reject the long-standing concept of land for peace, threatening a US-Israel rift if his government turns that rhetoric into policy.



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