Peace with Syria: Opportunity or diversion?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Douglas Bloomfield - (Editorial) March 9, 2011 - 1:00am

Will the impasse with the Palestinians open opportunities to seek a deal with Syria? The military and intelligence establishment has been urging Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to pursue that track because the issues are more straightforward and the potential strategic benefits much greater. Also, the Syrian dictator keeps telling visitors he is ready for negotiations.

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Fayyad: No solution, no state without Jordan Valley
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 9, 2011 - 1:00am

"There is no independent Palestinian state without the Jordan Valley," re-appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Tuesday, after comments by his Israeli counterpart that the area would remain under occupation in any peace deal. Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had toured the Jordan Valley, telling reporters that "the IDF [Israeli army] must remain deployed on the border as part of any agreement. This is Israel's security border."

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Might Obama gamble on a new Netanyahu peace plan?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Blog) March 8, 2011 - 1:00am

You needn't be an optometrist to see that Israel has a vision problem. We have become a nation whose only vision is peripheral.

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Barak: Mideast peace does not go against Israel's security interests
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
March 7, 2011 - 1:00am

A peace agreement with the Palestinians does not stand in contradiction with Israel's security needs, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel Radio on Monday, saying that immediate action needed to be taken to advance peace efforts. Barak's comments came after sources in the Prime Minister's Office said last week that the PM was considering a plan to cooperate with the Palestinians on the establishment of a Palestinian state with temporary borders, as part of an interim peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority that would be implemented immediately.

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'PM told Abbas Israel demands to hold 40% of W. Bank'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
March 4, 2011 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas some five months ago that Israel demands that 40 percent of of the West Bank remain under its control for an extended period, Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Shaat said on Friday, according to Israel Radio. Shaat added that Netanyahu also said he wouldn't listen to one word from Abbas and not a word about borders or refugees until the Palestinians agree to recognise Israel as a Jewish state and about its security needs, Israel Radio reported.

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Netanyahu ponders peace initiatives
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
March 4, 2011 - 1:00am

Israel has concluded that a final peace deal with the Palestinians cannot be reached at present and is weighing alternatives to try to prove that it is interested in keeping peacemaking with the Palestinians alive, officials said yesterday. With popular protests shaking the Middle East, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under international pressure to prove he is serious about peacemaking, especially after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel's West Bank settlement construction last month.

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Go to Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Editorial) March 3, 2011 - 1:00am

Go to Jerusalem, Mr. President. Israel is anxious. It preferred the old Middle Eastern order. It could count on the despots, like Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, to suppress the jihadists, reject Iran, and play the Israeli-Palestinian game along lines that created a permanent temporariness ever more favorable to Israeli power. Israelis are doubly worried. They wonder, Mr. President, if you like them in a heart-to-heart way. You’ve been to Cairo, you’ve been to Istanbul, so what’s wrong with Jerusalem? Why won’t you come and kvetch with us, President Obama, and feel our pain?

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Go to Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Editorial) March 3, 2011 - 1:00am

Go to Jerusalem, Mr. President. Israel is anxious. It preferred the old Middle Eastern order. It could count on the despots, like Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, to suppress the jihadists, reject Iran, and play the Israeli-Palestinian game along lines that created a permanent temporariness ever more favorable to Israeli power. Israelis are doubly worried. They wonder, Mr. President, if you like them in a heart-to-heart way. You’ve been to Cairo, you’ve been to Istanbul, so what’s wrong with Jerusalem? Why won’t you come and kvetch with us, President Obama, and feel our pain?

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Go to Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Editorial) March 3, 2011 - 1:00am

Go to Jerusalem, Mr. President. Israel is anxious. It preferred the old Middle Eastern order. It could count on the despots, like Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, to suppress the jihadists, reject Iran, and play the Israeli-Palestinian game along lines that created a permanent temporariness ever more favorable to Israeli power. Israelis are doubly worried. They wonder, Mr. President, if you like them in a heart-to-heart way. You’ve been to Cairo, you’ve been to Istanbul, so what’s wrong with Jerusalem? Why won’t you come and kvetch with us, President Obama, and feel our pain?

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Obama: Israelis must show seriousness on peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yitzhak Benhorin - March 3, 2011 - 1:00am

US President Obama this week called on Jewish leaders to speak to their colleagues in Israel and to “search your souls” over Israel's seriousness about making peace, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported Wednesday. According to participants, Obama told the Jewish leaders that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is eager to secure his legacy by establishing a Palestinian state and would accept a decent offer if one were on the table. “The Palestinians don't feel confident that the Netanyahu government is serious about territorial concessions,” the president reportedly said.

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