Israeli foreign minister: I'm not being sidelined
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Amy Teibel - July 6, 2009 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's ultranationalist foreign minister said Monday that he voluntarily removed himself from crucial talks with the United States because he lives in a West Bank settlement, denying speculation that he's being sidelined by an image-conscious government troubled by growing friction with the Obama administration. The talks are meant to bridge the gap between Washington, which demands a total West Bank settlement freeze, and Israel, which wants some construction to continue.

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Israel seeks Arab response for settlement building freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - July 5, 2009 - 12:00am

The Barack Obama administration is continuing its efforts to draft a comprehensive agreement for freezing West Bank settlement construction and normalizing relations between Israel and the Arab states. Meanwhile, Israeli officials told U.S. envoy George Mitchell in recent weeks that Jerusalem is willing to temporarily freeze settlement construction, but that the move would be conditioned on substantive steps from the Arab side, as well as guarantees from the United States.

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Without any tricks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shaul Arieli - (Opinion) July 2, 2009 - 12:00am

The repeated demands by Barack Obama and the Europeans for a freeze on settlement construction reveals that Benjamin Netanyahu's promise - that Israel will neither build new settlements nor expropriate land for the benefit of the settlements - is nothing more than an effort to throw sand in the public's eyes.

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Merkel: Settlements endanger two-state deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
July 2, 2009 - 12:00am

German Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded on Thursday that Israeli settlement building in the West Bank stop, saying it endangered efforts to achieve a two-state solution with the Palestinians. "I think it is now important to get commitments from all sides and that includes the issue of settlement building," Merkel said in a speech to the Bundestag lower house of parliament. "I am convinced that there must be a stop to this. Otherwise we will not come to the two-state solution that is urgently needed."

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Agreements must be honored
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Dov Weissglass - July 2, 2009 - 12:00am

On May 1 and 16, 2003, during discussions of Israel’s reservations in respect to the Road Map initiative, it was agreed that there will be no construction at Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, with the exception of existing communities. These words were uttered, agreed upon, and documented in the records of the talks kept at the Prime Minister’s Office. I’m sure that an efficient search will reveal the parallel American records.

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Fayyad meets Washington officials in push for settlement halt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 2, 2009 - 12:00am

Bethlehem - Ma’an - Palestinian caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was in Washington this week meeting with high-level officials in an effort to push the American administration to act on its request that Israel halt settlement construction. Fayyad met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, National Security Advisor General James Jones, as well as Congressional leaders.

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Barak, U.S. Envoy Discuss Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler - July 1, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak huddled for four hours yesterday with former senator George J. Mitchell, the Obama administration's special envoy for Middle East peace, seeking to resolve an impasse between their two governments over the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

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How hard will Obama press Israel on settlements?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from McClatchy News
by Cliff Churgin - (Opinion) July 1, 2009 - 12:00am

The unresolved dispute between the United States and Israel over Israel's refusal to halt building Jewish homes in the predominantly Palestinian West Bank has created a pivotal dilemma for President Barack Obama: How hard should he push one of America's most important allies in the Middle East? So far, Obama has limited his pressure to calculated public comments, calling Israeli settlement construction illegitimate and a roadblock to a lasting peace agreement with the Palestinians that would include a Palestinian state.

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Settlers hope PM won't yield to US
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - July 1, 2009 - 12:00am

Settlers leaders on Wednesday promised to lobby against any concessions that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu might consider making to the Americans on the issue of settlement construction, when he meets with US Mideast envoy George Mitchell in the next few weeks. "We have two weeks to work with," said Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. He added that the council was seeking a meeting with Netanyahu.

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Wexler: Israel will freeze settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - July 1, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel would lose nothing, and potentially gain everything, by agreeing to a temporary moratorium on construction in the settlements for a short period of time, Congressman Robert Wexler, a close political ally of US President Barack Obama and a stalwart Israel supporter, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. Wexler, on his third visit to Israel since December, met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, a day after Defense Minister Ehud Barak and US Middle East envoy George Mitchell met in New York and decided that the discussion over settlement construction would continue.

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