February 6 update

6 February, 2012

Article 1. Washington Post Obama to make first trip to Israel Scott Wilson

Article 2. Foreign Policy Saeb Erekat - The Peace Processor An interview by Aaron David Miller

Article 3. The Daily Beast The Mixed Legacy Of Shimon Peres Daniel Gavron

Article 4. NYT India vs. China vs. Egypt Thomas L. Friedman

Article 5. Foreign Policy Another U.S. war in the Middle East? Richard L. Russell

Article 6. The Diplomat Getting to the Endgame With Iran Robert Dreyfuss

Article 7. The Wall Street Journal A New U.S. International Economic Strategy Robert B. Zoellick

Article 1. Washington Post Obama to make first trip to Israel, part of a potential 'new beginning' with region Scott Wilson

President Obama will travel to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories next month to make an early second-term push for peace negotiations between two divided governments and to assess the broader political developments remaking the Middle East. It will be Obama's first trip as president to Israel, where suspicions run high in the aftermath of his unsuccessful early efforts. The choice of destination suggests a willingness on his part to quickly reengage a politically volatile foreign-policy issue just months after winning his second term. But the visit will highlight how much the region has changed since he last visited the Middle East in his first year in office, with the rise of Islamist governments and the widening repercussions of civil revolt. After Obama helped topple Moammar Gaddafi in Libya in 2011, many in the region wondered when he would emerge again to help shape the course of the tumultuous Arab Spring, which has replaced a pair of U.S.-allied dictatorships with elected Islamist governments. Within the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, much has changed since the direct peace talks Obama inaugurated in September 2010 collapsed within weeks. Israel's recent battle with the armed Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip left many predicting a wider future fight within the Palestinian and Israeli electorates over whether talks or war would resolve the conflict. "To make it a substantive trip that is more than a positive photo-op would require setting up a specific framework for an agreement and setting a tight deadline to achieve it," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the executive director of J Street, a nonprofit group that advocates the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. White House officials would not provide a date for Obama's trip, which he will squeeze into the tight schedule he is building around a busy domestic agenda that includes immigration, guns and the economy. But Israeli media reported that Obama is scheduled to arrive March 20 as part of a trip that will include a stop in Jordan, where the civil war in next-door Syria and its growing refugee crisis is presenting a major challenge to King Abdullah II, a U.S. ally.