Fayyad: Building Palestinian state requires cooperation from Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Frank Kane - January 27, 2012 - 1:00am DAVOS, SWITZERLAND // A lasting peace deal between Israel and Palestine "might happen very quickly," Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos. "We are sorry it has taken so long but we are nearer, at the final stage," Mr Peres said during a debate with Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, at Davos, the Swiss town hosting the annual gathering of the world's leading decision-makers. Mr Fayyad said: "There must be a hope for peace but it has to be a product of conscious decision-making." » Read more

Abbas meets Ashton in Amman ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency January 27, 2012 - 1:00am President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday met EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Amman as the Quartet's latest deadline passed. The Quartet of peace mediators -- the EU, US, UN and Russia -- set a Jan. 26 deadline for the resumption of direct talks. Despite five meetings between Israeli and Palestinian envoys in Amman in January, the parties failed to agree on a starting point for negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called for more talks. » Read more

As Israeli-Palestinian talks sink, fringe ideas gain traction ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - January 27, 2012 - 1:00am As another round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks faltered on Wednesday, a growing number of Israelis and Palestinians say that the status quo is rapidly approaching a point at which establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel is impossible or unrealistic. » Read more

The Other Side of Itamar ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Arieh O'Sullivan - January 24, 2012 - 1:00am Small huts and houses on windswept hilltops. Men wearing kippas and sporting beards. Women with their heads covered surrounded by children. These are what we found in the Itamar, an Israeli community in the heartland of the disputed West Bank. But the residents of Itamar and the other Israeli towns that have taken root in the area since 1967 are just as much associated in the minds of many Israelis and much of the world as extremists dead set against peace between Israel and the Palestinians and determined to expand their presence by violence, if necessary. » Read more

Low-Level Talks Likely to Continue ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Herb Keinon - (Analysis) January 27, 2012 - 1:00am January 26, that is yesterday, came and went pretty much like the month of September – namely, with a whimper. Remember September, the month when the Palestinians made their much-trumpeted and widely-feared play for statehood recognition at the United Nations. Defense Minister Ehud Barak prophesied a diplomatic tsunami; Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned of the worst Palestinian violence Israel had ever faced; and Haaretz continuously cautioned about a third intifada. Yet none of that materialized. » Read more

Peres in Davos: Palestinian state already established ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yoav Zitun - January 26, 2012 - 1:00am The Palestinians had effectively established a state while peace negotiations were still ongoing, President Shimon Peres told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday. During a discussion on the chances for peace in the Middle East, Peres praised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad for their state-building efforts, including the establishment of an independent military force. State-building is possible without negotiations, the president told the panel, which included Fayyad. » Read more

Hamas in Deep Trouble ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Guy Bechor - (Opinion) January 27, 2012 - 1:00am Nothing stopped Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister in Gaza, from making Ahmadinejad-style declarations that Israel’s days are numbered and calling for the establishment of an Arab Jihad army for Palestine’s liberation. Yet behind the pretentious slogans lies a grim reality for Hamas that can no longer be hidden. » Read more

PA officials: Israeli border proposal a non-starter ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post January 27, 2012 - 1:00am Palestinian officials said Friday that Israel's presentation of its ideas for border and security arrangements of a future Palestinian state at a meeting in Amman on Wednesday was a non-starter, envisaging a fenced-off territory of cantons that would preserve most Jewish settlements. » Read more

Pro-Palestinian hackers apologize for cyber attack on Haaretz newspaper website ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Hugh Naylor - January 27, 2012 - 1:00am JERUSALEM // Pro-Palestinian hackers apologised on Twitter yesterday for disrupting the website of Israel's Haaretz newspaper. Haaretz announced on Wednesday that its Hebrew-language website had been temporarily disabled by hackers, identifying themselves on Twitter as @AnonPS, or Anonymous Palestine. » Read more

Gingrich Won’t Win, and Bibi Will Be in a Lose-Lose Situation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Yossi Sarid - (Opinion) January 27, 2012 - 1:00am Newt Gingrich won in South Carolina and that's good, very good. What's so good about the victory of an egomaniac who has compared himself to Churchill, de Gaulle and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? It's good because it's bad for the Republican Party, which is drunk not on wine but on tea. That's how the wild party will continue until the summer, and they'll all swallow each other alive. » Read more