November 13th

Fayyad plan for Palestinian state is risky ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Press International (UPI) (Analysis) November 11, 2009 - 1:00am Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has a plan to establish a de facto Palestinian state in the West Bank by 2011, throwing 16 years of futile peacemaking out the window. This is a risky business because it frightens the Israelis as well as his Palestinian opponents. When Fayyad first unveiled his plans in August, U.S. President Barack Obama's administration gave it the green light and deposited $200 million into the Palestinian Authority's treasury, which Fayyad controls. » Read more

Mideast radicals fill space left by peace impasse ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Marjorie Olster - November 13, 2009 - 1:00am Iran's closest allies in the Middle East are seizing on a deadlock in U.S.-backed peace efforts to try to sway a frustrated Arab world to their side. » Read more

Israel challenged on Gazan's ejection from West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Howard Schneider - November 13, 2009 - 1:00am Gaza-born Berlanty Azzam, 21, was two months from receiving her bachelor's degree from Bethlehem University when the past caught up with her. During a routine stop at a West Bank checkpoint on Oct. 28, an Israeli guard noticed Gaza City as the town of residence on her ID, placed her under arrest for being in the West Bank without permission and, within hours, had her deported back to the Gaza Strip, blindfolded briefly and in handcuffs. » Read more

Palestinian Officials Push for Delay in Elections ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - November 12, 2009 - 1:00am Palestinian presidential and parliamentary elections cannot be held on their scheduled date in January, Palestinian Authority election officials said Thursday. The announcement removed some of the immediate uncertainty surrounding the future of the current president, Mahmoud Abbas, who said recently that he would not run for a second term. » Read more

November 12th

Netanyahu told Obama: Peace talks must yield deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Aluf Benn - November 12, 2009 - 1:00am Most of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's White House meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama this week took place in private, and it centered mainly on the Palestinian issue. This is what Netanyahu told the people he briefed after the meeting. » Read more

Fragmenting Palestinian land ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Ben White - (Opinion) November 12, 2009 - 1:00am A young student deported from the West Bank to Gaza is just the latest victim of Israeli efforts to sever ties between the territories Ben White guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 November 2009 11.00 GMT Twenty-one-year-old Palestinian student Berlanty Azzam was seized by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in the West Bank last month. Bound and blindfolded, she was forcibly deported to the Gaza Strip. Berlanty was in her final semester at Bethlehem University in the West Bank, and was returning from a job interview in Ramallah. » Read more

Palestinians say dozens of trees cut down by settlers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ali Waked - November 12, 2009 - 1:00am Palestinian farmers from the West Bank village of Burin, located near the settlement of Yitzhar, discovered Thursday morning that dozens of their olive trees were cut down. Akram Amram of Burin told Ynet that at around 5:30 am he had discovered 97 uprooted olive trees on his land. "I am not embarrassed to admit that when I discovered the massacre which took place on my land, I cried," he said. "These trees are more than 60 years old and I raised them just like I raised my kids." » Read more

Washington Insider: "Politics always interferes with policy" ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Michael Friedson - (Interview) November 12, 2009 - 1:00am Dr Ziad J Asali, founder and president of the American Task Force on Palestine, in conversation with Michael Friedson, executive editor of The Media Line News Agency. Dr. Ziad J. Asali is the president and founder of the American Task Force on Palestine, an organization that in a few short years has made a strong presence in Washington and Capitol Hill speaking on behalf of the Palestinian people. Dr. Asali was interviewed at The American Colony Hotel in Jerusalem by The Media Line’s Executive Editor Michael Friedson. » Read more

Fatah official: Palestinian elections likely to be deferred ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Aluf Benn - November 12, 2009 - 1:00am Most of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's White House meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama this week took place in private, and it centered mainly on the Palestinian issue. This is what Netanyahu told the people he briefed after the meeting. » Read more

A Palestinian Response to David Suissa ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Journal by Ameen Estaiteyeh - (Opinion) November 12, 2009 - 1:00am David Suissa thinks that what is needed now “more than anything today is not a J Street but an A Street,” “an Arab organization that would…rally peace-seeking Arab moderates to the cause of peaceful coexistence with a Jewish state” (November 5, 2009, We Need ‘A Street,’ Not J Street). Perhaps he should take a look at the work of the American Task Force on Palestine. (ATFP). It is precisely the “pro-Arab, pro-peace” group he imagines does not exist, and performs exactly the work he should learn is, in fact, being done. » Read more