December 16th

Abbas to Haaretz: Peace possible in 6 months if Israel freezes all settlements ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - December 16, 2009 - 1:00am If Israel completely halts construction in the settlements, negotiations with the Palestinians on a final-status agreement can be completed within six months, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Haaretz Tuesday, adding that Israel needn't declare the freeze, just carry it out. Abbas, who appeared self-assured and upbeat during the exclusive interview, said the Palestinians had no preconditions for talks with Israel but wanted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet his obligations to the road map, which calls for a cessation of construction in the settlements. » Read more

France to deliver €200m in aid to PA ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 16, 2009 - 1:00am The French government will deliver 200 million Euros for the support and development of Palestinian infrastructure over three years, officials announced Wednesday. Palestinian Minister of Foreign affairs Riyad Al-Maliki and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner signed three agreements for the funds in the French minister’s office in Paris shortly before the announcement. » Read more

Hamas: PA security forces arrest 80 members in 24 hours ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 16, 2009 - 1:00am Palestinian Authority security forces have arrested 80 members of the Hamas movement from locations across the West Bank in the last 24 hours a statement from the party issued on Wednesday said. The statement noted that the arrests occurred in ten of the eleven districts in the West Bank, including Nablus, Jenin, Salfit, Hebron, Tulkarem, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Jericho, Qalqiliya and Tubas. The statement included the names of 50 alleged supporters, which could not all be independently verified by Ma'an. » Read more

Hamas-Fatah summit proposed ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 16, 2009 - 1:00am Egyptian mediators agreed to hold a meeting between opposing Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, a Palestinian official involved in the talks said on Wednesday. Iyad As-Sarraj, a prominent Gaza psychiatrist who heads the nonpartisan Palestinian Reconciliation Committee, said Egypt accepted a suggestion from the group during a meeting in Cairo on Tuesday night to hold a three-day workshop with Hamas, Fatah, and other factions. » Read more

Israel is ready for peace. Are its neighbors? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Nadav Tamir - (Opinion) December 15, 2009 - 1:00am The time for peace in the Middle East is now. This has been the consistent message from both the Netanyahu and Obama administrations. And it is time to take advantage of the fact that we have a stable government in Israel capable of making a move toward peace, a US government that has made it an important foreign-policy priority, our best Palestinian Authority negotiating partner thus far in President Mahmoud Abbas, and a majority of the population and government on both sides who desire a two-state solution. » Read more

Mahmoud Abbas remains in charge of PLO until elections can be held ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - December 16, 2009 - 1:00am Reporting from Ramallah, West Bank - With a giant poster of deceased leader Yasser Arafat smiling over them, members of the Palestine Liberation Organization's central council gathered here Tuesday to indefinitely extend President Mahmoud Abbas' term until credible elections can be held. The extension, expected to be formally approved today, should provide a degree of short-term stability to the fractured Palestinian movement. But for some, the stopgap measure only papers over an emerging PLO leadership crisis that could become yet another obstacle to peace talks. » Read more

Palestinian leaders to extend President Mahmoud Abbas's term indefinitely ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Howard Schneider - December 16, 2009 - 1:00am The Palestinian Liberation Organization's ruling Central Council gathered here this week to extend the soon-to-expire term of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a session that promised to say as much about the drift and division in Palestinian politics as about the 74-year-old leader's standing. » Read more

Weighing Netanyahu as Peace Maker ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - December 15, 2009 - 1:00am A month ago, Aluf Benn, a senior columnist at the left-leaning Israeli newspaper Haaretz, wrote an article that shocked many. He said he believed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud party, was seriously interested in making concessions to the Palestinians and coming to an agreement on a two-state solution. Long a foe of Palestinian statehood, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now says he backs the two-state idea. » Read more

December 15th

The moment of truth ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Issa Samander - December 14, 2009 - 1:00am The US administration was very quick to announce its appreciation of the Israeli right-wing government's decision to temporarily and partially halt settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian territories. In doing so, Washington has only shown its weakness. If the US cannot convince Israel even to properly freeze settlement construction in occupied territory, then how will it convince Israel to dismantle settlements? And if that doesn't happen, what then for the two-state solution? » Read more

The ball is now with the international community ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) December 14, 2009 - 1:00am Binyamin Netanyahu's announcement in late November that his government would implement a settlement freeze was not taken seriously by Palestinians, Arabs or other interested and involved parties. Palestinians warned that the announcement amounted to no more than a public relations gimmick aimed at reducing growing international criticism of Israel's settlement expansion policies. Palestinian officials made clear that the Israeli "freeze" did not signal any change to Israeli settlement expansion, which is responsible for preventing the resumption of negotiations. » Read more