Palestinian official says not yet to dissolve PNA, welcomes Brazil's recognition of state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from by Saud Abu Ramadan - December 6, 2010 - 1:00am A senior Palestinian official announced on Sunday that dissolving the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is an option, but will not be taken for the time being, while the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement slammed Hamas for accepting a referendum in case of a peace deal with Israel. Nabil Shaath, member of the Palestinian negotiation team said in a press statement emailed to reporters that dissolving the PNA might be carried out only when the Middle East peace process with Israel collapses, "but it is not planned for now." » Read more

Auschwitz borders are here ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) December 6, 2010 - 1:00am Auschwitz borders. That ominous phrase, so elegant in its horror. A go-to mantra of the right for more than four decades, it has proven so durable in linking a West Bank withdrawal to the annihilation of the State of Israel that it has outlasted countless anti-peace process ad campaigns ?(“Yesha zeh kan” the ubiquitous signs once read: Judea, Samaria and Gaza are right here?). » Read more

Unraveling another myth about the State of the Jews ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Akiva Eldar - December 6, 2010 - 1:00am In everything that pertains to locating the source of fires, water shortages, flight safety, earthquakes, etc. - subjects that require long-term planning - our decision makers prefer to use a method of pinpoint handling. It is known as "putting out fires." Yet the disaster in the Carmel has shown that we are also far from being able to be called world champions in putting out fires. » Read more

Palestinian firefighters come to Israel's aid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post December 6, 2010 - 1:00am Firefighters and firefighting personnel from all over the world came to Israel's aid over the weekend, responding to the most devastating fire the country has ever seen. While most of the aid that arrived had to be flown in, early Sunday morning, four fire engines manned by 21 firefighters began a five-hour drive to the Carmel mountains. » Read more

Yvette Cooper calls for Israeli settler labelling on food imports ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Kai Bird - December 5, 2010 - 1:00am Britain should step up pressure on Israel to stop building illegal settlements in the West Bank by pressing for greater Europe-wide transparency on food exported from the occupied territories, Yvette Cooper says today. In an interview with the Guardian, she calls on the government to persuade the EU to introduce labelling that would identify goods produced by Israeli settlers. Cooper, who spoke after her first visit to the Middle East as shadow foreign secretary, wants the EU to follow the example of supermarkets which identify goods produced in the occupied West Bank. » Read more

Abbas: Last resort _ I'll ask Israel to take over ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Mohammed Daraghmeh - December 4, 2010 - 1:00am RAMALLAH, WEST BANK — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has warned he may dissolve his self-rule government and ask Israel to resume full control of the West Bank if troubled peace talks fail. Dismantling the Palestinian Authority would be a last resort, Abbas told Palestine TV in an interview broadcast late Friday. However, his comments marked the most explicit warning yet that he's considering a step that could crush lingering hopes for a Mideast peace deal. » Read more

Clinton to issue statement on Israeli-Palestinian talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) December 6, 2010 - 1:00am Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States will issue a declaration this week on Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. "I will be making a very formal set of remarks about that next week," Clinton said in a interview over the weekend with Al Hurra, the U.S.-run Arab language broadcaster. "We have been talking with both parties very substantively, and I think that the United States can play a role to help each make decisions about very difficult matters that then can be presented to the other side." » Read more

Palestinians battle bid to bulldoze road to statehood ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Hugh Naylor - December 6, 2010 - 1:00am As Husam Assi describes it, it was an important battle on the road to Palestinian statehood. It began in late November when Israeli soldiers took positions protecting bulldozers sent to this otherwise sleepy West Bank village to destroy a recently laid strip of asphalt. Then, Mr Assi said, Palestinian youth swarmed the Israelis from the surrounding hills. "From the village mosque we called on the community to defend the road against the Israelis," the 49-year-old manager at Qarawat Bani Hassan's municipality said as he surveyed the area a few days later. » Read more

‘New language for Middle East peace’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by John V. Whitbeck - December 5, 2010 - 1:00am The recent passage by Israel's Knesset of a law requiring either a two-thirds Knesset majority or approval by an unprecedented national referendum before Israel can "cede" any land in expanded East Jerusalem to a Palestinian state or any land in the Golan Heights to Syria has been widely recognized as making any "two-state solution", as well as any Israeli-Syrian peace, even more inconceivable than was previously the case. It also highlights the need for a concerted effort by politicians, negotiators and commentators to adopt a new "language of peace". » Read more

Netanyahu, Abbas hold rare phone chat over fires ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Allyn Fisher-Ilan - December 6, 2010 - 1:00am JERUSALEM, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed condolences in a rare telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday over the deadly fires raging in northern Israel, Israeli officials said. The two leaders were not believed to have spoken since they last met in September when U.S.-backed peace talks stalled in a spat over Jewish settlement construction. » Read more