December 13th

Hopes of Fatah-Hamas reconciliation still alive ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - (Interview) December 11, 2010 - 1:00am Reporting from Ramallah, West Bank — With reconciliation talks between leading Palestinian movements Fatah and Hamas apparently at another impasse, hopes of an accord are fading fast. In the wake of a violent split in June 2007, when a coalition government collapsed, the more moderate Fatah has been in control of the West Bank and the militant Islamist Hamas has run the Gaza Strip, in effect dividing the Palestinian cause. » Read more

Hillary Clinton signals failure of direct talks on Mideast peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Glenn Kessler - December 10, 2010 - 1:00am The Obama administration will continue to try to negotiate the outlines of an eventual peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians through indirect talks, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday evening, implicitly acknowledging that the direct talks launched with fanfare just three months ago had failed. » Read more

Reality Check ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Thomas L. Friedman - (Opinion) December 11, 2010 - 1:00am The failed attempt by the U.S. to bribe Israel with a $3 billion security assistance package, diplomatic cover and advanced F-35 fighter aircraft — if Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu would simply agree to a 90-day settlements freeze to resume talks with the Palestinians — has been enormously clarifying. It demonstrates just how disconnected from reality both the Israeli and the Palestinian leaderships have become. » Read more

December 10th

The end of the settlement freeze gimmick is not the end of the world, or the possibility of peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) December 10, 2010 - 1:00am For many months now I have been predicting that the US would probably be able to secure a three or four-month settlement freeze extension, allowing for the resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. And, indeed, the Obama administration moved heaven and earth to do so, but now it would appear they have accepted that the present Israeli cabinet simply will not agree to any such thing. » Read more

Abject surrender ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News (Editorial) December 10, 2010 - 1:00am Washington’s decision that it will no longer attempt to persuade the Israelis to impose a new moratorium on settlement construction in order to restart peace negotiations is an abject and shocking admission of failure. Everyone knew that that the Americans had serious difficulties trying to persuade the Israelis to concede on this vital issue. But there was wide belief that an ingenious diplomatic formula could be devised to enable talks to go ahead. No one imagined that President Barack Obama would simply capitulate to the Israelis. That is what has happened. » Read more

Abbas Don’t Go ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat by Hassan Haidar - (Opinion) December 10, 2010 - 1:00am Shifts in US foreign policy, especially in the Middle East, prove that it is the making of amateurs, who do not hesitate to back down every time they are confronted with a problem, and who do not refrain from 180 degrees turnarounds every time difficulties appear before the ideas they have put forward to resolve any issue or crisis. Such frivolity was revealed by the WikiLeaks documents, which showed that most US diplomats all over the world were like eavesdropping workers who report what they hear here and there superficially and without any analysis, mixing up rumors and facts. » Read more

Palestinians weigh up option of seeking UN membership ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by James Reinl - December 10, 2010 - 1:00am An application for UN membership and a request for the recognition of a sovereign state is one of several options on the table for the Palestinian leadership that will be decided upon during an Arab League meeting next week, a Palestinian envoy to the UN said yesterday. Palestinian officials hope to eventually win support from the 192-member UN General Assembly, said the envoy, who asked to remain anonymous. "We would try to have everyone on board because the question of Palestine is legally very clear under international law," the envoy said. » Read more

The returning issue of Palestine's refugees ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Saeb Erakat - (Opinion) December 10, 2010 - 1:00am Before his murder in 1948, Lord Folke Bernadotte, the first UN mediator to the Arab-Israeli conflict, stated: "It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent [Palestinian] victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes, while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine." Lord Bernadotte paid for his candour with his life as Jewish militants assassinated him under the direction of Yitzhak Shamir, the man who would later become prime minister of Israel. » Read more

Palestinians Win Backing for Independence by Crackdown on Corruption ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by David Miller - December 10, 2010 - 1:00am Cleaner government in Ramallah and law and order on the streets of Jenin may be doing more to bring Palestine into the community of nation states than peace talks with Israel, officials and analysts said after Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil moved to recognize Palestine as an independent state. » Read more

U.S. working to resuscitate Israeli-Palestinian indirect talks: source ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua December 10, 2010 - 1:00am Israeli officials close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expressing satisfaction over the fact that the issue of a building freeze in the West Bank is off the agenda between Israel and the United States. "The Americans understood that it's not the right way," one official said, a source close to the government told Xinhua on Thursday. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will fly to Washington soon to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in order to discuss ways of getting the peace process moving again, according to the source. » Read more