Defending Dennis Ross ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Robert Satloff - April 9, 2010 - 12:00am Give Stephen M. Walt his due. After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tense visit to Washington last month, a cowardly U.S. government official lobbed an "Israel vs. America" dual loyalty canard at my former colleague, National Security Council advisor Dennis Ross. But while he or she hid behind a cloak of journalistic anonymity shamelessly provided by Politico's Laura Rozen, Walt at least has the gumption to stand up and make his McCarthyite case in his own name. » Read more

Breaking the Middle East Impasse: How it Might Happen ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post by Dr. Charles G. Cogan - (Opinion) April 9, 2010 - 12:00am Negotiations in the Middle East are at an impasse. What two former Israeli Prime Ministers have recognized - that there can be no settlement in the Middle East as long as Israel claims all of Jerusalem -- has been rejected by Benjamin Netanyahu and his rightist cohort. Offers by Ehud Barak to Yasir Arafat, and later by Ehud Olmert to Mahmoud Abbas, of a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem (both of which were declined), have now been taken off the table by Netanyahu. » Read more

Netanyahu in a pickle ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Miami Herald by Uri Dromi - (Opinion) April 9, 2010 - 12:00am This week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summed up the first year of his term. Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem, Netanyahu boasted that, ``We have made 1,500 decisions.'' The good souls here were quick to remind us that this government was formed in a hurry on March 31, 2009, just minutes away from All Fools Day. Pundits ridiculed the abundance of decisions, saying that it was better to check how many of them actually were implemented. Others said that actually, for every one of 750 decisions made, there was one reversing it and so on. » Read more

PA rebuts terrorist street name critique ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Herb Keinon - April 8, 2010 - 12:00am The Palestinian Government Media Center on Thursday rejected the Prime Minister’s Office’s harsh critique of the naming of a Ramallah street after arch terrorist Yehiyeh Ayash. The organization told The Jerusalem Post that “the street was named over twelve years ago and it is nothing new,” adding that “the decisions to name streets are made independently by local authorities and municipalities like any other democratic and open society.” » Read more

President Obama is right ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Adi Mintz - (Opinion) April 8, 2010 - 12:00am One year is sufficient in order to examine the direction our government is heading to. At least this is the view of our prime minister, who recently presented his government’s achievements. However, while Netanyahu boasted of some economic achievements, he could not do the same in respect to the diplomatic front, and hence did not talk much about it. So is the diplomatic approach he adopted this year appropriate, or does he need to change direction at this time? » Read more

With Ashkenzi out of the way, Barak can finally have his way ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amos Harel - (Opinion) April 9, 2010 - 12:00am The sky did not fall on Tuesday afternoon. Israel's security situation will apparently survive even the latest petty scrap between the defense minister and the army chief of staff. Indeed, it is not at all certain that Ashkenazi's term needed to be extended by another year. As is quite usual with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the problem was not with the content, but with the style and the timing of his announcement that the chief of staff's term would be over as planned, after four years, in February 2011. » Read more

PNA urges Washington to endorse Palestinian state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua April 8, 2010 - 12:00am Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Thursday called on the United States to take the initiative and announce it would recognize the future Palestinian state. "The Palestinians don't want to see new ideas to settle the conflict in the Middle East. They want international resolutions to be implemented," Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio. Erekat explained that the Palestinians want Washington "to go to the Security Council and announce its acceptance of the international law which accepts a Palestinian statehood, with Jerusalem as its capital." » Read more

Palestinian refugees need more service from UNRWA: poll ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua April 8, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Syria expected more services from U.N. Refugees Works Agency ( UNRWA), according to the results of a poll, released here on Thursday. The poll was conducted from October 17 to 25, 2009 by the Beirut-based Organization for the Right of Return (Thabit), Palestinian Return Center (PRC) in London and Damascus-based Palestinian Return Community (Wajeb). It showed that among the 1,460 Palestinian refugees participating the poll, 92 percent of those in Lebanon and Syria support UNRWA's work, though 85 percent said that its work is "not enough". » Read more

Palestinian FM to meet with IBSA leaders in Brasilia on Middle East Peace process ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua April 9, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian Foreign Minister Malik Riak will visit Brasilia next week to meet with leaders and representatives of India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Dialogue Forum to seek support for peace negotiations with Israel, a government official said Thursday. The meeting will take place during the IBSA summit, scheduled for next Thursday in the capital city of Brazil, and will take the form of "3+1", Roberto Jaguaribe, secretary general for political affairs of Brazil's Foreign Ministry, told a press conference. » Read more

Hamas in Gaza takes steps to carry out executions ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by RIZEK ABDEL JAWAD - April 8, 2010 - 12:00am Human rights activists urged Gaza's Hamas rulers Thursday not to execute Palestinians who spied for Israel, as Hamas officials prepared to resume executions following a decade-long lull. Eleven men are on death row in Gaza, six convicted by Hamas courts of murder and five of spying for Israel, said the Gaza-based Independent Commission for Human Rights. Six others have been sentenced to death in absentia. » Read more