October 26th

'If Rabin were alive, we would have peace' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yitzhak Benhorin - October 22, 2010 - 12:00am Aaron David Miller, who served as an advisor on Mideast peace to six US secretaries of state in the 1990s, worked extensively with slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Now, on the 15th anniversary of his assassination, Miller says he believes Rabin could have changed history if he had been allowed to live. » Read more

Palestinians, Jews race to plant West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Diaa Hadid - October 25, 2010 - 12:00am BURQA, WEST BANK — Olive tree by olive tree, Palestinian farmers and Jewish settlers are competing over the rocky hills of the West Bank, planting more of the gnarled evergreens to strengthen their hold on the land. Now in harvest season, the battle gets rough, with orchards robbed, vandalized and burned. This year, the stakes have been raised: Palestinians have planted double the number of trees as in past seasons, and Jewish settlers have responded by boosting their own olive production. » Read more

UN rep. backs declaration of Palestinian state in next year ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Tovah Lazaroff - October 26, 2010 - 12:00am United Nations Special Middle East Peace Negotiator Robert H. Serry told Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday that the UN will a support the declaration of an independent Palestinian state. Serry spoke to Fayyad while the two picked olives together near the West Bank village of Turmus'ayyeh, close to the Israeli settlement of Shiloh. » Read more

Israeli general lays out plan for reviving Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Karin Laub - October 26, 2010 - 12:00am TEL AVIV, ISRAEL — The Israeli general who controls the gates of Hamas-run Gaza says he is pursuing a complex and delicate strategy: enable exports and development in the impoverished Palestinian territory while somehow preventing the Islamic militants who rule it from getting credit for any progress. » Read more

Ross warns Israel failed talks could imperil its security ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Hilary Leila Krieger - October 26, 2010 - 12:00am A top White House advisor warned Monday night that the progress Palestinians have made on security in the West Bank could be jeopardized if peace talks don’t move forward. Dennis Ross, a senior White House Middle East advisor, pointed to improvements the Palestinians have made in security and coordination with Israel over the past two years in a speech before American Israel Public Affairs Committee activists in Florida. » Read more

Why Israeli settlement construction must stop ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Nabeel Shaath - (Opinion) October 25, 2010 - 12:00am Ramallah, West Bank — After more than two decades of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, we are at a turning point in the history of the region. As a Palestinian negotiator for over 20 years, I see that tough decisions have to be made. The stakes are too high – not just for the Palestinian people, but for the entire region’s stability. » Read more

Hamas official: We are on way to liberate Haifa, Acre ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Khaled Abu Toameh - October 25, 2010 - 12:00am Hamas is on its way to liberate Haifa and Acre together with other armies, Hamas’s Minister of Interior, Fathi Hammad, declared on Monday. His threat came as Palestinian Authority officials stepped up their rhetorical attacks on Israel for refusing to extend a moratorium on settlement construction. One official condemned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as an “enemy of peace.” » Read more

An end to Bethlehem's unholy row ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Jill Hamilton - October 26, 2010 - 12:00am This week Mahmoud Abbas confronted yet another impasse in the peace talks with Israel. However, on Monday, when he visited the 1,500 year-old Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the alleged birthplace of Christ, he could boast a significant triumph in a longstanding stalemate. » Read more

Some Question Insistence on Israel as Jewish State ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - (Analysis) October 24, 2010 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — The more stridently Israel insists on Palestinian recognition of it as the nation-state of the Jewish people, the more adamantly the Palestinian leadership seems to refuse. As a result, some senior Israeli officials are beginning to question the wisdom of the policy of their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made recognition of the legitimacy of the Jewish nation-state a prerequisite for any final agreement with the Palestinians. » Read more

Trading beyond the Green Line: the real deal for Palestine ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Raja Khalidi - (Opinion) October 26, 2010 - 12:00am The Bank of Israel earlier this month issued a report on Israeli-Palestinian trade links that should make policymakers on both sides of the Green Line ponder deeply the premises of current and future economic relations. » Read more