January 25th

Wave in favor of Palestine gathers momentum ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) January 23, 2011 - 1:00am PLO’s permanent delegation in Washington has been allowed to fly the Palestinian flag over its building ISRAEL IS, as we well know, the land of unlimited impossibilities. In Israel, for example, the diplomats are striking. Postmen strike. Longshoremen strike. But diplomats — the most conservative, the most establishment people? Well, in Israel it is possible. All the Foreign Office services have ceased to function. For years, these people have suffered from miserable working conditions. Their salaries are bordering on the ridiculous. So they went on strike. » Read more

Documents Open a Door on Mideast Peace Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - January 25, 2011 - 1:00am Israeli-Palestinian peace talks over the past 17 years have operated at two levels, one public, the other behind closed doors. To the world and their own people, each side spoke of sacred, nonnegotiable demands, while in the Jerusalem hotel suites where the officials met those very demands were under negotiation. » Read more

Palestinians insist leaked memos from peace process reveal nothing new ATFP World Press Roundup Article from PBS by Sal Gentile - January 24, 2011 - 1:00am Leaked memos from a decade of negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian officials roiled the Mideast peace process and put the embattled Palestinian Authority on the defensive Monday. But moderate Palestinian observers and officials close to the government of President Mahmoud Abbas insisted that the documents reveal relatively little about the negotiations that isn’t already known. And if anything, they say, the records expose how uncooperative the Israeli and American governments have been throughout the process. » Read more

Counterpoint: Palestinians and the U.N. ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Aaron David Miller - January 24, 2011 - 1:00am On Jan. 21, Hanan Ashrawi, the veteran Palestinian negotiator and politician, argued on these pages (“Palestinians, America and the U.N.”) that the Palestinians are justified in raising the issue of Israeli settlements before the U.N. Security Council, and that Washington should support them. The debate is joined. A bad idea » Read more

January 24th

Serry: Leaked papers 'convey an inaccurate impression' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Lahav Harkov - January 24, 2011 - 1:00am UN coordinator responds to 'The Palestine Papers,' saying PA is committed to securing "the legitimate rights and interests" of Palestinians. The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process said on Monday that the commentary on the leaked "Palestine Papers" is inaccurate. "I welcome robust political debate, but some of the commentary I have seen conveys an inaccurate impression," Robert Serry said in a statement. » Read more

Egypt Links Palestinians to Attack at Church ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Michael Slackman - January 23, 2011 - 1:00am Egypt’s interior minister charged Sunday that a Palestinian extremist group with links to Al Qaeda was behind the Dec. 31 bombing outside a church in Alexandria that killed 21 people and set off days of sectarian rioting around the nation. In a nationally televised speech, the minister, Habib el-Adly, said the authorities had “conclusive evidence” linking the attack on Egyptian Christians to the Army of Islam, a militant group based in the Gaza Strip. » Read more

Israeli Panel Rules Flotilla Raid Legal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - January 24, 2011 - 1:00am An Israeli commission that examined the deadly raid on a flotilla bound for Gaza last May concluded Sunday that Israel had acted in accordance with international law when its military enforced its naval blockade by intercepting the ships in international waters. » Read more

Washington Institute unveils land swap proposals ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) January 24, 2011 - 1:00am A pro-Israel U.S. think tank released proposals that would reconcile allowing a majority of the settlers to stay in place with a Palestinian state through commensurate land swaps. The detailed proposal, released Jan. 20 by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, nods to longstanding Palestinian demands for a return to 1967 lines by adhering to one-to-one land swaps. Under the proposal, 68 percent to 80 percent of settlers would remain in place, and the Palestinian state would receive Israeli lands adjacent to the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Desert and parts of the West Bank. » Read more

The Palestine papers: Al-Jazeera trumps WikiLeaks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Akiva Eldar - January 24, 2011 - 1:00am While the leaked documents on Middle East negotiations are received in Israel and in the world as incisive evidence of the moderate positions of the Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas, the Hamas leadership as well as Abbas' rivals in Fatah will see the documents as additional proof of what they call the "defeatism" of the PA. Abbas is constantly treading the thin line between his will to acquire the sympathy of the Israeli and international public and his need to guard his back from the knives of his rivals at home. » Read more

Palestinian reporter faces trial for insulting PA President Abbas on Facebook ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press January 24, 2011 - 1:00am Reporter who works for Al-Quds TV, which is sympathetic to Hamas, said he was held for over 50 days in Palestinian lockup after he was tagged in a Facebook image that mocked Abbas. A Palestinian reporter tagged in a Facebook image that mocked the Palestinian president said Saturday he faces trial for insulting a public figure despite already being detained for more than 50 days. » Read more