May 26th

Abbas: Netanyahu pushing back peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 26, 2011 - 12:00am


President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of pushing the peace process back further than ever, the official Palestinian news agency reported. Speaking at the opening of a meeting for the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah, Abbas said Netanyahu “has shown us, in addition to the many mistakes and distortions, that he moved very far from the peace process.” He added: “There was nothing that we could build positively on. We look at his speech negatively.”


$1 billion Gaza investment fund unveiled
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 26, 2011 - 12:00am


Muhammad Mustafa, the Palestine Investment Fund president, announced Thursday the establishment of a $1 billion investment fund for the reconstruction of Gaza. The rumored top candidate for the role of prime minister in the new technocrat government arrived in Gaza on Wednesday, to coordinate reconstruction efforts and meet with prominent contractors and businesspeople.


Netanyahu's Congress speech could set Middle East peace back another 18 years
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ibrahim Sharqieh - (Opinion) May 26, 2011 - 12:00am


Taking advantage of his New York accent while addressing Congress on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an eloquent speech offering only more obstacles to a lasting and just peace in the Middle East. He not only failed to provide a vision for the peace process in a changing Middle East, but also introduced new terms and phrases that will probably hamper any peace efforts in the future.


Israel's settlement liability
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Dan Simon - (Opinion) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected President Obama's recent contention that the dream of a democratic Jewish state is incompatible with permanent occupation of the West Bank. Obama suggested in two recent speeches that peace negotiations should aim for a sovereign and non-militarized Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders, with mutually agreed swaps.


WEST BANK: Palestinians call on U.N. to implement 1967 borders proposal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
(Blog) May 26, 2011 - 12:00am


Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas expressed disappointment with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint meeting of Congress on Tuesday and said the Israeli leader's comments had dealt a blow to efforts to resume peace talks.


Obama pushes Europe not to support Palestinians' U.N. statehood bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Christi Parsons, Paul Richter - May 25, 2011 - 12:00am


A week after ratcheting up pressure on Israel's government to restart peace talks with Palestinians, President Obama launched a campaign to persuade European leaders not to endorse a separate Palestinian bid for statehood. But his appeal to Britain's prime minister, David Cameron, won only a noncommittal response. After a meeting Wednesday with Obama, Cameron said the time was not yet right for European leaders to decide on the Palestinian bid for United Nations recognition, which the Palestinian Authority leadership is expected to make at the U.N. General Assembly in September.


Where Netanyahu fails himself and Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Fareed Zakaria - (Opinion) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am


Conventional wisdom is fast congealing in Washington that President Obama was wrong to demarcate a shift in American policy toward Israel last week. In fact, it was Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who broke with the past — in one of a series of diversions and obstacles Netanyahu has come up with anytime he is pressed. He wins in the short run, but ultimately, he is turning himself into a version of Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, “Mr. Nyet,” a man who will be bypassed by history.


Netanyahu visit deepens Israeli-Palestinian impasse
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg - May 25, 2011 - 12:00am


Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s tumultuous visit to Washington has left Israeli and Palestinian officials facing each other across a deepening abyss, raising concerns that the impasse in peace efforts could prompt a renewed slide to violence. “When all is said and done, the question remains, where do we go from here?” wrote Sima Kadmon, a columnist in Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s most widely read newspaper.


Egypt to reopen Gaza border crossing, raising Israeli concerns
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg, Ernesto Londono - May 25, 2011 - 12:00am


Egypt will permanently open its border crossing with the Gaza Strip this weekend, the government announced Wednesday, underscoring how dramatically the uprisings that are roiling the Arab world could reshape the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Egypt’s interim military leaders, who had been instrumental in implementing the blockade under orders from then-President Hosni Mubarak, appeared to be responding to an increasingly vocal and empowered constituency that wants Egypt to decisively back the Palestinian cause.


Israelis See Netanyahu Trip as Diplomatic Failure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - May 25, 2011 - 12:00am


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel returned from Washington on Wednesday to a nearly unanimous assessment among Israelis that despite his forceful defense of Israel’s security interests, hopes were dashed that his visit might advance peace negotiations with the Palestinians. One of the widely articulated goals of his trip, where he met with President Obama and addressed Congress, was to find a way to lure the Palestinians back to direct negotiations, thereby preempting their plan to approach the United Nations in September for recognition of statehood within the pre-1967 lines.



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