February 16th

To build Palestine, support the plan that will establish a state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) February 16, 2011 - 1:00am For decades, little attention has been paid to what has actually been happening on the ground with regard to the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. The institution-building programme of the Palestinian Authority, which has been spearheaded by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is surrounded by a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding. This may be a function of the very nature of the programme: a political project that has its foundation in the technical aspects of building a nation. » Read more

Palestinian peace negotiation unit disbanded ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters February 14, 2011 - 1:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to disband the Negotiations Support Unit (NSU) which provided him with technical help during long-running peace talks with Israel, an official said on Monday. The decision was made after it was discovered that employees in the unit were behind the leak of hundreds of documents to the television station al Jazeera which embarrassed Abbas's administration. » Read more

Abbas: Israel has no vision for peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency February 16, 2011 - 1:00am President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that the current Israeli government had no vision for an end to the occupation. Addressing Palestinians released from Israeli detention, at his Ramallah headquarters, the president said Israel continued to shut down all avenues to peace. Abbas said the US administration pledged that negotiations launched in September would establish a Palestinian state within a year. He asked how long the international community would watch a population live under occupation if an agreement wasn't reached. » Read more

PLO to press on with settlement vote at UN ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency February 16, 2011 - 1:00am Palestinian representatives at the UN will push forward with a draft resolution calling on the Security Council to condemn settlement construction, PLO Executive Committee member Saleh Raafat said Tuesday. A vote will be held on the resolution "[d]espite all of the pressure exerted on the Palestinians and the Arab-state supporters by the US," Raafat said. » Read more

EU targets Palestinian state by September ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency by Steve Weizman - February 16, 2011 - 1:00am EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Tuesday said the international community still sought to achieve a peace deal and a Palestinian state by September, despite the region's political turmoil. Despite the impasse in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and the resignation of the Palestinian Authority cabinet as well as Saab Erekat, their chief negotiator, Ashton said the goal was still achievable. "It's a time-frame that everybody has signed up to," she told reporters in Jerusalem ahead of talks with President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah. » Read more

A wrongheaded prosecution of UC-Irvine student protesters ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post (Editorial) February 15, 2011 - 1:00am ONE BY ONE the students rose in the auditorium, shouting and drowning out a lecture by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren last year at the University of California at Irvine. "Michael Oren, you are a war criminal!" yelled one student, as a group of others cheered him on. "Michael Oren, propagating murder is not an expression of free speech!" shouted another minutes later. » Read more

Past time for PA to break impasse in the West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) February 16, 2011 - 1:00am Recent events may have given the Palestinian Authority the nudge, but it was already standing very close to the brink. On Saturday, the PA promised presidential and parliamentary elections in September; two days later, the entire cabinet quit. In a quieter news cycle, those decisions would have dominated the Middle East agenda, but protests in Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Iran produce new headlines every day. Indeed, it is worth asking what this recent shake-up in the West Bank will achieve. » Read more

Palestinian Erekat says he resigned to set example, not because of contents of leak ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Joel Greenberg - February 15, 2011 - 1:00am Saeb Erekat, the longtime chief Palestinian negotiator who resigned Saturday after a massive leak of documents from his office, said Tuesday that he did not leave because of the substance of the leaks but because they happened on his watch. Excerpts from the documents released last month by the al-Jazeera satellite television channel showed Palestinian negotiators discussing significant concessions on the issues of East Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees during talks in 2008. The revelations caused a storm of controversy among Palestinians and in the wider Arab world. » Read more

A blessing for the region: an interview with Bassma Kodmani ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons (Interview) February 10, 2011 - 1:00am BI: How would you assess Wikileaks' contribution to the revolutionary popular uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere? » Read more

Israel: Four Foreign Missions Closed ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - February 15, 2011 - 1:00am Israel temporarily closed four of its diplomatic missions abroad in recent days because of suspicions that they were under threat of attack, an Israeli official said on Tuesday. He refused to specify their locations, for security reasons, but he said that two had partially reopened. The precautions were taken after “unusual occurrences were identified recently around a few missions abroad,” the Israeli government said in a statement. » Read more