PLO defends AL's nod for indirect Palestinian-Israeli negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Thursday defended an Arab League (AL)'s decision authorizing Washington to lead indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians for four months. "This decision moves the ball in Israel's court," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the PLO's executive committee, in response to Islamic Hamas movement and other Palestinian factions that rejected any resumption of peace negotiations.

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Mideast peace talks could begin as early as Sunday
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff, Jonathan Lis, Barak Ravid - March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

Indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority may begin as early as Sunday, Haaretz had learned. U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell will land in Israel on Saturday night, and the American administration is hoping the sides will declare the beginning of indirect talks the following morning, ahead of the arrival of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Monday.

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A Skeptical Arab League Backs Indirect Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Michael Slackman - March 3, 2010 - 1:00am

Arab League foreign ministers on Wednesday approved an American proposal that Palestinians hold indirect talks with Israelis, a move that could help restart direct discussions between the two sides that broke down more than a year ago.

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US Senator John Kerry presses Israel on Gaza access
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 2, 2010 - 1:00am

US Senator John Kerry raised the issue of Israel’s closure of the Gaza Strip during his meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials in the Middle East, his spokesman said on Monday. The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman "has long called for heightened access for humanitarian goods and foodstuffs," said spokesman Frederick Jones on the phone from Washington.

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Clinton: US hopes talks will start soon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 25, 2010 - 1:00am

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told US lawmakers on Wednesday that she hoped Israelis and Palestinians could resume negotiations toward a peace settlement “soon.” A year of US efforts to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table have failed so far, but Clinton struck an upbeat tone in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

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Clinton sounds upbeat on Israeli-Palestinian talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Arshad Mohammed, Andrew Quinn - February 25, 2010 - 1:00am

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday she hoped Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would resume "shortly," sounding more upbeat than usual for a U.S. official. Separately, Israel's ambassador to the United States told Reuters if negotiations resumed after being frozen for more than a year they would start as indirect "proximity talks," with U.S. envoy George Mitchell shuttling between the sides.

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Abbas satisfied with EU's support as Ashton plans Mideast trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
February 25, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed his satisfaction at the European Union (EU)'s support for Jerusalem as the future capital of both the Israeli and the Palestinian state when he met European Council President Herman Van Rompuy on Wednesday. Abbas said the idea marked "the start of a political role" for the EU in the region and he would like the United States to adopt such a position. He reiterated that an independent Palestine would be in Israel' s "vital interest" when he spoke to Belgian senators and deputies during his two-day visit to the EU.

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Palestine's strongest weapon is peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) February 25, 2010 - 1:00am

To live under occupation is to face many indignities and dilemmas. How to deal with the occupier? By violence or by peaceful means? History has examples of both. But parallels are never exact. The dilemma facing Palestinians is whether to go on working with the international consensus that supports our independence, or to wage war against the overwhelmingly superior forces of the occupier, Israel.

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Are serious negotiations around the corner?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) February 25, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestinians and many others around the world are trying to figure out whether the current US-backed push to restart Mideast talks will lead to serious negotiations or will it be just another act that leads nowhere.

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‘Two-State Solution’ Faces a Patchwork of Challenges
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Jeffay - February 24, 2010 - 1:00am

As the Obama administration struggles to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, a two-state solution remains the final goal, supported by governments in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Washington and Moscow. It enjoys at least lip service from everyone from Benjamin Netanyahu on the right to Noam Chomsky on the left. It is a term that has become as much mantra as policy.

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