Hamas urges Fatah not to go to direct talks with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 5, 2010 - 12:00am

Islamic Hamas movement warned on Thursday Fatah party of going to direct negotiations with Israel after the latter declined holding a tripartite meeting to set terms of reference for the stalled peace process. Salah al-Badawil, Gaza-based spokesman for Hamas, in a press release, demanded Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party not to return to "absurd talks" with Israel, urging the West Bank- ruling movement to give the priority for achieving national unity and isolating Israel.

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Fatah official: PA to disband government
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 28, 2010 - 12:00am

The Ramallah-based government led by premier Salam Fayyad will be disbanded and a new Palestinian Authority cabinet will be formed next week, a high-ranking Fatah official said Tuesday. Fatah's parliament speaker Azzam Al-Ahmad told Ma'an radio that President Abbas would consult with Palestinian factions over the new structure of the PA. Fayyad or another politician will be tasked with forming a government, he said.

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Fatah urges no direct Mideast talks for now
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Tom Perry - July 15, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian president's Fatah party said on Thursday there should be no move to face-to-face Middle East peace talks sought by the United States without progress in the indirect talks it is mediating. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy on Saturday, is facing pressure from Washington to agree to direct negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- who says he is ready to start talks with the Palestinian leader right away.

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Egypt in awkward position on Gaza following Israeli attack on aid flotilla
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Janine Zacharia - June 15, 2010 - 12:00am

With pressure building on Israel to lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip, Egypt finds itself in the uncomfortable position of continuing to help enforce the siege while watching Turkey outflank the region's traditional Sunni Arab heavyweights in championing the Palestinian cause.

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Mideast Peace Tops List of Hopeless Causes: Aaron David Miller
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg
by Aaron David Miller - June 2, 2010 - 12:00am

Groucho Marx, one of America’s pre- eminent philosophers, once quipped, “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes.” I thought of Groucho the other day, while ruminating about President Barack Obama and the crisis after Israeli commandos boarded a ship ostensibly carrying human-rights activists and aid supplies headed for Gaza in defiance of Israel’s blockade.

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Hamas faces dilemma on way to reconciliation, talks with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Fares Akram - May 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Unlike its Islamic rivals who control Gaza, the West Bank-based Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has settled on the U.S.-proposed indirect peace negotiations with Israel in parallel with adopting non-violent resistance against Jewish settlement activities. In Gaza, Hamas, which took over the coastal enclave by force in 2007, has been maintaining a ceasefire with Israel since the end of Gaza war last year; neither allowing other factions to fire rockets into Israel nor encouraging peaceful demonstrations against Israel's attempts to enforce a buffer zone along its borders with Gaza.

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Proximity talks off to rocky start
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - May 21, 2010 - 12:00am

US envoy George Mitchell left Israel on Thursday afternoon, ending the second round of proximity talks, with each side claiming their contacts with the American mediator focused on something completely different. Following a three-hour meeting with Mitchell, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying the second part of their meeting focused on water issues, while the first part of the talks dealt with a number of issues, including gestures Israel might make to the Palestinians.

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Hamas detains senior Fatah leader in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
May 20, 2010 - 12:00am

The security forces of the deposed Hamas government in the Gaza Strip arrested on Wednesday a senior member of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, Fatah sources said. The sources told Xinhua that Hamas security forces arrested Osama al-Farra, a member of Fatah's revolutionary council and former governor of the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, at his home in Gaza.

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Fayyad's peace plan has merit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Sami Moubayed - May 18, 2010 - 12:00am

What is new is that Fayyad pledged himself to non-violence, "an ironclad commitment, not a seasonal thing" he noted, based on the experience of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. A few days ago, a photo of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad feeding a wrinkled Palestinian farmer out of his hand appeared in the Palestinian press — behaviour common for the late Yasser Arafat, but certainly unexpected from a rigid economist like Fayyad.

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Fayyad’s popularity on rise in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Ali Sawafta - May 17, 2010 - 12:00am

His efforts are bearing fruit. Even some of Fayyad’s rivals admit that his stock is on the rise among Palestinians tired of leaders who have failed to deliver them statehood or prosperity. Fayyad could even be in line for higher office, they say, although the premier routinely denies such personal ambition. They acknowledge that the former World Bank economist, a political independent who is not a member of the long dominant Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), is making an impact.

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