Where next for Israeli-Palestinian peace?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from China View
by David Harris - January 25, 2010 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell is in the region once again in a bid to persuade Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. Despite the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Mitchell has brought with him some interesting ideas, Israeli and Palestinian analysts said they do not hold out much hope for talks resuming any time soon. ONE YEAR ON

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Jerusalem should be at the center of peace efforts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Daoud Kuttab - January 4, 2010 - 1:00am

The first decade of the twenty-first century has been a disastrous one for Palestinians. Negotiations efforts were dealt a dramatic blow, historic leaders and potential leaders were killed, assassinated or imprisoned and, worst of all, the scourge of internal strife returned to Palestinians in the form of the destructive Hamas-Fateh division.

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In sharp contrast with Gaza, casualties decline in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider, Samuel Sockol - January 1, 2010 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM -- The first year in a decade without a suicide bombing, as well as an expanded Palestinian security force, resulted in a decline in the number of Israeli and Palestinian casualties in the occupied West Bank in 2009 -- a contrast to the hundreds of Palestinian lives claimed by last winter's war in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

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Abbas: Gaza's suffering is our suffering
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
January 1, 2010 - 1:00am

Bethlehem – Ma’an – President Mahmoud Abbas vowed on Thursday to spare no effort in supporting Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip. “Your suffering is ours – we will continue supporting you. We will offer every possible means of support,” he said, speaking at a ceremony in Ramallah marking the 45th anniversary of the founding of his Fatah movement. He touted the role of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) in supporting Gazans. He said the PA still pays the salaries of 77,000 employees in Gaza, devoting 55% of its budget to the territory.

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Barghouti fate key to Schalit deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - January 1, 2010 - 1:00am

Hamas said on Thursday that although it has reservations about the latest Israeli prisoner exchange proposal, its leaders will continue the negotiations. The announcement came as sources close to Hamas talked about divisions in the movement over the proposed prisoner swap agreement. The sources said that Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip appeared to be more flexible, while the movement's senior leadership in Syria was refusing to make any concessions.

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Stalled peace process widens Fatah-Hamas divide
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Omar Karmi - December 31, 2009 - 1:00am

GAZA CITY // Just under a year ago, as Israeli tanks rumbled out of a devastated Gaza Strip accompanied by a final volley of homemade rockets, it was hard to imagine that there could be any return to the political status quo ante or that the division between the West Bank and Gaza would continue for long.

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Israel Kills Six Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Allyn Fisher-Ilan - December 26, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli soldiers killed six Palestinians on Saturday in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the bloodiest violent outbreak in months. Three of those killed belonged to a militant group within the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement Israel accused of perpetrating a roadside shooting that killed a Jewish settler two days earlier. An official in Abbas's government accused Israel of a "grave escalation." A militant leader threatened revenge, charging Israel would now "open the gates of hell."

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Israeli minister: Barghouthi must be freed with or without Shalit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 24, 2009 - 1:00am

Israel should release imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi, with or with out a prisoner exchange deal, Israel’s Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Wednesday. “I call to release Marwan Barghouthi not in the deal with Hamas … these are two entirely different issues,” he told a news conference in East Jerusalem’s American Colony hotel. Ben-Eliezer has called for Barghouthi’s release in the past.

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Fatah cracks down on Hamas officials
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - December 22, 2009 - 1:00am

Alarmed by the possibility that a prisoner exchange agreement with Israel will bolster Hamas's popularity among Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority has stepped up its measures against the movement's leading figures and members in the West Bank. Over the past 48 hours, PA security forces arrested 14 Palestinians in the West Bank on suspicion of being affiliated with Hamas, sources close to the movement said on Monday. The sources said the latest crackdown was clearly linked to reports that a prisoner exchange agreement will soon be reached between Hamas and Israel.

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Survey finds Abbas would win election
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Omar Karmi - December 19, 2009 - 1:00am

In spite of political stalemates on all fronts, it was a relatively good week for Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority and the head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

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