Building a Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Global Post
by Fredy Gareis - December 17, 2010 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank — It was a couple of minutes after 10 on a Saturday morning when the Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, stepped onto a rainy stage in Bethlehem and voiced his support for the enemy. Fayyad urged the people not to hold all Israelis responsible for the actions of some fanatical settlers. The day before some of them had burned down a Palestinian olive grove. The audience at the Olive Harvest Festival clapped their hands cautiously. Maybe they were expecting something else: rallying cries, slogans, boasting. But their prime minister is not the inciting type.

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Hamas leader in Gaza vows group will never recognize Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Douglas Alexander - December 15, 2010 - 1:00am

Hamas will never recognize Israel, Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday at a rally to mark the 23rd anniversary of the militant group's founding. "We say it with confidence as we said it five years ago when we formed our government, and we say it today: We will never recognize Israel," Haniyeh told a crowd in Gaza City numbering tens of thousands. A poster at the rally featured photographs of Hamas leaders assassinated by Israel in the last 10 years. "Hamas will be the faithful guard of the Palestinian people's rights and the basic Palestinian principles," Haniyeh continued.

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Who's stopping the peace process?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Danny Ayalon - (Opinion) December 14, 2010 - 1:00am

The breakdown of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks has predictably resulted in blame laid almost exclusively on Israel. However, events of the last 17 years — since Israeli-Palestinian peace talks began — demonstrate a different story about what has prevented peace.

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Palestinians' future is in their hands
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Akiva Eldar, Carlo Strenger - (Editorial) December 14, 2010 - 1:00am

The Israel-Palestine conflict has been endlessly long, tragic, filled with wrong decisions on all sides and there are many ways of telling the story. Saeb Erekat, in his recent article on the Palestinian right of return, chooses to begin his story ("narrative" is the fashionable word) with the assassination of Count Bernadotte, the first UN mediator, by Jewish militants commanded by Yitzchak Shamir, later prime minister, in 1948. The implication is clear: Israelis killed justice from the very outset.

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Fatah, Hamas agree to meet in late December: official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
December 13, 2010 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH-- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party agreed with Islamic Hamas movement to resume reconciliation dialogue by the end of December, a Fatah official said Monday. The two movements will meet by the end of this month for more discussions of controversial issues between the two rivals, said Azzam Al-Ahmad, a member of the Fatah Central Committee.

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Reality Check
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Thomas L. Friedman - (Opinion) December 11, 2010 - 1:00am

The failed attempt by the U.S. to bribe Israel with a $3 billion security assistance package, diplomatic cover and advanced F-35 fighter aircraft — if Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu would simply agree to a 90-day settlements freeze to resume talks with the Palestinians — has been enormously clarifying. It demonstrates just how disconnected from reality both the Israeli and the Palestinian leaderships have become.

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Palestinians weigh options as talks freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Paralysis in U.S.-backed peace talks is prompting debate among Palestinians on alternatives to the two-decade old diplomatic process. The chances of another Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, similar to that which erupted when peace talks with Israel hit a dead-end a decade ago, are seen as remote.

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Palestinians Win Backing for Independence by Crackdown on Corruption
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by David Miller - December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Cleaner government in Ramallah and law and order on the streets of Jenin may be doing more to bring Palestine into the community of nation states than peace talks with Israel, officials and analysts said after Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil moved to recognize Palestine as an independent state.

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Abbas: No talks with Israel in shadow of settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 9, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday stood firm on his demand for a halt to settlement building before talks with Israel can resume, as US officials scrambled to rescue the collapsing peace process. "We will not accept negotiations as long as settlements continue," Abbas told reporters in Cairo after more than one hour of talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. "We have made this clear to the Americans: without a halt to settlements, no negotiations."

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No clear successor should Abbas leave the stage
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - December 9, 2010 - 1:00am

Washington's Mideast peace efforts are in trouble as it is, but an additional complication is often overlooked: Should 76-year-old Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a heavy smoker prone to threats of resignation, leave office, there's no designated successor and no agreement on how to choose one. Having a Palestinian leader opposed to violence is key to U.S. policy in the region, and Abbas has filled that role for the past six years. A turbulent transition could seriously weaken any new leader.

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