European Union Consuls Call for Economic Sanctions against Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Linda Gradstein - February 27, 2013 - 1:00am

  Charge Israel is Making a Two-State Solution Impossible

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Israel to Transfer Tax Funds to Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

Israel has decided to transfer tax and customs revenues collected last month on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to help ease the economic crisis there, a senior Israeli government official said on Wednesday.

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PNA criticizes Israel for limited release of tax revenues
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Wednesday criticized Israel's decision to release only parts of withheld Palestinian tax revenues. "The decision is incomplete because it only transfers the funds of one month out of four," said an official from Palestinian Ministry of Finance, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official added that the released amount, estimated around 100 million U.S. dollars, would help ease the PNA's financial crisis, which deepened in the past two years due to a drop in international aid.

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Israeli PM meets with Mideast Quartet envoy Blair
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
January 29, 2013 - 1:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the international Quartet's envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair on Monday evening. Netanyahu told Blair, who represents the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union, that he looks forward to continuing working with Blair regarding the challenges Israel is facing.

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Europe needs to re-commit to the peace process now
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ilan Baruch - (Opinion) January 28, 2013 - 1:00am

Hot on the heels of the 1979 Camp David Peace Accords, signed by the leaders of Egypt and Israel and under the watchful eyes of President Carter, the European Community formulated its own key statement of Middle East policy, the Venice Declaration, signed by the heads of the European Community on June 13th 1980.

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Aid groups appeal to Quartet to halt demolitions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 21, 2012 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- The international Quartet of Middle East negotiators must take immediate action to stop 13 Palestinian villages from being destroyed and evacuated in south Hebron, a group of 30 international organizations said Friday. The rare appeal comes after several development agencies received demolition or stop work orders for aid projects in the area. Oxfam said it was given notice by Israeli authorities that it is not permitted to enter the villages to continue its development projects.

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Quartet envoys meet amid Palestinian criticism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
June 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Envoys from the Middle East Quartet met in Brussels on Friday amid calls from the Palestinians to step up action to halt continuing Israeli settlement activity. Officials from the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia gathered "to consult as they routinely do over the phone as well", said a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

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Efforts advanced for meeting between Abbas, Netanyahu: officials
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
June 14, 2012 - 12:00am

Senior Palestinian officials on Thursday asserted that there are advanced efforts together with Arab intervention and U.S. pressure to hold a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary general of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee, told Voice of Palestine Radio that there are "ideas" discussed to arrange for the meeting, which will be the first in one year and a half to reduce tension between the two sides.

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Waste of time
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Oman Tribune
(Editorial) April 13, 2012 - 12:00am

Time and money has again been wasted on the Middle East conflict and its dead peace process. And it’s high time, instead of indulging in these futile exercises, some thing concrete were done. Instead of making some firm moves, the Middle East Quartet’s top diplomats, after a meeting in Washington on Wednesday, came up with a number of appeals that included one to foreign donors to deliver promised aid to the Palestinians. They also urged Israelis and Palestinians to build trust to revive peace talks.

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Middle East mediators seek to revive peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Arshad Mohammed - April 12, 2012 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - Middle East peace mediators on Wednesday criticized Israeli settlement building and called on donors to meet aid pledges to the Palestinians as they sought to revive moribund peace talks. The so-called Quartet - the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States - said they stood behind their Sept. 23, 2011, call for the parties to reach a peace deal by the end of 2012, an objective that seems increasingly remote.

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