Tony Blair addresses the American Task Force for Palestine in Washington DC
Media Mention of ATFP In The Office of Tony Blair - January 20, 2011 - 1:00am

Quartet Representative Tony Blair called today for more international "support for Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and the state-building effort." He stressed that these efforts should continue and intensify in the context of seeking a negotiated two-state solution.

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Abbas urges Quartet to put pressure on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - January 18, 2011 - 1:00am

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday urged the Quartet members, who are scheduled to meet in Munich next month, to issue decisions that would oblige Israel to return to the negotiating table with the Palestinians. Abbas, who was speaking during a joint press conference in Jericho with visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, said there were only two options: Negotiations or violence and terrorism.

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Mideast quartet to hold Munich talks in Feb-Germany
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
January 14, 2011 - 1:00am

The quartet of Middle East mediators will meet at the annual Munich Security conference next month to mull how to resuscitate peace talks between Israel and Palestinians, a German government official said on Friday. Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said Germany hoped an "urgently needed boost" could be given to the talks when representatives from the European Union, the United Nations, Russia and the United States come together in Munich.

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Tony Blair Urges Support for Palestinian State-Building at ATFP Event
Press Release - Contact Information: Ghaith al-Omari - December 15, 2010 - 1:00am

Washington, DC, Dec. 15 -- TRH Tony Blair, the Representative of the Middle East Quartet, called today for more international "support for [Palestinian] Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and the state-building effort." He stressed that these efforts should continue and intensify in the context of seeking a negotiated two-state solution. Mr.


Israel faces tougher line from EU after former heads call for Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Chris McGreal, Harriet Sherwood - December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Twenty-six European grandees have urged the EU to adopt a tougher stance towards Israel including taking "concrete measures" and exacting "consequences" over continued settlement building on occupied land, which they say is illegal under international law.

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UN chief urges Israel to freeze settlements despite failure to reach deal with U.S.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shlomo Shamir - December 9, 2010 - 1:00am

The UN Secretary-General publicly chastised the government of Israel on Wednesday for refusing to extend its ten-month moratorium on construction in the settlements of the West Bank that expired in September, calling it a snub to the international community. A spokesperson for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to renew its freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, framing it as an obligation that Israel is avoiding.

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Abbas: US trying to restart peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
November 4, 2010 - 12:00am

Continuous efforts have been made by US mediators to bring stalled peace talks back on track, President Mahmoud Abbas told the Kuwait News Agency KUNA on Wednesday. As PA officials insist that the midterm elections - which took seats in the nation's congress away from President Barack Obama's Democratic party - will not harm the process, Abbas said officials from all parties involved were continuing efforts.

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Abbas: What Israel calls itself is none of our business
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - October 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday that it was none of the Palestinians’ business if Israel wanted to call itself a Jewish state, or anything else. “If the Israelis want to call themselves any name, they should address the international community and the United Nations, because this is none of our business,” Abbas told reporters after meeting with Finnish President Tarja Halonen in Ramallah. Abbas said that the PLO had recognized Israel when the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.

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No to a third intifada
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Common Ground News Service
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) October 14, 2010 - 12:00am

Whether or not a solution to the crisis over settlements is achieved in the coming days, it's becoming increasingly clear that the direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are in serious trouble. The Israeli daily Ha’aretz quoted unnamed Western officials as saying the talks are “going nowhere.” And the most cautious, sober and measured of the senior PLO leadership, Yasser Abed Rabbo who is a member of the negotiating team, has been moved to declare that, “there will be no serious political process with Netanyahu's government.”

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Abbas urges the Quartet to realize Palestinian statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
October 14, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday urged the international Quartet for Middle East peace to find alternative solutions to end the Israeli occupation and give the Palestinians a homeland. Abbas made the comments at a joint press conference in Ramallah with visiting Finnish President Tarja Halonen. "We want a state on the lands occupied in 1967 and to live in peace with our neighbors, including Israel," Abbas said.

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American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017