International Community | The American Task Force on Palestine

Palestinians study UN status options
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Permanent Palestinian observer to the United Nations Riyad Mansour said Tuesday that the option of changing Palestine's status from "observer entity" to a "non-member state" is still being studied. Mansour told the Italian news agency AKI that becoming a non-member state "does not invalidate the right to become a member state as recommended by several UN resolutions such as resolution 181 in 1947." The ultimate goal would be to obtain full UN membership like South Sudan, he said, however if that objective is not met then Palestine would seek a status similar to that of the Vatican.

Arab states to head UN in September
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yitzhak Benhorin - August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Two Arab states will head the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly in September, the month which is expected to see a vote on recognition for a Palestinian state. Lebanon will serve as president of the Security Council in September and Qatar will head the General Assembly for one year as of next month. The Security Council has five permanent member states with veto power (The United States, Russia, China, France and Britain) but Arab states are invariably represented among the 10 remaining rotating states.

PM lobbies world envoys against Palestinian statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel is prepared to make concessions, but the Palestinians have shown no indication of a willingness on their own for compromise, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday to a group of 18 ambassadors to Washington from Asian, European, African and Latin American countries who don’t usually vote for Israel at the UN. “Six prime ministers, including myself, have come out in support of a Palestinian state, and two offered far-reaching concessions, but this hasn’t helped,” Netanyahu said, in a reference to the concessions offered by Ehud Barak in 2000, and Ehud Olmert in 2008.

Owning a Piece of Palestine: Syria's Assad Regimes and the Palestinian Question
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Ziad Asali - (Analysis) August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

What follows are my opening remarks at Carnegie-ATFP. Wednesday, July 27, Moderator Ziad Asali: Thank you very much, Marina. It is a privilege to be doing this program with Carnegie and have you with us, and we look forward to more association in the future. Thank you, everyone, for attending this program. It is about Syria, and the title is, "Owning a Piece of Palestine."

In Tumult, New Hope for Palestinian Cause
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Anthony Shadid - August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

BEIRUT, Lebanon — In the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila, a corner of Beirut bearing the scars of massacres and an enduring despair, the words of a young barber hinted at an emerging optimism about what the Arab revolts could mean for a central issue of the last half century in the Middle East: the fate of Palestinians. The barber, Mohammed Assad, was not naïve; life here is too grim for that. But in a region whose politics are being recalculated, he celebrated the rising influence of popular will on governments that long ignored it. “There is hope,” he said.

Owning a Piece of Palestine: Syria's Assad Regimes and the Palestinian Question
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Ziad Asali - (Analysis) August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Wednesday, July 27, Moderator Ziad Asali: Thank you very much, Marina. It is a privilege to be doing this program with Carnegie and have you with us, and we look forward to more association in the future. Thank you, everyone, for attending this program. It is about Syria, and the title is, "Owning a Piece of Palestine."

Israel: Chinese military chief to visit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Associated Press - August 8, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — The Chinese military's chief of staff will visit Israel next week for the first time, the Israeli military said Monday, in what may signal a renewed warming of ties between the Jewish state and Beijing. Chen Bingde will be a guest of the Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, the military said. Bingde's visit follows Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak's trip to China two months ago. That was the first visit of an Israeli defense minister in a decade. Chinese officials were not available for comment about the visit.

EU diplomats: Israel's national security adviser reprimanded us over our critical policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - August 8, 2011 - 12:00am

European diplomats have called National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror aggressive and arrogant for "reprimanding" EU countries for their policies toward Israel, during what was supposed to be a routine briefing. Amidror had been invited to give a political-security briefing to 27 European Union ambassadors to Israel. Three diplomats who were present at the meeting, on 14 July, told Haaretz that the national security adviser's style was blunt and that many ambassadors were insulted at what they perceived to have been a reprimand of the EU.

Palestinians and the U.N.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
(Editorial) August 7, 2011 - 12:00am

In little more than a month, the Palestinians are expected to ask the United Nations to recognize their state. We have sympathy for their yearning and their frustration. For years, they have been promised a negotiated solution — President Obama called for a peace deal by September — and they are still empty-handed. But the consequences could be profoundly damaging for all involved.

Palestinian FM: A wave of international recognition on the way
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Ali El-saleh - (Opinion) August 7, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki has stated to Asharq Al-Awsat that a wave of international recognition of the state of Palestine will take place in the next few weeks, adding that Honduras and South Sudan will be on top of the states that will recognize the Palestinian state. According to Al-Maliki, Honduras will announce its recognition of the Palestinian state on 20 August in spite of the angry reaction by Tel Aviv.

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