Beyond Revenge: Support Peace, Tolerance, & Reconciliation
Speech by Ziad Asali at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace - October 21, 2004 - 12:00am

We are here today to pay respect to members of the families whose lives have been shattered by the untimely and violent and death of their relatives. They are here today, not just to share their grief, but also to share it publicly so other parents will be spared this unspeakable pain.

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Comprehensive Solution to Conflict Necessary to Salvage Two-State Solution
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - October 18, 2004 - 12:00am

Washington DC, Oct. 18 -- The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) hosted a briefing today by Yasser Abed Rabbo, on strategies for salvaging the two-state solution. Abed Rabbo is an author of the Geneva Accords, a leader of the Palestine Peace Coalition and a member of the PLO’s executive committee. ‘Partial’ or ‘unilateral’ solutions such as Israel’s Gaza withdrawal plan will invariably fail with tragic consequences, Abed Rabbo stressed.


What is to be done?
Speech by Ziad Asali at Newark, New Jersey - October 18, 2004 - 12:00am

A consensus, that is, nearly a consensus, about the contours of the final agreement for a genuine and lasting peace is known. It is a variation of the themes of Clinton’s Taba proposal, The Geneva Initiative, Nusseibeh- Ayalon, One Voice and most importantly, the Road Map. Polls and surveys of Palestinians, Israelis, American Jews and Arabs, as well as the general American public, indicate support for a Two-State solution based on what has come to be called the Historic Compromise.

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The Past, the Present and a Better Future
Speech by Ziad Asali at Carnegie Mellon University - October 18, 2004 - 12:00am

This is my first visit to Pittsburgh and it is quite a pleasure to be here. In the mid-seventies my son, barely four years at the time, became a big fan of the Steelers and Bradshaw, so I became one too. I watched more football games with him than I would by temperament, past the glory days of his beloved Steelers, to shift my loyalty, after my son’s, to our home team, the Chicago Bears, through their short lived glory in 1985, but we stuck with them. We still support a struggling team.

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Israeli and Palestinian Leaders Call for Disengagement, Settlement Evacuation
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - October 13, 2004 - 12:00am

Washington DC, Oct. 13 -- If the Gaza disengagement plan does not succeed, Yossi Alpher, former senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, said, Israelis and Palestinians “are on a slippery slope towards South Africanization, without a South African solution.” Ziad Abu Zayyad, member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said that planting Jewish settlements in the West Bank undermines the prospect for a two-state solution as well, and that it is in Israel’s best interest to withdraw from the settlements.


Palestinian Negotiators Outline Prospects for Peace Following Gaza Disengagement
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - September 27, 2004 - 12:00am

Washington DC, Sep. 27 -- The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) hosted a briefing by members of the PLO Negotiations Support Unit (NSU), who are making a week-long tour of congressional offices and non-profit groups.


Palestinian Politics in Crisis: A Trip Report
Speech by Ziad Asali at Foundation for Middle East Peace - Washington, DC - August 3, 2004 - 12:00am

Simply stated, crossing the bridge from Jordan to the West Bank is a hassle. However, it is also an orderly juncture over an established state border with nothing temporary about it. Traversing it gives the traveler a sense of his powerlessness in the dominant military presence of the officials of the State. The July sun scorches the lowest spot on earth and the forbidding arid and naked landscape makes you wonder how strange the Palestinians and Israelis must seem to others: Are these people serious in fighting over this barren land?

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Time for Palestinians to take charge of their destiny
In Print by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) - June 9, 2004 - 12:00am

The cautious President Mubarak has overcome Egyptian reticence to get involved in Gaza. His initial concerns about the risk of getting Egyptian personnel targeted by Palestinians and enhancing the risk of direct confrontation with Israel after four decades of peace, have given way to accepting to take on an active security role in Gaza. It seems that Egypt’s concerns about the ensuing anarchy, or fundamentalist take over in Gaza after the withdrawal, and Egypt’s strategic choice to play the regional power broker in coordination with the US, have all overweighed other considerations.

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Israeli Missile Attack Kills Palestinians in Gaza
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - May 19, 2004 - 12:00am

Washington DC, May 19 -- The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) condemned the unprovoked killing today of unarmed Palestinians by the Israeli military in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza. According to press reports and hospital sources, Israeli forces fired a missile, four tank shells and machine guns at Palestinians peacefully demonstrating the ongoing Israeli incursion into Gaza, killing at least 10 Palestinian children and teenagers and wounding 50 people.


Joint Statement on May 19, 2004 Attacks
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - May 19, 2004 - 12:00am

We, the undersigned organizations, strongly condemn Israel’s recent indiscriminate killings of innocent Palestinians, including many children. In particular, we cite the May 19, 2004 Israeli strike on peaceful demonstrators resulting in the death of at least 20 innocent Palestinians. In addition, we denounce the demolition of Palestinian homes in Gaza’s Rafah refugee camp.



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