Boundaries | The American Task Force on Palestine

Give us a border!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - (Opinion) September 8, 2010 - 12:00am

The direct talks that were launched at the Washington summit should have one aim - to fix the border between Israel and the Palestinian state that will be set up in the West Bank. Israel needs a border that will delineate its borders, normalize its international status, end the dissent over the settlements and solidify the national consensus. This is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's mission in life. If he succeeds, he will have justified his return to power and go down in history as a formative leader.

Early Obstacle, and Test, at Start of Mideast Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Helene Cooper - August 29, 2010 - 12:00am

President Obama will begin his one-year effort to achieve Middle East peace on Wednesday, joining a long list of his predecessors who have tried to achieve a comprehensive peace between Israelis and Palestinians. But unlike the presidents before him, Mr. Obama will know within three weeks whether the two sides are serious this time about reaching a deal.

Report Criticizes Gaza Restrictions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - August 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Kamal Sweleim’s family has owned a farm in this northern part of Gaza for six decades. For most of that time, it was a mix of citrus orchards and plump cows, and the family made a handsome living selling its products to Israel, Jordan and the West Bank. But 10 years ago, when the second Palestinian uprising broke out, spreading violence in Israeli streets, Israeli tanks started repeatedly tearing through the family’s fields, chasing militants. Last year, during the Israeli war in Gaza, the Sweleims were ordered to move out, and their trees and wells were bulldozed.

In Jerusalem, a Barrier Comes Down
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - August 15, 2010 - 12:00am

The Israeli military on Sunday began dismantling a concrete barrier that protected residents of a once-troubled district on the edge of Jerusalem from Palestinian sniper fire. At the height of the second intifada, the violent Palestinian uprising that broke out in 2000, the barrier’s tall concrete blocks had shielded the residents of Gilo, most of whom are Jews, from gunmen who took over homes and rooftops in a West Bank village across a ravine.

Netanyahu rejects peace talks based on 1967 borders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - August 12, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday rejected a Palestinian demand that direct negotiations be based on a statement by the Quartet confirming its position that the future Palestinian state will be based on the 1967 borders. Meeting in Jerusalem with U.S. envoy George Mitchell, Netanyahu repeated his demand for the renewal of direct talks without preconditions. Mitchell briefed Netanyahu on his meeting on Tuesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and gave the prime minister the Palestinian proposal.

Bulldozer injures sheikh at Jerusalem cemetery
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 11, 2010 - 12:00am

Sheikh Ali Abu Sheikha was injured Tuesday when an Israeli bulldozer struck him while when he attempted to block a construction crew from bulldozing a section of a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem. Abu Sheikha suffered moderate injuries but refused to leave the Mamilla (Ma'man Allah) cemetery, Ma'an's correspondent said. An Israeli police spokesman did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Israeli bulldozers entered the cemetery Monday night and began taking down headstones from Muslim graves, the Jerusalem-based Al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf and Heritage said.

High Court: Seal illegal West Bank synagogue
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - August 9, 2010 - 12:00am

The High Court of Justice on Sunday upheld a June ruling and ordered the state to seal and fence off a synagogue that it said was illegally constructed in the El Matan outpost in Samaria. El Matan is located just south of the Ma’aleh Shomron settlement, but within its official boundaries. “There is no place for delaying the execution of this order,” the court said. But it added that there was no way to intervene in the authorities’ priorities for the area. The court asked the state for an update on the matter within 60 days.

Abbas to ask for extension to proximity talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 27, 2010 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas will request an extension to US-mediated indirect talks with Israel from the Arab Peace Initiative Committee when in Cairo on Thursday, a PLO official said Monday. Executive Committee member Hannah Amireh told Ma'an radio that Abbas would ask for talks to continue until 8 September, one month over the 4-month deadline sanctioned by the Arab League. Abbas will also discuss the possibility of re-entering into direct negotiations with Israel, Amireh said.

Rosemary's baby - Uri Avnery
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 24, 2010 - 12:00am

Since I witnessed the rise of the Nazis during my childhood in Germany, my nose always tickles when it smells something fascist, even when the odor is still faint. When the debate about the “one-state solution” began, my nose tickled. Have you gone mad, I told my nose, this time you are dead wrong. This is a plan of the left. It is being put forward by leftists of undoubted credentials, the greatest idealists in Israel and abroad, even certified Marxists. But my nose insisted. It continued to tickle. Now it appears that the nose was right, after all.

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