Foundation of peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
July 18, 2010 - 12:00am

It might seem Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas forgot something when he recently put forth only one condition to resume direct peace talks: That Israel accept its 1967 frontier as a baseline for the borders of a Palestinian state. Abbas did not state the usual prerequisites — the halt of Jewish settlements, that Jerusalem be the capital of the future Palestinian state, the right of return or the return of Palestinian prisoners.

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Palestinian village to be encircled by barrier
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Karin Laub - July 10, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel has started construction on a new section of its West Bank separation barrier that Palestinian residents say could sound a death knell for their hamlet. The barrier, running much of the length of the West Bank, has already disrupted lives in many Palestinian towns and villages in its path. But it threatens to outright smother Walajeh: The community of about 2,000 on the southwest edge of Jerusalem is to be completely encircled by a fence cutting it off from most of its open land, according to an Israeli Defense Ministry map.

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My blueprint for a resolution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Avigdor Lieberman - (Opinion) June 24, 2010 - 12:00am

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” Albert Einstein once said. Since 1993, successive governments, supported by the international community, have tried to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict using the flawed paradigm of land for peace. Each time, the same formula was attempted, but failed every time because of Arab recalcitrance.

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Palestinian politicians reject Israeli deportation order
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Samuel Sockol - June 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Four Palestinian politicians affiliated with the Islamist Hamas party on Monday rejected an Israeli order that they relocate to the West Bank. Israel revoked the Jerusalem residency status of the three members of the defunct Palestinian parliament and a former cabinet minister after they refused to resign from their positions and were deemed "disloyal" to the state. The move stripped them of their ability to live in the city legally.

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Abbas: Direct talks only after borders solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 28, 2010 - 12:00am

President Mahmud Abbas told reporters in Malaysia that no second phase of proximity talks would be initiated until mediators had successfully set down borders for a Palestinian state. Speaking during the second leg of his Asia tour, Abbas said Thursday that the current proximity talks focused on borders and security, key elements and confidence measures set up as first points of discussion by Palestinian and Israeli negotiations officials respectively.

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Israel to permit entry to Arab investors for PIC
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 26, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel will permit an exceptional 815 Middle East businessmen and women to enter the West Bank for Bethlehem's second Palestine Investment Conference (PIC) in June, officials announced on Tuesday. Executive director of PIC Ja’far Hdeib called news of the permits, communicated by Israel's Civil Administration late Monday night, the first signs of success for the conference, titled Investing in Palestine: Empowering Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.

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Zionists are not settlers. Zionists are not racists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Eldad Yaniv - May 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel Harel unsheathed the doomsday weapon that the right wing reserves for use when it feels threatened, in his article "Zionists are not tattletales" on this page on May 20. When Israeli patriots stand up and seek to end the occupation, with or without an agreement, and to establish an exemplary society here, that is when the right attacks.

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Israel ends highway segregation, pleasing no-one
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Douglas Hamilton - May 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Starting Friday, Israeli troops will guard new checkpoints in the West Bank that nullify the impact of an Israeli court order allowing Palestinian drivers to use route 443. What was hailed as a victory for justice six months ago, when a 2002 ban on Palestinian traffic was ruled illegal, now looks like sleight of hand presaging a "human rights travesty", says the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).

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Gaza aid agencies urge Israel to ease Gaza access restriction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
May 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Humanitarian aid agencies urged on Monday the Israeli government to ensure full and unfettered access into and out of the Gaza Strip for materials and exports necessary for the revival of the agriculture and fishing sectors in Gaza. "Maintaining agricultural livelihood and local food production in Gaza depend on the opening of border crossings," Philippe Lazzarini, UN acting humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, told a news conference in Gaza on behalf of several humanitarian aid agencies.

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MESS Report / Palestinian villagers trapped by permanent red light
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - May 24, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's defense establishment is not permitting residents of the Palestinian village of Sheikh Sa'ad, southeast of Jerusalem, to leave the town in their cars. There are even restrictions on walking out of the village, a privilege reserved for residents with Israeli identity cards.

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