The Nation: A Visit With Salam Fayyad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Nation
by Letty Cottin Pogrebin - April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

Before I arrived in Israel a few weeks ago, I'd read that Israeli President Shimon Peres had likened Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, to David Ben-Gurion, Israel's George Washington. So I was intrigued when, on my first night in Jerusalem, the conversation at my Israeli friends' Sabbath table was about the impressive speech Fayyad had delivered to the princes of Israel's security establishment at the recent Herzliya conference.

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Berkeley's Israel boycott: The occupation's new friend
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

If I were a person who wanted to see the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land continue for as long as possible, I would be beside myself with relish at the thought of the current Boycott,Divestment,Sanctions (BDS) campaign at the school I love, the University of California, Berkeley. A word of background. At the time when I was an undergraduate at Berkeley, to talk with Palestinian peace activists and to back a two-state solution was to risk arrest in Israel.

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Golan, not Jerusalem, is key to Mideast peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ari Shavit - (Analysis) April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

The solution to the Jerusalem problem is widely known: The Jewish neighborhoods stay in Israel, the Arab ones are given to Palestine and the Holy Basin becomes part of a special regime. The solution to the refugee problem is also commonly known: Palestinians' right of return will apply to the territory of the Palestinian state, while such claims will not apply to the territory of the Jewish state. Just as well known is the solution to the settlement problem: Territory swaps and annexing large settlement blocs to Israel, and the eviction of isolated settlements.

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The solution for Israelis and Palestinians: a parallel state structure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Mark Levine, Mathias Mossberg - (Opinion) April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

Growing US-Israeli tension over continued East Jerusalem settlement construction – which the White House appears unable to stop – underscores a deeper reality: The two-state solution is no longer possible. The occupied territories are politically, economically, and geographically so deeply integrated into Israel that there is no practical way to transfer them to Palestinian sovereignty within the framework of a two-state solution. Israeli scholars have been warning of this to anyone who would listen for over two decades.

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ATFP Senior Fellow Discusses Palestine and the Art of the Possible at Monmouth University
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - April 7, 2010 - 12:00am

A two-state negotiated agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is the only workable formula for peace, ATFP Senior Fellow Hussein Ibish told an audience of 50 at the ninth annual global understanding conference at Monmouth University. The address on the second day of the conference, April 6, 2010, touched on a number of themes centered around the idea of the art of the possible. Ibish explained in detail his view that alternatives to a two-state solution are all fanciful because one or more of the parties in question would simply not agree to them.


On how not to forget about Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Martin Indyk - (Opinion) April 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Long after the recent humiliation in Israel of Vice President Joe Biden is forgotten, if not forgiven, and President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recommit themselves to the “rock solid” relationship with Israel, and the Israeli ambassador in Washington, Michael Oren, downgrades the hurricane to a tropical storm, there will still be the issue of Jerusalem.

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Jordan King: Israel's long-term future is in jeopardy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
April 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Jordanian King Abdullah has warned that Israel's long-term future would remain in jeopardy unless a permanent solution to the Middle East conflict was achieved, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "I think the long-term future of Israel is in jeopardy unless we solve our problems," Abdullah told the paper in an interview that appeared online Tuesday. The Jordanian monarch, who is scheduled to arrive to Washington on Saturday to attend President Barack Obama's Nuclear Security Summit, cautioned against "wasting too much time" in resolving the conflict in the region.

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Israel says it’s planning new gestures
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz, Hilary Leila Krieger - April 2, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel has formulated a new list of potential gestures towards the Palestinians, Defense Ministry sources said Thursday, as a top Palestinian Authority minister visited Washington for talks with Obama administration officials. The office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and the Defense Ministry recently compiled new proposals for easing restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank, according to Defense officials.

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Palestinian official: Israel to encircle Jerusalem's Old City with settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 1, 2010 - 12:00am

A Palestinian official on Thursday warned that Israel is planning to encircle the Old City in disputed East Jerusalem with Jewish settlements. Such a move would increase tensions since the majority of residents there are Arabs and the walled compound in the Old City includes the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque. The official, Hatem Abdul-Kader, told Voice of Palestine radio that this plan was "oppressive" as some 310 Palestinian houses in nearby Arab neighborhoods would be demolished. The new project will take the shape of a crescent and would embrace the Old City, Abdul-Kader said.

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The Background on Jerusalem in International Relations
Policy Focus by ATFP - April 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Numerous recent developments have reconfirmed the centrality of Jerusalem to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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