US backs Palestinian state through talks - not UN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
November 17, 2009 - 1:00am

The United States backs Palestinian efforts to achieve an independent state, but only through negotiations with Israel, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters on Monday. "We support the creation of a Palestinian state that is contiguous," he said. "We are convinced that has to be achieved through negotiations between two parties. We support a Palestinian state that arrives as a result of negotiations between two parties." Kelly also said he was unaware if the PLO had sought America's opinion, according to Agence France-Presse.


A Vacuum Can Also be Used
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Husam Itani - (Opinion) November 17, 2009 - 1:00am

In his reaction to the recent Palestinian stance, Benjamin Netanyahu included the following elements: it is forbidden for you to go to the Security Council to issue a resolution that recognizes your future state. If you do this, you will not find international support. If you do obtain this support, we will put an end to this attempt by force.

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Palestinians under world pressure not to declare state unilaterally
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - November 17, 2009 - 1:00am

The Palestinian Authority is coming under increasing pressure ­ from Israel and the international community ­to back down from its threat to unilaterally declare a state without first concluding a peace agreement with Israel. On Monday evening, The United States on Monday reaffirmed its support for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through negotiations, in its first official response to the Palestinian plan.

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EU rejects Palestinian bid for unilateral declaration of state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
November 17, 2009 - 1:00am

The European Union has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request to back its plan for gaining recognition as an independent state at the United Nations Security Council without Israeli consent. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the EU presidency, explained that the EU does not believe conditions are ripe yet for such a move. The EU is not on the Security Council, but EU members France and Britain are permanent council members that wield veto power.

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The return of the illusionist
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yoel Marcus - (Opinion) November 17, 2009 - 1:00am

Let's say Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister in 1977 instead of Menachem Begin. Would he have gone the same way? Made a peace agreement with Egypt via Camp David? Renounced all the Pithat Rafiah settlements? Withdrawn to the last millimeter in Sinai? Signed an agreement affirming the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people?

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Will settlers become illegal residents of Palestine?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Daniel Edelson - November 17, 2009 - 1:00am

Legal experts told Ynet Monday that if the Palestinians go through with their plan of unilaterally declaring a state in the West Bank, the settlers there could find their status changed to that of illegal residents. The dean of Bar Ilan University's faculty of law, Professor Yaffa Zilbershatz, told Ynet that in the case of Palestinian statehood, "the settlers would become a minority that an enlightened state must respect".

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The Only Hope Left?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Daoud Kuttab - November 17, 2009 - 1:00am

Mahmoud Abbas is in a bind. Faced with a seemingly insurmountable impasse to negotiations with Israel, the Palestinian Authority president can either resign from his PLO chairmanship or come up with some serious, unilateral action to break the deadlock. With hopes that Barack Obama would stand up to the right-wing Israeli leadership dashed, an unwillingness to return to violent resistance, and the inability to resign his presidency of the PA in protest, the Palestinian leader has no alternative but to declare a Palestinian state unilaterally.

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Donald Macintyre: Palestinians throw down challenge to Obama and UN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - (Analysis) November 17, 2009 - 1:00am

As so often in the Middle East, we have been here before. The latest suggestion – that a frustrated Palestinian leadership would unilaterally declare a state and invite international recognition for it – is not new. It was made a decade ago by Yasser Arafat when Benjamin Netanyahu, then as now, was Prime Minister. It was made again after the collapse of the Camp David talks a year later, when then Prime Minister Ehud Barak, like some of Mr Netanyahu's more hawkish ministers now, threatened to annex the most populous settlements in the West Bank in retaliation.

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Netanyahu: If Palestinians act unilaterally, so will Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
November 16, 2009 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that Israel would respond to any unilateral Palestinian steps - particularly declarations of statehood - with one-sided steps of its own. This was the prime minister's first response to a Palestinian initiative to ask the United Nations Security Council to endorse a Palestinian state, seen as an appeal for international backing.

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Erekat: Determined to declare state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - November 16, 2009 - 1:00am

The Palestinians are making it clear that they will not hesitate to take their fate into their own hands: Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Sunday said the Palestinians are determined to obtain the international support necessary to approach the UN Security Council with the demand to declare a Palestinian state in the borders of June 1967.

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