Abbas won't be pressured into talks with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Dalia Nammari - April 27, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinians won't be pressured into resuming peace talks with Israel as long as construction in Jewish settlements continues, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday. Abbas said a complete construction freeze is a prerequisite for resuming talks. Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, supports settlement construction and has not committed to the idea of Palestinian statehood. In his speech Monday, Abbas said he would not give in to possible Israeli or international pressure on the Palestinians to resume negotiations even if settlement construction continues.

»

Israel built, planned 9,000 homes on war-won land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Karin Laub - April 27, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel's previous government built or issued bids for some 9,000 homes for Israelis in Jerusalem and the West Bank, despite its promise to pursue a peace deal with the Palestinians, settlement monitors said Monday, summarizing Ehud Olmert's three years as prime minister. The Israeli watchdog groups Peace Now and Ir Amim urged President Barack Obama to step in quickly and pressure Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to halt further settlement expansion, particularly in the areas of Jerusalem the Palestinians want for their future capital.

»

Change meets challenge
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - April 27, 2009 - 12:00am

At a time when neither Palestinian nor Israeli domestic political conditions are conducive to progress on peacemaking, the region is looking to the new US administration as the only source of hope. It is evident that the strategies and approaches of the previous American administration contributed, at least in part, to an unprecedented deterioration in the region, including for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

»

Clinton’s Mideast Pirouette
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - April 26, 2009 - 12:00am

The sparring between the United States and Israel has begun, and that’s a good thing. Israel’s interests are not served by an uncritical American administration. The Jewish state emerged less secure and less loved from Washington’s post-9/11 Israel-can-do-no-wrong policy.

»

Keeping the Palestinian Solution Separate from the Nuclear Dispute with Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Raghida Dergham - (Opinion) April 24, 2009 - 12:00am

The most important test for US President Barack Obama in his efforts to reach peace in the Middle East will not be the test of intentions, resolve and belief in the ability to achieve the two-state solution, i.e. to establish the state of Palestine alongside a secure Israel.

»

Israel defies US and destroys Palestinian home
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Ben Lynfield - April 23, 2009 - 12:00am

Brushing aside international criticism, Israel demolished a Palestinian house in East Jerusalem in the latest in a series of actions that critics say is racheting up tensions in the city, harming chances for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ammar Hudidon, a resident of the Jebel Mukaber neighbourhood and a father of seven children, said a bulldozer flattened his home yesterday after the Jerusalem municipality said he lacked building permits. Palestinians complain that the permits are virtually impossible to obtain.

»

China vows strong support for Mideast peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
April 23, 2009 - 12:00am

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Wednesday pledged strong support for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement based on a two-state solution. China "will pursue its efforts to advance the Middle East peace process and strongly supports a settlement based on two states," he said after talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

»

Jordan King: Arabs must do more on Mideast peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
April 23, 2009 - 12:00am

Jordan's King Abdullah II said Wednesday it was time for Arab and Muslim countries to help the United States do "the heavy lifting" needed to forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians. "Too many times in the past, America has been asked to do all the heavy-lifting," the king said as he met with Democratic US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi one day after delivering the same message at the White House.

»

Connect Gaza and West Bank now
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) April 22, 2009 - 12:00am

US presidential envoy George Mitchell is touring the region searching for signs of progress to report back to his boss and to move the peace process forward.

»

Bibi and Obama: Could a Clash Be in the Offing?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Jeffay - April 22, 2009 - 12:00am

Are they headed for a diplomatic divorce? Or can this relationship be saved? The growing number of differences between the new Obama administration and the newer Netanyahu government is coming into view at a sensitive time. American envoy George Mitchell seemed, during his recent Middle East visit, to draw attention to the apparent disconnect between his vision and Benjamin Netanyahu’s by making a mantra of the very policy that Netanyahu has declined to support — the “two-state solution.”

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017