Netanyahu must accept French peace initiative
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) June 6, 2011 - 12:00am

France has placed an offer on the desk of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Begin direct negotiations with the Palestinians in September, on the basis of the Obama plan. The proposal does not define Israel's borders, draw a map of Jerusalem or determine which settlements Israel must remove. It even helps the Israeli position in that it speaks of "two states for two peoples," in other words it acknowledges that Israel is a Jewish state.

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Blueprint for future Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adel Safty - (Opinion) June 6, 2011 - 12:00am

Last week US President Barack Obama reiterated and clarified his earlier statement endorsing the 1967 borders as the basis for negotiated permanent borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted furiously to the statement and promptly rejected the idea saying that the 1967 borders were indefensible, and vowed that a Palestinian state would not be founded “at Israel’s expense”.

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Get rid of Zionism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yitzhak Laor - (Opinion) June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

The 45th year of occupation is now beginning. The depth of the entanglement, from which there is apparently no way out without bloodshed, is as great as the obedience of the intelligentsia: Just as European colonialism was collapsing once and for all, the local intelligentsia found a way to collaborate with the claims of Israel's governments, leaving us today with both a right-wing coalition and a right-wing opposition.

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The Old Man's 'day of horrors'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ami Gluska - (Opinion) June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

Toward the end of May 1967, the Egyptian army had deployed in eastern Sinai, the Straits of Tiran were blocked to Israeli shipping and transport of oil to Eilat, the reserves were called up, the economy was paralyzed, shelters were dug in backyards and public parks were readied to serve as temporary cemeteries. Great excitement prevailed in the whole Arab world. Fiery speeches and Cairo Radio broadcasts informed the masses that the end of the "Zionist entity" was near. On the Israeli home front, the sense of isolation and existential foreboding only grew.

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Time for Israel to wake up
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

These must be heady days for Palestinians, certainly most, if not all, of those who live inside their usurped homeland and among the Palestinian diaspora in the Middle East or western countries. There were lots of good news lately, now topped by the endorsement by the Arab League of the Palestinian intention to ask the UN General Assembly in September to recognise the State of Palestine, a course that does not necessarily guarantee smooth sailing thanks to US and Israeli objections.

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Palestinians are people, too
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Hill
by Mustafa Barghouthi - (Blog) June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

Every June 5 for the past 44 years of my life has brought back memories of being a 13-year-old facing life under Israeli occupation. Forty-four years ago I saw Israelis for the first time. It took my generation a very long and difficult time to come to terms with accepting the need for peace and compromise with our occupier. That compromise was the two-state solution. Our goal was to end occupation and achieve freedom, dignity, and self-determination.

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Despite it all, Bibi still deserves a chance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yoel Marcus - (Opinion) June 3, 2011 - 12:00am

Nobody has caught me saying a good word about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Not during his first term and not during his second one. In a "conciliatory conversation" between his two terms, mediated by his friend Dr. Gabi Picker, Bibi accused me of contributing to his downfall as prime minister.

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Obama’s commitment to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Rahm Emanuel - (Opinion) June 2, 2011 - 12:00am

Days into my tenure as mayor of Chicago, with my focus on keeping our city’s streets safe, our schools strong and our finances stabilized, I expected my attention to be in the Midwest, not in the Middle East. But as an American and the son of an Israeli immigrant, I have a deep, abiding commitment to the survival, security and success of the state of Israel.

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The real issue is political leadership
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by David Pollock - (Opinion) June 1, 2011 - 12:00am

Around half of Israelis, Palestinians, and some other key Arab publics, according to various opinion polls taken in the past decade, support something like the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, whose basic concept is peace and Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for Israel's full withdrawal from the territories it captured in the 1967 war.

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Consistent support
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Editorial) June 1, 2011 - 12:00am

The Arab Peace Initiative adopted at an Arab summit conference in 2002 and reiterated in another summit in 2007 was never controversial among Palestinians in the occupied territories.

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