Encountering Peace: Imposed peace plans will not work
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) April 25, 2011 - 12:00am

First came the Caesarea conferences on Israel’s economic policies and plans run by the Israel Democracy Institute where ministers and Bank of Israel officials came to deliver high-profile speeches on the future of our economic welfare. Then came the Herzliya conferences to which prime ministers, foreign ministers, chiefs of staff and others leaders from the security military establishment presented their views and policy plans.

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Arab changes to hopefully push forward stalled Mideast peace before September
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 24, 2011 - 12:00am

Talks on new American and Israeli plans and initiatives to push forward the peace process have increased in the past few weeks, while the Palestinians are working in full swing for the establishment of an independent state in September. The Middle East peace process has been stalled, since the Palestinians had suspended the direct peace talks with Israel in October, one month after it was launched in Washington. The talks with Israel were suspended after Israel refused to freeze settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

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Palestinian president rejects new uprising against Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Bouazza Ben Bouazza - April 20, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian president said Wednesday he is opposed to another armed uprising against Israel, even if faltering peace efforts fail later this year. Mahmoud Abbas told reporters in Tunisia that he remains committed to the U.S.-backed target of reaching a negotiated peace agreement with Israel by September. But with talks stalled for months, he repeated his plan to unilaterally seek United Nations endorsement of Palestinian independence in the absence of a deal.

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Palestinians determined to seek independence despite U.S. objection
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 20, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian leadership on Wednesday reiterated that it will seek state's recognition from the United Nations despite U.S. opposition. Yasser Abed Rabbo, a Palestine Liberation Organization official, said the Palestinians want the world to recognize their state on the lands that Israel has occupied in 1967 because "the United States failed to resume serious peace negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinians. On Tuesday, the U.S. said it rejected the Palestinian plan for the recognition, saying that the Palestinian state must come through a negotiated agreement with Israel.

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Palestinian UN diplomat: Palestinians prefer peace treaty with Israel by September
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
April 19, 2011 - 12:00am

Riyad Mansour, the top Palestinian diplomat at the United Nations, said the Palestinians prefer to have a peace treaty with Israel by September, the month when the Palestinians plan on taking their case for an independent state to the floor of the UN. The Palestinians say that if a peace treaty with Israel isn't reached by September their first choice is to go to the UN Security Council with such strong support and arguments that it would recommend admission of Palestine as a new member of the United Nations.

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King Abdullah: Time is Running Out for Arab-Israeli Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National Interest
by Bruce Riedel - (Book Review) April 13, 2011 - 12:00am

King Abdullah II of Jordan, like the rest of us, was apparently surprised by this winter’s eruption of political dissent in the Arab world. His just published autobiography, Our Last Best Chance: the Pursuit of Peace in a Time of Peril, warns that upheaval and war is coming to the Middle East if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not resolved by a just and fair peace, but does not prepare the reader for the revolutions that swept Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and the rest of the Arab world this winter and spring. That is not a criticism—no one else saw it coming either.

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Save a generation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Omar Rahman - (Opinion) April 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Just over one week after the ninth anniversary of the Arab Peace Initiative, some leaders within the Israeli business and security community have found the need to address this monumental peace proposal with a "partner declaration" of their own.

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Time running out for Israel and peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
(Editorial) April 8, 2011 - 12:00am

In the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process, it has worked to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s advantage to play for time. It has kept him in power and his conservative coalition government together. But time is no longer on Mr. Netanyahu’s side. A wave of change is coming in the Middle East and at the United Nations, where the Palestinians are building support for a September bid to win UN recognition of a Palestinian state. Far better for the Israeli prime minister to ride this wave, than to be battered by it.

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Building a Stage for Mideast Peace Before the Final Curtain
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - April 6, 2011 - 12:00am

Juliano Mer Khamis lived a paradox. The internationally renowned actor, director and political activist, who was killed here this week, was both an Israeli and a Palestinian, born to a Jewish mother and an Arab Christian father in the Israeli Arab town of Nazareth. Mr. Mer Khamis embodied the Israeli-Arab conflict and embraced its complexities in a way that few could. He was regarded as an Arab by many Israelis, and by some in this West Bank city, his adopted home, first and foremost as a Jew.

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'Israel using int'l climate to abandon two-state solution'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
April 5, 2011 - 12:00am

The PLO's Executive Committee on Tuesday accused Israel of exploiting the global climate to abandon the two-state solution, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA. A statement quoted in the report cited the Monday approval of 942 housing units in Jerusalem's Gilo neighborhood as well as the approval of master plans for several West Bank settlements.

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