Clock ticking for Israel and Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Michael Felsen - (Opinion) January 13, 2011 - 1:00am

Since then, US efforts to restart the talks, including a generous package of sweeteners to induce a further Israeli settlement-building moratorium, have failed. The Palestinian leadership has consistently argued that it cannot negotiate while settlement construction continues in areas of the West Bank and East Jerusalem that will likely be part of a future Palestinian state. Meanwhile, settlement construction proceeds apace. Hence, despite last summer's hopeful beginnings, movement in the direction of peace has come to a screeching halt.

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ATFP Expresses Grave Concerns over Demolition of Shepherd Hotel
Press Release - Contact Information: Ghaith al-Omari - January 10, 2011 - 1:00am

Washington DC, Jan. 10 -- The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) today expressed grave concerns about the effects of Israel's demolition of the historic Shepherd Hotel in occupied East Jerusalem on prospects for peace.


Israel tomorrow: Where will the Mideast be in 2018?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
January 6, 2011 - 1:00am

Late last year, Defense Minister Ehud Barak found an unusual message posted on his Facebook profile. It was sent to him by from an individual calling himself Future Ehud Barak and signed “you from the future”. Barak was told in the message that he would soon receive a package containing very important content. “If you use it wisely… we can do amazing things together”. One can only imagine the expression on his face when he found that package, waiting for him on the doorstep of his office at the Knesset – a copy of a newspaper called Israel Tomorrow, dated January 1, 2018.

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Mirror Image
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) January 3, 2011 - 1:00am

The argument has long-since been familiar: If a two-state solution fails, dies from sheer exhaustion, then we’re looking either at a continuation of the status quo or at some form of one-state solution. The status quo is inherently noxious; it is also inherently unstable. It is folly to suppose that it can endure indefinitely, that it will not periodically be interrupted by ever more lethal confrontations.

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Establishment of independent Palestinian state is inevitable
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adel Safty - (Opinion) December 20, 2010 - 1:00am

The so-called peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to be more about process and less and less about peace. The refusal of the Netanyahu government to renew the moratorium on colony construction in the Occupied Territories (described by various American administrations as obstacles to peace) has led to the collapse of the negotiations.

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Despite court ruling, IDF took Arab land for train line
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - December 17, 2010 - 1:00am

Former Civil Administration head, Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, signed an order expropriating 50 dunams from a West Bank village for the rail line connecting Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, just two days before stepping down from his post on November 3. According to the document, Mordechai was convinced the expropriation was done for public good and that the user of the land would be in a position to compensate the property owners.

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One way out for the Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) December 17, 2010 - 1:00am

President Barack Obama described the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives in the mid-term elections last month as a “shellacking”; he was praised for his outright admission of his shocking defeat. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave him (and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) an unprecedented slap in the face by refusing to freeze his colonial expansion into occupied Palestinian territory, which now houses some 500,000 Israelis; the American head of state remained speechless, seemingly bowing his head down.

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The Palestinians must not repeat their mistake of 1947
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) December 15, 2010 - 1:00am

For the time being, the United States has mercifully stopped the embarrassing haggling about the settlement freeze. While Obama’s administration officially says that it will continue to look for ways of reviving the peace process, it is probably realizing what has been fairly clear since Benjamin Netanyahu chose to form a coalition with his "natural" partners, Avigdor Lieberman and Shas: this government is unable and unwilling to deliver an agreement with the Palestinians.

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Who's stopping the peace process?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Danny Ayalon - (Opinion) December 14, 2010 - 1:00am

The breakdown of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks has predictably resulted in blame laid almost exclusively on Israel. However, events of the last 17 years — since Israeli-Palestinian peace talks began — demonstrate a different story about what has prevented peace.

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Abbas, Mitchell meet amid US efforts to renew peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
December 14, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and US Mideast envoy George Mitchell were meeting in Ramallah on Tuesday afternoon, amid US efforts to renew stalled peace talks. Mitchell met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday night, and is set to travel to Doha and then back to Washington after the Abbas meeting. Mitchell arrived back in the region on Monday to discuss the core issues separately with each side in the hope that gaps could be narrowed and direct negotiations restarted.

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