Arab Spring and the Nakbeh
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Osama Al-Sharif - (Opinion) May 15, 2012 - 12:00am

The Arab Spring has not been good to the Palestinian cause. It has deflected attention from Israel’s nefarious scheme to bypass the two-state solution by enforcing a unilateral settlement on the Palestinians.

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Boycotts and threats ultimately hurt the Palestinian cause
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ron Pundak - (Opinion) May 14, 2012 - 12:00am

A few days ago, hundreds of left-wing Israeli peace activists met to discuss the big issue: what to do? Should the focus be social or political? Is there a political solution? One state or two? And how to generate a center-left majority in the next elections? This time around, we looked at an additional topic: the influence of a peace process vacuum on the capacity to actually carry out activities involving interaction between Israeli and Palestinian societies.

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The Lessons of the Nakba
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) May 11, 2012 - 12:00am

I do not need anyone to teach me about the Palestinian Nakba. It is the defining moment of my existence. I do not need anyone to lecture me about it either.

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Is the Palestinian Authority really a 'fig leaf' for Israeli occupation?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ben Lynfield - (Analysis) May 3, 2012 - 12:00am

Seated at her desk beneath pictures of two smiling leaders, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the late founding father Yasser Arafat, principal Shadia Shaheen asserts that her high school plays a part in the building of a future Palestinian state.

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The road to Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Ahmad Majdoubeh - (Opinion) May 3, 2012 - 12:00am

I, like many who sympathise with the Palestinians during these particularly hard times, was extremely disappointed and saddened by the Islamists’ condemnation of the visit to Al Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem by the grand mufti of Egypt a couple of weeks ago. This condemnation is yet another evidence of Islamists’ shortsightedness and negative vision.

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Israel's Continued Independence Rests on Palestinian Independence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Alon Ben-Meir - (Opinion) May 1, 2012 - 12:00am

As Israel recently observed sixty-four years of independence, it is critical that Israelis reflect on the path they have taken and ask if the current one is sustainable in the long-term. Much has been achieved since the nation's founding and the Israelis should take immense pride in what they have accomplished in a relatively short period of time. In the midst of celebration, however, there is a dangerous obliviousness to the "dark side" of Israel, one that could jeopardize Israel's very existence far more than threats from Iran or any other country.

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Hopelessness of a two-state solution leads to fresh ideas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Alan Philps - (Opinion) April 27, 2012 - 12:00am

No one is paying much attention to the Palestine issue these days. Coverage in the global media is perfunctory. What used to be a major issue in US-Israeli relations is now relegated to a sideshow by Iran and the Obama administration's focus on getting re-elected without any new Middle Eastern entanglements. As Filippo Grandi, the Commissioner General of UNRWA, the United Nations agency that provides services for Palestinian refugees, put it last week in London: "Over the past seven years I have never seen all the avenues for political progress closed as they are now."

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Erekat: PLO to ask Security Council for settlement censure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

JERICHO (Ma'an) -- PLO official Saeb Erekat said Tuesday that Palestinian leaders are examining ways to secure a resolution from the UN Security Council condemning Israeli settlement building, after Israel gave legal sanction to three settler outposts. In an interview with official PA radio Voice of Palestine, Erekat called on the Israeli government to choose between peace and settlement expansion, warning that sanctioning more settlements on Palestinian land will kill the two-state solution.

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‘One state’ means no state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Zalman Shoval - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

The next round of Israeli-Palestinian talks is in the offing, but it will probably turn out to be as futile as the last one. At least as long as the Palestinian leadership persists in its unrealistic preconditions, i.e. Israel to accept a priori the 1967 armistice line as the border of the proposed Palestinian state, and stopping all construction beyond that line, including in Jerusalem.

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Abbas Seeks Support for Non-Member Palestinian State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 19, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, April 19 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' recent tour in Asia aimed to lobby for support for giving the Palestinians the status of non-member state in the United Nations, a Palestinian official said Thursday. "Abbas sought international support for the Palestinian position as peace talks with Israel are crippled," said Palestinian foreign minister Riad Al-Maliki, he also sought support "for going to the UN General Assembly" to ask for upgrading the Palestinian statue to a non-member state.

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