World Must Act Urgently to Avert “Crisis” in Palestine, Experts Warn
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from American Task Force on Palestine
March 27, 2012 - 12:00am

Washington, DC, March 27 -- The international community must act urgently support the Palestinian Authority and its institutions or face a looming “crisis” a panel of experts today warned at a Washington event today co-hosted by American Task Force for Palestine and The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

»

Toulouse attacks harm Palestinians in their own name
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Charles Glass - (Opinion) March 26, 2012 - 12:00am

It started in France in 1894, when a Viennese journalist covered the Paris treason trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. "In Paris, as I have said, I achieved a freer attitude toward anti-Semitism," Theodor Herzl wrote in his diary. "Above all, I recognised the emptiness and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-Semitism." That futility led him to propose an escape from anti-Semitism to a nation-state in Palestine.

»

Palestinian Authority faces economic woes, public anger as statehood efforts lag
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Karin Brulliard - March 26, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Even as attempts to end the Israeli occupation have idled in recent years, Palestinians and their international backers have hailed the West Bank’s expanding economy as one critical step on the path to statehood. Now the Palestinian Authority is mired in financial crisis, and there is a growing sentiment here that economic development efforts intended to lay the groundwork for independence have backfired.

»

Palestinian Refugee Schoolgirls Study Hard for an Uncertain Future
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Liz Ford - March 23, 2012 - 12:00am

There has been a girls' school at Irbid refugee camp in northern Jordan since 1952. No one could tell me how many girls attended the school at that time, but now it operates a shift system to cope with demand. About 850 girls attend the imaginatively-titled Irbid camp girls' school number 1 five days a week, meeting for classes between 7am and 11.30am. The same number attend Irbid camp girls' school number 2, which runs on the same days from 11.30am to 4pm. Although in the same building, each school has its own teaching staff.

»

Israel 'must end imputiny of violence by settlers'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - March 14, 2012 - 12:00am

EU governments, including Britain, have secretly been urged by their top diplomats in Jerusalem and the West Bank to press Israel to enforce laws against Jewish settlers responsible for an "alarming" rise in violence against Palestinians and their property.

»

GPS Panel: Iran, Israel and a Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNN
by Fareed Zakaria - (Interview) March 12, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave President Obama a gift in Washington this week. It was a copy of the book of Esther, which tells the tale of a benevolent king who saved the Jewish people from an enemy who wished to destroy them - a Persian enemy (not very subtle). So where does the Israel-Iran conflict end? On Sunday, I had an excellent panel to talk about that and much more. Daniel Levy is co-director of the Middle East Task Force of the New America Foundation. Bret Stephens is the foreign affairs columnist for the Wall Street Journal.

»

It’s Not Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) March 12, 2012 - 12:00am

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process, as we have known it since the 1993 signing of the Oslo accords, essentially died more than three years ago with the demise of the final status talks between then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Whatever happens in the months ahead between Israel and Iran or between the United States and Iran will not directly affect a non-existent peace process.

»

Building Palestinian prosperity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from National Post
by Alexander Joffe, Asaf Romirowsky - (Opinion) March 9, 2012 - 1:00am

The Palestinian cause has never been more marginalized than it is today. That was the message conveyed by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in a recent meeting in Ramallah. The Arab Spring has deflected the attention of the international community and the Arab world, to the detriment of the Palestinians. But Fayyad was also frank that the uprisings were inevitable. The fundamental lack of respect for citizens in places such as Syria, Tunisia and Egypt, he stated, could not be sustained forever.

»

Mideast Din Drowns Out Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - March 7, 2012 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank — In the 14 months since revolution has spread across the Middle East and tension has soared over Iran’s nuclear program, the Palestinian leadership has found itself orphaned. Politically divided, its peace talks with Israel collapsed and its foreign support waning, the Palestinian Authority is sidelined, confused and worried that its people may return to violence.

»

Time for Palestinians to speak out
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Oudeh Basharat - (Opinion) March 4, 2012 - 1:00am

A hurricane the size of Katrina has hit the Middle East coastline - a hurricane of hypocrisy. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who represents a country that has been making regular use of its veto in the United Nations Security Council in support of the Israeli occupation, is disgusted by the veto cast by Russia on a resolution condemning the Syrian regime. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who imprisons Palestinians under a 45-year wall of occupation, sheds tears over human rights in Syria.

»


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