Abbas: Obama is being unclear
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - July 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday criticized US President Barack Obama for failing to provide him with clear answers to a number of questions regarding the future of peace talks with Israel. Abbas also confirmed that Obama has been exerting pressure on him to enter direct negotiations with Israel. Abbas was speaking during a closed meeting of members of the Fatah Revolutionary Council in Ramallah.

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The missing link in the peace process: Trust
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) July 22, 2010 - 12:00am

About the only thing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have in common these days is a conviction that the other is bluffing when he says he is ready to make peace. But so far neither has shown the courage to call the other’s bluff.

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U.S. official: Final status issues to be discussed only in direct Mideast peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya, Barak Ravid - July 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Final status issues, including the borders of a future Palestinian state, can only be addressed during direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, a top U.S. official said Wednesday. The comment by State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley came after reports surfaced earlier Wednesday, according to which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has vowed to resist U.S. pressure to open direct peace talks with Israel, unless he receives less "vague" guarantees on the issues of Israeli settlement construction and the borders of a future Palestinian state.

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Abbas signals will resist U.S. pressure for talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ali Sawafta - July 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has indicated he will resist U.S. pressure for face-to-face peace talks with Israel for now, saying indirect negotiations must make progress first. Abbas has said he wants the indirect negotiations to produce results on the issues of the security and borders of a future Palestinian state to be founded alongside Israel on land it occupied in 1967.

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Abbas signals will resist U.S. pressure for talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
July 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has indicated he will resist U.S. pressure for face-to-face peace talks with Israel for now, saying indirect negotiations must make progress first. Abbas has said he wants the indirect negotiations to produce results on the issues of the security and borders of a future Palestinian state to be founded alongside Israel on land it occupied in 1967.

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ATFP/APN Joint Event on Capitol Hill Urges Support for Peace
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - July 22, 2010 - 12:00am

A brown bag lunch for interns on Capitol Hill, held on July 21 at the Rayburn House office building by Americans for Peace Now (APN) and the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), urged a standing-room only audience to engage in advocacy on behalf of a two-state peace agreement in the Middle East. Hussein Ibish, Senior Fellow at ATFP, and Ori Nir, spokesman for APN, strongly agreed that a negotiated, two state agreement is the only real hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.


On and off, with nothing to show for
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) July 21, 2010 - 12:00am

US President Barack Obama has been issuing contradictory statements about the prospect for peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Once the US president assures Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that he is committed to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, then, after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he says the prospects for peace in the region appear slim. Some time before that, Obama had acknowledged that the search for peace in the Middle East is tantamount to walking among land-mines.

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Abbas: Specific US assurances on borders needed
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - July 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told his Fatah movement he wants a more specific U.S. commitment on the borders of a future Palestinian state before agreeing to direct talks with Israel, an adviser said Wednesday. Abbas told Fatah leaders in a closed-door meeting late Tuesday that President Barack Obama's assurances so far aren't clear enough. Obama has urged Abbas to resume direct talks that broke off in December 2008.

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Next two weeks decisive as Palestinians mull over direct talks with Israel: analysts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Omer Othmani, Osama Radi - July 20, 2010 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming two weeks would be decisive as the Palestinian leadership would hold a series of meetings to study the U.S. call for moving from the four-month proximity talks to direct talks with Israel, analysts said. Palestinian observers also expect that the U.S. would increase its pressure on the Palestinians and the Arab states to promote the peace process.

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Israel denies presenting Egypt with map of Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jack Khoury, Barak Ravid - July 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bureau on Tuesday firmly denied reports that the Israeli leader had presented Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak with a map delineating the borders of a future Palestinian state during their meeting in Cairo earlier this week. The London-based A-Sharq al-Awsat quoted an Israeli source as saying that the Egyptian president rejected the proposal as out of hand, and it did not meet the Arab League's demands for a state based on 1967 borders with negligible amendments.

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