Peace must begin with the plight of Palestine's refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Karen Koning Abuzayd - (Opinion) December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

Sixty years ago today the United Nations general assembly voted into existence a temporary body known as UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. UNRWA's task was to deal with the humanitarian consequences of the dispossession of some three-quarters of a million Palestine refugees forced by the 1948 Middle East war to abandon their homes and flee their ancestral lands. Just two decades later, the six-day war generated another spasm of violence and forced displacement, culminating in the occupation of Palestinian territory.

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The Pragmatist
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Tablet Magazine
by Michael Weiss - December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

The Palestinian prime minister, Salam Fayyad, was sharing his vision for the future. “The key requirement for a Palestinian state,” he began, speaking on a cellular telephone from his office in Ramallah. Then the line went dead, a dropped call. “You’ll have to excuse,” he said when he rang back. “We have a lot of competing cellular networks here, and sometimes our signals get crossed.”

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West Bank settlers block freeze-order officials
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Omar Karmi - December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

Hundreds of settlers yesterday blocked the entrances to two settlements in the occupied West Bank to prevent Israeli government inspectors from serving construction freeze orders in line with a government order issued in late November.

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Abbas urges peace in Sleiman talks, offers camps cooperation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stressed Monday Lebanon’s full authority and sovereignty over all Palestinian refugees camps while underscoring that the refugees’ presence was temporary, until a comprehensive peace solution was reached. “There are no legions under the command of the Palestinian authority in refugee camps and we would cooperate with the Lebanese state to the extent the latter allows, since the camps are Lebanese territories upon which the Palestinians live; thus Lebanon has full sovereignty over them,” Abbas said Monday, following his meeting with President Michel Sleiman.

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Israel's Settlement Freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Michael B. Oren - (Opinion) December 7, 2009 - 1:00am

Distracted by the crucial debate over Afghanistan, many Americans may have missed a pivotal event in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. On Nov. 25, Israel's government announced a 10-month construction freeze in Judea and Samaria—the areas generally known as the West Bank. Though some projects already begun will be completed and essential public buildings like medical clinics and schools will be approved, no new housing permits will be issued.

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Settlers protest Netanyahu plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - (Analysis) December 4, 2009 - 1:00am

Mayor Malachi Levinger does not consider himself a lawbreaker, but when Israeli building inspectors arrived in his West Bank town Tuesday to check for compliance with a newly imposed moratorium on construction in Jewish settlements, he and several dozen local residents blocked their path to ensure that work continued.

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Needed for Mideast peace: a sense of urgency
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Martin Indyk - (Opinion) December 4, 2009 - 1:00am

How can President Obama drag the Middle East peace wagon out of the mud? He can't -- at least not until the region's leaders feel enough of a sense of urgency to take the risks necessary to achieve breakthroughs. Right now, Arab and Israeli leaders are convinced that Obama is in more of a hurry than they are, so they are content to have him do the heavy lifting.

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Palestinians ought to seize the moment
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Patrick Seale - (Opinion) December 4, 2009 - 1:00am

Israel's 10-month partial freeze on new colony building in occupied Palestinian territory, as announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on November 25, has been rejected by the Palestinians as a basis for peace negotiations. They want a total freeze. This is the stated position of Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority, and of his chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat. It must be hoped that this is not their last word.

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In Israel, sentiment mixed on negotiations for Gilad Shalit release
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - December 4, 2009 - 1:00am

Yossi Zur's son was on his way back from school on a March day in 2003. But Asaf, then 16, never made it home. The Haifa city bus he was on was blown up by a Hamas suicide bomber, in an attack that killed 17 people and wounded 53.

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The fruits of chronic mistakes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ziad Abu Zayyad - (Opinion) December 4, 2009 - 1:00am

When Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced his two-year plan for building the institutions of a Palestinian state, in August, it was received warmly and favorably in international forums. They viewed it as the first serious institution-building blueprint, one that could pave the way to a declaration of the political independence of a Palestinian state. It was assumed at the time that, while creation of the institutions proceeded, the negotiation process would be put to the test under the new American administration.

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