Why Unilateralism Won't Work
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) May 31, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently warned that if negotiations with the Palestinians do not yield results soon, Israel might consider "unilateral measures" in the occupied West Bank. He didn't specify what those might be, but several others have suggested that Israel create “temporary” or “provisional” unilaterally-imposed new borders in the territory. This idea is simple, superficially appealing and profoundly dangerous. 

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What You Need to Know About Unilateralism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Emily L. Hauser - (Opinion) May 31, 2012 - 12:00am

In a speech at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak floated the idea, as if it were a new one, that if two-state negotiations with the Palestinians fail, Israel “must consider an interim arrangement or even a unilateral move."

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Why Unilateralism Won't Work
In Print by Hussein Ibish - The Daily Beast (Opinion) - May 31, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently warned that if negotiations with the Palestinians do not yield results soon, Israel might consider "unilateral measures" in the occupied West Bank. He didn't specify what those might be, but several others have suggested that Israel create “temporary” or “provisional” unilaterally-imposed new borders in the territory. This idea is simple, superficially appealing and profoundly dangerous.

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Israel to return 91 bodies on Thursday
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 30, 2012 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority civil affairs minister said late Tuesday that Israel will return the bodies of 91 Palestinians buried in an Israeli cemetery on Thursday. Hussein al-Sheikh released a list of names agreed with Israel, whose remains will now be handed to the PA in what the minister described as the first stage of the return of 100 Palestinians. The hand-over of Palestinian remains was promised on May 14 by Ofir Gendelman, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as a "gesture" to President Mahmoud Abbas.

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Going Directly to Israelis and Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Shlomo Ben-Ami, Thomas C. Schelling, Jerome M. Segal, Javier Solana - (Opinion) May 30, 2012 - 12:00am

With no prospect of meaningful negotiations between the Palestinians and the Netanyahu government, a new approach to peace is needed, one that focuses on the Israeli and Palestinian people themselves. Though not a perfect analogy, let’s call it UNSCOP-2 because the work of UNSCOP, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine, in 1947, is the closest precedent for what is needed today.

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Going Directly To the Wastebasket: Another Plan for the “Peace Process”
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Council On Foreign Relations
by Elliott Abrams - (Analysis) May 30, 2012 - 12:00am

Some “peace processors” never give up. In the New York Times today, four of them try an old and very bad idea: forget about negotiations, and substitute the views of some un-elected elderly “statesmen” and of the UN Security Council.

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Israeli PM calls on Palestinians to "give peace a chance"
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
May 30, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said he would like to restart the peace negotiations with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), but only if there is an answer from the Palestinian side. Speaking at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Netanyahu blamed the PNA for the breakdown of negotiations and said that in spite of Israel's approach, peace is not "always reciprocated."

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Outsiders won’t decide Mideast realities
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Daniel Kurtzer - (Opinion) May 25, 2012 - 12:00am

“Revolutions revolve 360 degrees,” wrote the late Middle East economic historian Charles Issawi. What we didn’t know yesterday about Middle East revolutions – and we didn’t know a great deal – becomes less relevant as the days fly by, for these revolutions, like all others that preceded them, are works in progress, changing constantly.

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Palestinian Attitudes Toward Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Michael Sharnoff - (Blog) May 24, 2012 - 12:00am

As the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East enter into their second year, how have these unprecedented events impacted Palestinian attitudes toward Israel? Will Palestinians be emboldened to mimic these revolts and collectively decide to embark on another intifada? Will they continue to pursue unilateral efforts to declare statehood in the United Nations? Or will they use a diplomatic approach and reach a negotiated settlement with Israel?

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Palestine Good Enough
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Kathleen Peratis - (Opinion) May 22, 2012 - 12:00am

Two-State-Solution activists have not given up on their faith-based belief that Obama will do in a second term what he has not done in his first: insert America aggressively, relentlessly and successfully into the (so-called) peace process and not allow Israeli and the Palestinians negotiators to leave the room without a full and final peace agreement.  They have not entirely given up hope that Obama may yet do so in what remains of his first term.

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