Ambassador Maen Rashid Areikat: For a more constructive Congress on Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Hill
by Maen Areikat - (Opinion) May 14, 2012 - 12:00am

The past few weeks have seen interesting statements by several former and current Israeli officials criticizing the policies of their government. They particularly focused on Israel’s failure to engage in talks with the Palestinians to end the conflict.

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PLO officials: Netanyahu letter on peace a non-starter
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Ali Sawafta - May 14, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Reuters) -- The formal response of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Palestinian grievances over frozen peace negotiations contains nothing that could revive the talks, Palestinian officials said on Sunday. Netanyahu's reply on Saturday to a letter he received last month from Mahmoud Abbas rejected the Palestinian president's demand to halt Jewish settlement building in occupied territories and repeated a call for an unconditional return to talks that collapsed in 2010, according to the officials.

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Sadly, nothing left to talk about
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) May 14, 2012 - 12:00am

A few weeks ago, after much soul-searching, I reluctantly accepted an invitation to a meeting about the peace process with Palestinian colleagues, held under the auspices of a veteran third-party convener who is truly dedicated to the cause of Israeli-Palestinian understanding and reconciliation. I have been turning down such invitations regularly for several years now, ever since concluding that the meetings had become pointless and were not worth the price I would pay in pure frustration.

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Clinton to Netanyahu: Use unity cabinet to advance Mideast peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - May 11, 2012 - 12:00am

Washington hopes the new, expanded coalition will enable Israel to take steps to advance peace talks with the Palestinians, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a phone call to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday. Over the past few years, Netanyahu has repeatedly claimed that he couldn't make certain gestures toward the Palestinians for fear that it would topple his government, which relied on smaller parties to his right.

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'The Palestinians Can Wait'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Alex Fishman - (Opinion) May 7, 2012 - 12:00am

The coordinator of government activities in the Palestinian territories, Brigadier-General Eitan Dangot, has asked that the government approve an additional 5,000 permits for Palestinian laborers to enter Israel. That’s good for everyone. Politically, it’s good for Israel. Economically, it’s good for the Palestinian Authority. From a security perspective, it’s not a problem.

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The low bar for peace in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Miami Herald
by Frida Ghitis - (Opinion) April 26, 2012 - 12:00am

After months of having no top-level contacts, Israelis and Palestinians had planned a symbolic event. At the end of Passover, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad would visit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Fayyad, the plan went, would come bearing a letter from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The letter would restate the Palestinian demand that Israel cease all settlement activity as a pre-requisite for talks. Nothing new, but a little movement. The bar could not go much lower.

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The European Union and the peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Uri Savir - (Opinion) April 26, 2012 - 12:00am

Who would have believed only 65 years ago that the main international support in last week’s French presidential election President Nicolas Sarkozy – Charles de Gaulle’s successor – would be the chancellor of Germany? For centuries war and antagonism characterized Franco-German relationships, coming to a climax with the Nazi occupation of Paris. And yet there is probably not a single Frenchman or German who believes that war between these former foes is realistic in the foreseeable or distant future.

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Peres to Haaretz: Israel could reach a peace deal with Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yossi Verter - April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is a worthy and serious partner, and it was certainly possible to reach a peace agreement with him during the past three years, President Shimon Peres told Haaretz. "I am aware that there are other opinions [about whether Abbas can or wants to make peace], but I don't accept them, and I have a little experience," Peres said during an interview last week in the President's Residence in Jerusalem.

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The Israeli government's badge of shame
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

The behavior of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and most of his ministers with regard to Beit El's Givat Ha'ulpana neighborhood recalls that of a career criminal who is undaunted by condemnation or punishment.

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Peace Without Partners
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ami Ayalon, Orni Petruschka, Gilead Sher - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

FOR three years, attempts at negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian leadership have failed because of a lack of trust. It now seems highly unlikely that the two sides will return to negotiations — but that does not mean the status quo must be frozen in place. Israel doesn’t need to wait for a final-status deal with the Palestinians. What it needs is a radically new unilateral approach: It should set the conditions for a territorial compromise based on the principle of two states for two peoples, which is essential for Israel’s future as both a Jewish and a democratic state.

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