Israel, Palestinians to Hold Further Talks Saturday
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
January 13, 2012 - 1:00am

* Will be third round of exploratory face-to-face talks * Negotiations frozen 15 months ago over Jewish settlements JERUSALEM, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Israelis and Palestinians will hold their third round of face-to-face meetings this year on Saturday in what diplomats hope might lead to the resumption of full peace talks, sources on each side said on Friday. The exploratory discussions began on Jan. 3 and followed a long break in negotiations after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended talks 15 months ago over Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

»

Abbas on Diplomacy Tour of Europe
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
January 13, 2012 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas will travel to Britain, Germany and Russia next week, presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said on Thursday. Abbas will meet with British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during the tour, Rdainah told official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa. Rdainah emphasized that the three countries are members of the UN Security Council, indicating that diplomacy around the stalled bid for UN membership may be ongoing.

»

Clinton Asks Abbas to Extend Quartet’s Deadline for Talks Resumption: Palestinian Official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
January 12, 2012 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH -- U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton asked Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to extend the deadline of Jan. 26 set by the Quartet to resume peace negotiations, a Fatah official said Thursday. "Clinton asked Abbas last night not to stop the Jordanian-hosted talks after the Quartet's deadline," member of Fatah Central Committee Azzam Al-Ahmad told reporters in Ramallah. Al-Ahmad added that Clinton has pledged that her country would continue to exert more efforts in order to achieve peace between Palestinians and Israelis in 2012.

»

Israel Must Stop Stalling on Peace Process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) January 12, 2012 - 1:00am

Just as with previous efforts to advance negotiations on a final-status agreement, the Jordanian attempt to breath new life into the diplomatic process has gotten hung up on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policy of dragging his feet. As Barak Ravid reported in yesterday's Haaretz in Hebrew, at this week's meeting in Amman with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, Israeli envoy Isaac Molho refused to present Israel's positions on borders and security.

»

Palestinians Insist on Israel Talks Deadline
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Tia Goldenberg - January 12, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Palestinian negotiators are sticking to an end of January deadline in talks with Israel despite U.S. calls for flexibility, a Palestinian official said Friday. The Palestinians say they want to hold Israel to a schedule that might pressure it to come forward with proposals, but the tight time frame could prevent the nascent talks from getting off the ground. Palestinian and Israeli negotiators met last week for the first time in more than a year, kicking off low-level contacts aimed at reviving formal peace negotiations.

»

West Bank: ‘Nothing New’ Offered by Israelis in Talks, Abbas Says
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
January 12, 2012 - 1:00am

Israel has made no new proposals in meetings with Palestinians about the possibility of resuming formal peace talks, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said Thursday. The sides have met twice in Jordan, and plan two more meetings. Mr. Abbas has said he will not resume negotiations unless Israel freezes settlement construction in the West Bank, a demand Israel rejects. He said Thursday that the low-level exploratory talks had not broken that impasse. “There is nothing new in the dialogue that is going on in Amman,” he said, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

»

Obama, Netayahu Talk After Peace Contacts Resume
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
January 12, 2012 - 1:00am

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed recent Israeli-Palestinian talks on Thursday as U.S. officials signaled that a January 26 target date for the two sides to exchange proposals could slide. Obama and Netanyahu, who have at times appeared out of sync on Middle East peace efforts, spoke after two rounds of diplomatic contacts between Israeli and Palestinian officials in Jordan's capital in recent weeks.

»

Israel should rein in its hardliners
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
(Editorial) January 11, 2012 - 1:00am

There seems to be an inherent tendency in Israel to ignore as much as to deny the rights of Palestinians. If anything, this tendency reflects a deeper policy conviction amongst Israeli officials — that Palestinians do not deserve what is lawfully theirs. And perhaps this stands as the real obstacle to attaining peace.

»

Differences within parties – not just between them
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Makovsky - (Opinion) January 11, 2012 - 1:00am

After 16 months of no negotiations, Israeli and Palestinian officials met in Amman last week and again this week. Yet, the question remains whether these talks represent a new opening or if they are merely a tactical instrument for each side to perpetuate recriminations?

»

Settlements Not an Obstacle to Peace? Get Serious
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Lara Friedman - (Opinion) January 11, 2012 - 1:00am

Today, Peace Now released a new report entitled "Torpedoing the Two State Solution -- The Strategy of the Netanyahu Government," detailing a number of trends in settlement expansion that directly, and it seems, deliberately, undermine the viability of the two-state solution.

»


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