Israel has a partner
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Shimon Shiffer - (Opinion) December 28, 2011 - 1:00am

Officials at the Prime Minister’s Office are again angry at Mahmoud Abbas. Did I say angry? I meant stunned. The Palestinian leader met in Turkey last week with Amna Muna, who was involved in the murder of teenager Ophir Rahum. “Those who make pretenses of making peace with Israel are going all the way to Turkey to meet a despicable murderer,” Netanyahu’s office charged. Well said.

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Palestinian Authority gives Mideast peacemakers an ultimatum
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Maher Abukhater - December 23, 2011 - 1:00am

REPORTING FROM BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK -– The Palestinian Authority on Thursday gave the so-called quartet of Middle East peace negotiators an ultimatum: It will resume its campaign for statehood recognition if there is no movement in the peace process in the next month. "If nothing happens by Jan. 26, we are going back to our international campaign for recognition," said Nabil Shaath, a senior official in the administration of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

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Netanyahu office 'shocked' as Abbas meets ex-prisoners
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 22, 2011 - 1:00am

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- An official in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office says he found it "shocking" to see President Mahmoud Abbas meet with certain released prisoners Wednesday in Turkey. Abbas met in Ankara with 11 ex-prisoners who were released by Israel in the prisoner swap, but the unnamed official was in particular shocked that Abbas met with Amna Muna, Israel's Ynet news site said. Muna was convicted in an Israeli court of luring a teenager to his death in 2001.

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Stalemate Marks Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process in 2011
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Voice of America
by Scott Bobb - (Opinion) December 20, 2011 - 1:00am

2011 was a year of stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. International mediators tried to revive direct peace talks amid political uncertainties caused by rifts in the Palestinian leadership and popular uprisings in several Arab nations. The Palestinian Authority, frustrated over the stalled peace talks, applied for full membership in the United Nations. Its case is pending, though it faces stiff U.S. opposition. But the Palestinians successfully gained admission to the United Nations cultural organization UNESCO, angering Israel and the United States.

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Encountering Peace: Normalizing anti-normalization
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) December 19, 2011 - 1:00am

The Al Quds al Arabi newspaper, published in London, gave voice to senior Fatah member Hatem Abdel Qader Eid from Jerusalem announcing that Fatah has decided to boycott and prevent all meetings between Palestinians and Israelis, official and non-official. Being one of the leading Israeli advocates of such meetings and someone who has organized more than 2,000 of them over the past 24 years, many people have asked my opinion of the move.

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Israel Frees Palestinians in 2nd Stage of Exchange
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - December 18, 2011 - 1:00am

Israel released about 550 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday night in the second half of a swap that freed one of its soldiers, Gilad Shalit, who had been held by Hamas in Gaza for more than five years. The prisoners left Ofer Prison in Israel by bus shortly after 10 p.m., with a dozen buses going to the West Bank and one to Gaza. Some prisoners were also going to East Jerusalem and Jordan.

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Second phase of prisoner swap underway
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 14, 2011 - 1:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – The Palestinian Prisoners' Society said Wednesday that the Israeli prison service has notified the detainees who will be released in the second phase of the prisoner swap deal. The society has released a list naming detainees it says will be freed. Israel released 477 prisoners on Oct. 18 and agreed to free an additional 550 detainees within two months in a captive exchange deal with Hamas to secure the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

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Where do we go when these non-negotiations end?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) December 12, 2011 - 1:00am

The Quartet negotiators plan to meet yet again with Israeli and Palestinian officials this week. They have in hand a Palestinian reply to their request for the two sides' positions on territory and security. They do not have an Israeli reply; the Netanyahu government insists that its demands on these two issues be delivered only in the course of direct negotiations. The Palestinians, for their part, insist there will be no direct negotiations until Israel ceases settlement construction.

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Israel's extremism is the reason
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) December 12, 2011 - 1:00am

The hard-line and extreme political position of the Israeli government, born from its right-wing composition, is creating immense contradictions between what this Israeli government can "accept" (and stay together) and what the international community seeking to restart the political process between Palestinians and Israelis expects. Israel has been solving this contradiction through evasion, doing whatever it takes to avoid any negotiations or engagement on matters of substance, especially if they involve a third party.

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Politics not ripe for Palestinian statehood bid - Fayyad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Taylor Luck - December 5, 2011 - 1:00am

AMMAN - Global and regional politics are not yet ripe for a Palestinian state, according to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, as leadership in Ramallah eyes a less than certain future. The Palestinian premier, a champion of institution-building as a path to statehood, said the current political conditions within Israel, the Palestinian territories and across the world are not favourable to lead to concrete steps towards a Palestinian state.

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