Beyond a two-state solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from New Statesman
by Edward Platt - (Opinion) April 16, 2009 - 12:00am

When Binyamin Netanyahu finally announced the make-up of his coalition government on 30 March, two of the most important posts went to figures from opposing ends of the political spectrum – the Labour leader Ehud Barak retained his job as minister of defence, and the leader of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu (“Israeli Home”) party, Avigdor Lieberman, became foreign minister. Such a broad coalition, born of Israel’s system of proportional representation, will generate a stalemate in the domestic arena, and it is hard to see it making much progress in foreign affairs.

»

Candidly Speaking: Netanyahu & the two-state solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Isi Leibler - April 14, 2009 - 12:00am

When our government enters into formal discussions with Washington, it will be obliged to make decisions that may set the tone for its long-term relationship with the new administration. President Barack Obama has yet to fully show his hand, but his policy of engaging with jihadists is likely to encourage efforts to pressure Israel into additional unilateral concessions to the Arabs that will need to be vigorously resisted.

»

'Sounds worrying'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ahram
by Dina Ezzat - April 14, 2009 - 12:00am

Karen Abu Zayd is commissioner general of UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). Her job is to make sure that relief and human development are accessible to Palestinians under occupation, in Gaza, the West Bank and refugee camps scattered in countries neighbouring the occupied Palestinian territories. This mission is met through providing education, healthcare, social services and emergency aid to over 4.6 million refugees living in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab Republic.

»

Displaced Christians want pope to help them return
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
April 14, 2009 - 12:00am

Displaced during war decades ago, the Christians of Biram have never given up their dream of returning to this destroyed village in the hills of northern Israel. They still hold Easter rites, weddings and funerals in a stone church, the only building left standing. Now, they are pinning their hopes on Pope Benedict XVI, who is visiting the Holy Land in May. Biram's former residents and their descendants, some 3,000 Catholics altogether, are asking their spiritual leader to speak for them.

»

Hamas Calls on PA to Cut Security Ties with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - April 8, 2009 - 12:00am

Hamas urged the Palestinian Authority to halt all security coordination with Israel following Wednesday's clash between settlers and residents of the West Bank village of Khirbat Safa, near the Bat Ayin settlement. The violent riot saw 16 Palestinian suffer various injuries with one of the wounded said to be in critical condition.

»

Mapping the possible Netanyahu-Obama fault lines
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - (Analysis) April 7, 2009 - 12:00am

There are no fissures yet between the young Obama and Netanyahu administrations, but political geologists are mapping the fault lines. So far, two major potentials for quakes have emerged, both having to do with timing: One concerns the pace of negotiating Palestinian statehood; the other has to do with projections about when Iran's alleged nuclear program becomes irrevocably dangerous.

»

Build on Bush's Middle East progress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Robert Zelnick - March 4, 2009 - 1:00am

George W. Bush made his greatest Middle East mistake before becoming president. Had he embraced rather than disowned Bill Clinton's desperate efforts to secure an agreement, Israeli and Palestinian leaders might have gone the extra mile to accommodate the new administration. The tragedy of the second intifada might have been averted. The seizure of Gaza by Hamas might never have occurred.

»

Clinton meets Palestinian leaders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English
March 4, 2009 - 1:00am

Leaders of the Palestinian Authority have urged Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, to push Israel to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank and open the borders of the Gaza Strip. Clinton met Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and Salam Fayyad, the prime minister, on Wednesday in Ramallah, the administrative headquarters of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA). At the start of the talks Clinton reaffirmed Washington's commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

»

The Path of Realism or the Path of Failure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Weekly Standard
by Elliott Abrams - March 2, 2009 - 1:00am

Repetition of failed experiments is not a sign of mental health or a path to scientific progress, nor is it a formula for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Yet that is the road we may again take, unless the lessons of the Bush years are learned.

»

‘Israel misses the point’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by George S. Hishmeh - February 27, 2009 - 1:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu is not giving up, still hoping that he can entice Tzipi Livni and even Ehud Barak with key portfolios, should they accept to join his projected coalition government, or else, he must know fully well that his days as head of an Israeli government of extreme rightists will be numbered. Hence, the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations will remain at a standstill.

»


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