In Abandoning the Labor Party, Barak Solidifies Coalition With Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward
by Nathan Jeffay - January 26, 2011 - 1:00am


Most See Barak’s Formation of a New Party, Ha’atzmaut, as a Temporary Move To Ensure His Political Survival Overnight, he went from leader of Israel’s most illustrious left-wing party to an appendage of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. What next for Ehud Barak? Since his January 17 break with Israel’s Labor Party — taking that once mighty, now shriveled faction down yet one more peg by his departure — the retired general and former prime minister is voicing high hopes for the new party he has founded with fellow Labor Party defectors.


Hamas withdraws authorization of Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
January 26, 2011 - 1:00am


Hamas on Tuesday withdrew its authorization of President Mahmoud Abbas as the head of negotiations. Hamas official Khalil Al-Hayya said Abbas' mandate was not valid without the party's recognition. He also dismissed the PA's claim that it negotiated on behalf of Palestinians. Hamas does not participate in talks with Israel. The move follows the release of secret PLO documents covering a decade of negotiations with Israel, leaked to the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera.


The Palestine Papers expose an Israeli-dominated process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) January 26, 2011 - 1:00am


The Palestine Papers being published this week by Al-Jazeera TV and The Guardian newspaper provide many important and, often problematic, insights into several key aspects of the long-running Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to achieve a comprehensive, permanent peace agreement. Reading through the entire archive of over 1,600 documents, however, as I had a chance to do at the Al-Jazeera offices in Doha, Qatar, this week, provides a useful overview of, and insights into, the three principal actors in the process: the Palestinian Authority, the Israeli government, and American officials.


What should we take away from the ‘Palestine Papers’?
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In PBS - January 26, 2011 - 1:00am

In recent months, peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians have been fitful, to say the least. There was reason for hope when President Obama took office two years ago promising a recalculation of American foreign policy. By the time his administration restarted the negotiations in September, however, veterans of the peace process were skeptical that progress could be made. Now, just four months later, even the most optimistic observers have reason to be despondent.


What should we take away from the ‘Palestine Papers’?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from PBS
by Sal Gentile - (Opinion) January 25, 2011 - 1:00am


In recent months, peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians have been fitful, to say the least. There was reason for hope when President Obama took office two years ago promising a recalculation of American foreign policy. By the time his administration restarted the negotiations in September, however, veterans of the peace process were skeptical that progress could be made. Now, just four months later, even the most optimistic observers have reason to be despondent.


Death by a thousand leaks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) January 26, 2011 - 1:00am


Somebody up there must really hate the Arab-Israeli peace process. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, that the odds against serious negotiations couldn't get any longer and the hope for a two-state solution couldn't be more forlorn, we now have the Palestinian version of WikiLeaks.


A Palestinian View: International legality is not up for a vote
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Blog) January 17, 2011 - 1:00am


The prospect of posing a referendum in the respective societies on any agreement reached between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators is not a new idea. Periodically it has surfaced in the political landscape, arising for different and sometimes contradictory reasons.


Good News From the Middle East (Really)
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Jeffrey Goldberg, Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) January 25, 2011 - 1:00am


IT has lately become the accepted wisdom that the Middle East peace process is dead, finished, kaput. This belief has been reinforced by Al Jazeera’s release this week of some 1,600 documents that are said to describe the inside workings of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 2008.



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