April 5th

Returning to our references
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) April 4, 2011 - 12:00am


Palestinians look at the approaching September deadline as a very critical and decisive crossroads. It is the end of the one-year time-frame for the bilateral negotiations that started upon the initiative of the United States last September. It is also the end of the two-year plan of the Palestinian government for achieving national readiness for statehood.


Israel Indicts Gaza Man on Terror-Linked Counts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - April 4, 2011 - 12:00am


Israel on Monday handed down an indictment against Dirar Abu Sisi, the Gaza engineer who vanished from a train in Ukraine in mid-February, then surfaced in an Israeli prison. He stands accused of developing rockets and missiles on behalf of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, for use against Israeli civilians and soldiers. In a rare public appearance in court last week, Mr. Sisi, 42, told reporters that he had been kidnapped “for no reason.” His relatives, who said they believed that he had been snatched by Mossad agents, insisted that his arrest was a mistake.


Returning to our references
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) April 4, 2011 - 12:00am


Palestinians look at the approaching September deadline as a very critical and decisive crossroads. It is the end of the one-year time-frame for the bilateral negotiations that started upon the initiative of the United States last September. It is also the end of the two-year plan of the Palestinian government for achieving national readiness for statehood.


The wages of Palestinian ambiguity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) April 4, 2011 - 12:00am


"I'll speak in vague sentences," stated Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last week at a meeting in Ramallah when asked to discuss Palestinian plans for the period beginning September 2011. That is when the United Nations General Assembly reconvenes, with a request to recognize a Palestinian state probably high on its agenda.


Prominent Israelis Will Propose a Peace Plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - April 4, 2011 - 12:00am


A group of prominent Israelis, including former heads of Mossad, Shin Bet and the military, are this week putting forth an initiative for peace with the Arab world that they hope will generate popular support and influence their government as it faces international pressure to move peace talks forward.


April 4th

Arabs yearn to move on
In Print by Hussein Ibish - Bitterlemons (Blog) - April 30, 2011 - 12:00am

Probably the most important clause in the Arab Peace Initiative, first adopted by the Arab League at the Beirut summit in 2002 and reaffirmed on several occasions including in 2007, is its commitment to "establish normal relations with Israel in the context of [a] comprehensive peace." This represented the culmination of decades of evolution of Arab thinking regarding relations with Israel, and the final repudiation of the Khartoum resolution of 1967, which insisted the Arabs would have "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it".


Israelis are concerned the UN may move to recognize Palestine this year. Hamas says it will seek revenge for the killing of three of its cadres in an Israeli airstrike. Judge Goldstone reconsiders his report on the Gaza war. Israel welcomes his statement, but Palestinians say he caved under pressure. An Israeli commander calls the death of Rachel Corrie “an accident.” The UN says the Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes continues to increase. The first woman leader of a Palestinian political party is elected. Israel tells its citizens to leave the Sinai. Israel launches a counter-cyber terrorism unit. Ha’aretz says another Gaza war is getting closer, and looks at PM Fayyad’s Land Day state-building activities. The Israeli government approves more West Bank settlement expansion. The Israeli military says it will have to do more real-time documenting of its activities. An Israeli university report says there is a danger of it turning into a religious state. Gaza militants declare their “truce” with Israel over. Aluf Benn says whatever his re-considerations, the Goldstone Report has changed Israel’s behavior. The National says Goldstone has not cleared Israel of civilian deaths. Tony Karon says Pres. Obama’s multilateral Libya policy has serious implications for Israel. Hussein Ibish says all parties stand to gain from normalization between the Arab states and Israel in the context of a two-state solution.

PM green lights West Bank settlement expansion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yair Altman - April 4, 2011 - 12:00am


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, it what seems to be a move inspired by right-wing pressures, agreed Sunday on a new zoning plan for the West Bank settlement of Nofim. The rare move effectively enables further developments of the settlement. Meanwhile, President Shimon Peres is expected to meet with US president Barack Obama later this week in Washington. So far the defense minister and other senior officials have abstained from altering the sensitive status-quo surrounding the settlements.


PA: Goldstone caved under pressure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Elior Levy - April 3, 2011 - 12:00am


While Israel is overjoyed with Richard Goldstone's change of heart vis-à-vis the report that blamed the Jewish State of committing war crimes during the Gaza war, the Palestinian Authority is furious at the South African judge. In a press release published on Sunday, Nabil Abu Rodeina, the spokesperson to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said that Goldstone's comments "do not change the fact that Israel committed a massacre and war crimes in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, leaving more than 1,500 Palestinians dead."


Fayyad's road to freedom runs over Israeli law
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - April 4, 2011 - 12:00am


If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? A bulldozer destroys a cistern, with only a shepherd nearby. Is the grinding sound of cement being crushed that is heard by the driver considered a sound? A bulldozer destroys another cistern, with only Palestinian residents of the South Hebron Hills nearby and few lefties from Ta'ayush, an Arab-Jewish anti-occupation group. cooperative Israeli-Palestinian association. Has there even been a demolition, if the sound hasn't reached The New York Times?



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