January 26th, 2012

EU still sees chance for Israel-Palestinian talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Dale Gavlak - January 26, 2012 - 1:00am

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — A low-level dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians is not at a dead end, the European Union's foreign policy chief said Thursday, hoping that contacts to get "real negotiations under way" will continue. "I don't think there's an impasse," Ashton told reporters following talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Jordanian capital. Her remarks come a day after Abbas said informal talks between Israelis and Palestinians about the border of a future Palestinian state ended without any breakthrough.

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Palestinians and Israelis Don’t Agree on New Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - January 25, 2012 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said Wednesday that a round of exploratory discussions with Israel under Jordanian auspices had ended. But he left open the possibility of a resumption of contacts under certain conditions and after consultations with Arab League representatives on Feb. 4. Jordan played host to five meetings this month between Israeli and Palestinian envoys as part of an international effort to get the sides back to formal peace negotiations after a break of more than a year.

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January 25th

NEWS: EU foreign policy chief Ashton says Israel and the Palestinians should keep talking. Jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti says Palestinian strategy should be based on national unity, non-violent resistance and negotiations with Israel. Pres. Abbas says the Amman talks are not yielding progress and Palestinians say they may end the talks after the next round. The last session was reportedly contentious. The Palestinian election commission opens offices in Gaza. The US announces a 3-year extension of loan guarantees for Israel. Reports in the Arab media suggest Jordan may be considering sanctions against Israel. Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood officials say they will not meet with Israeli representatives. PA tax hikes meet with vocal Palestinian opposition. COMMENTARY: Zvi Bar'el says Israel's highest court mustn't be a plaything in the service of the settler movement. Bradley Burston says Jewish Americans, including those in Hollywood, need to see Israelis as normal people. Moshe Ronen says Israel would be wrong to silence outspoken Palestinian MK Zoabi. Uriel Heilman asks why some Jewish Americans dislike Pres. Obama so much. Stuart Reigeluth and Dimitris Bouris say Europe should be much more assertive in opposing Israeli settlements. Ibrahim Sharqieh says the US should abandon its policy of seeking Palestinian statehood only through negotiations. Linda Heard says the international community cannot continue to turn a blind eye to Israel's discriminatory practices. Michael Sharnoff says the Arab Peace Initiative should be the basis for new diplomatic progress. The Oman Tribune says Palestinians would be justified in walking out of the current round of negotiations. Wayne Barrett asks if massive donations from a pro-settler billionaire explain the apparently sudden transformation of Newt Gingrich's attitudes on Israel and the Palestinians.

Reexamining the Arab Peace Initiative
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Michael Sharnoff - (Opinion) January 25, 2012 - 1:00am

The series of direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians which began in Amman on January 3 are scheduled to end on January 26. While the Middle East Quartet may extend this deadline to continue negotiations, it appears this would have little effect in formulating any comprehensive agreement. Neither side genuinely believes a breakthrough will occur. The PLO has threatened that if Israel does not halt all settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, it would not only abandon diplomacy, but it would pursue "harsh" unilateral measures to gain statehood and recognition.

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Walkout is Justified
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Oman Tribune
(Editorial) January 25, 2012 - 1:00am

Palestinians have threatened to cut off exploratory talks with Israel as construction of settlements on their occupied lands continues unabated. Walking away from the dialogue table by January 26 in Amman will be a forced move by Palestinians who don’t see these talks, being held in the presence of the Peace Quartet (United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia), going anywhere. The main hurdle in this direction, as the Palestinian negotiators have repeated time and again, is Israel’s refusal to freeze settlement activity in areas under occupation.

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Is Gingrich’s Hard Line on Palestine Paid for by Sheldon Adelson?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Wayne Barrett - (Analysis) January 25, 2012 - 1:00am

The linkage between campaign contributions and compromised candidates has grown so familiar that it no longer shocks, and indeed rarely even interests, most of us. But in the super-PAC era, when a single, $5 million, donation can resuscitate a broken Newt Gingrich, the search for a quid pro quo explanation expands with the enlarged dimensions of the donation. In the case of Las Vegas casino king Sheldon Adelson, Gingrich’s Daddy Warbucks, the size of the subsidy can literally shape a candidate’s views on matters of war and peace, and I’m not talking about a battle for gaming rights.

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Israel should be the last to practice racism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Linda Heard - (Opinion) January 24, 2012 - 1:00am

A large chunk of my childhood and early youth was spent in a predominantly Jewish area of London called Stamford Hill. It was pure chance that upon relocating to the English capital, my parents found a small apartment to their liking in that part of town. Our landlord and neighbors were Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe. My school friends came from European and Indian Jewish stock. My mother bought seed-encrusted loaves from a Jewish bakery Grodzinky's and salt beef sandwiches from our local Jewish deli.

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Palestine is nearly here, deal with it
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Ibrahim Sharqieh - (Opinion) January 25, 2012 - 1:00am

Jan. 26 will mark the three-month deadline for Palestinians and Israelis to submit their opening positions on mutual borders and security. The deadline was set by the international Quartet – the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia. It followed the decision last September of a frustrated Palestinian Authority to pursue independent statehood through the United Nations, after 18 years of futile negotiations with Israel.

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Palestinian Tax Hike Riles Business, Unions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Mohammed Daraghmeh, Karin Laub - January 25, 2012 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank—Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has sparked a furor with a push to get Palestinians to pay more taxes and reduce reliance on the massive foreign aid that has kept their self-rule government afloat for a generation. Long accustomed to minimal taxes, the most powerful groups in the West Bank -- private business, the civil servants' union and the main political party, Fatah -- are fighting back, including with threats of labor strikes.

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Europe should call Israel's bluff
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Dimitris Bouris, Stuart Reigeluth - (Opinion) January 25, 2012 - 1:00am

The figures say it all. Over 1,200 Jewish colonists occupied outposts in the West Bank in 1972; in 2012, over 300,000 live in fortress-like colonies on hilltops overlooking the Jordan Valley, excluding the illegal colonies and gradual annexation of occupied east Jerusalem. This exponential growth of Jewish colonies has taken place mostly in Area C of the West Bank. There are now twice as many illegal colonists in Area C as there are Palestinians, who have diminished in number due to lack of access to water, building permits, and the occupation itself.

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