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Report: Mashaal to visit Jordan with Qatar emir
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency January 24, 2012 - 1:00am AMMAN (Ma'an) -- Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal will visit Jordan on Sunday with the Emir of Qatar, a Jordanian official said Tuesday. "King Abdullah (II of Jordan) will host Crown Prince of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Tamim al-Thani and Mashaal to express brotherly relations," information minister Rakan al-Majali told AFP. The official Qatari news agency said that Mashaal spoke with the emir on Tuesday to update him on recent Palestinian developments. |
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US: New UN council no more favorable to Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency by Patrick Worsnip - January 24, 2012 - 1:00am NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Security Council dynamics are no more favorable now to a Palestinian UN membership bid than they were last year despite a partial change in the council makeup, the US ambassador to the United Nations said on Monday. In the teeth of strong opposition from the United States and Israel, the Palestinian delegation applied to the council last September for UN membership. But a committee to consider the application failed to reach consensus, and the Palestinians have not so far requested a formal vote in the council. |
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Israel orders 6 months jail without charge for PLC speaker
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency January 24, 2012 - 1:00am RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- An Israeli military court on Tuesday ordered the detention of Palestinian parliamentary speaker Aziz Dweik for six months without charge. Dweik, who was seized by Israeli forces at a Ramallah checkpoint on Thursday, heads the Palestinian Legislative Council. His lawyer Fadi Qawasmi said Ofer military court gave the administrative detention order early Tuesday, after a Sunday hearing was postponed. |
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Israeli soldiers arrest Hamas lawmaker in West Bank, fifth such arrest in as many days
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press January 23, 2012 - 1:00am RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli troops detained a Hamas legislator in the West Bank early Tuesday in the fifth such arrest in as many days, the Islamic militant group said. Hamas has accused Israel of trying to sabotage possible Palestinian elections, the centerpiece of reconciliation attempts between Hamas and the rival Fatah movement of internationally backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas has said it would only participate in elections, tentatively set for late spring, if its candidates are safe from arrest by Israel. |
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Israeli Police Arrest 2 Palestinian Legislators in East Jerusalem Protest
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - January 23, 2012 - 1:00am JERUSALEM — Israel arrested two Palestinian legislators affiliated with Hamas as they staged a protest in the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in East Jerusalem on Monday, an act criticized by the Palestinian leadership as a blow to the first direct meetings between the Israeli and Palestinian sides in more than a year now under way in Jordan. |
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The writing has always been on the wall
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Sam Bahour - (Opinion) January 23, 2012 - 1:00am The human body is an amazing creation. It's not only the most complex system known to mankind, but it embodies within it signals that tell its owner that something has gone wrong. A similar signaling system exists in political bodies. Those tasked with reading the signals--be they individuals, physicians or politicians--can choose to consciously ignore the warning signs. |
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The two-state solution will not disappear
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Shlomo Avineri - (Opinion) January 23, 2012 - 1:00am As the English political theorist Lord Acton is frequently quoted as saying, "It is difficult to prophesy, especially about the future." Yet with meaningful Israeli-Palestinian negotiations currently stymied, it is legitimate to ask if the two-state solution may not become, at some point in the future, irrelevant. My answer, though, is that even as time passes without visible progress towards it, the two-state solution nevertheless may not disappear. It is the only game in town. |
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Nothing to stop it from disappearing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) January 23, 2012 - 1:00am With the passing of time, discussion over the permanence of the two-state solution is increasing among Palestinians and, to a lesser extent, Israelis and others involved. Although the official line of both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority is that the two-state solution is the path of peace, a lot of changes are introducing serious question marks about its prospects. |
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A comprehensive solution is not feasible
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) January 23, 2012 - 1:00am As an agreed outcome to the conflict, the two-state solution has not been a genuine option for very long. The Palestine Liberation Organization could conceivably be said to have accepted it back in the late 1980s, but only about a decade has passed since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President George W. Bush became the first Israeli and American leaders, respectively, to officially embrace it. Older solutions, such as one state and a variety of schemes involving Jordan, actually have much more "seniority". |