Palestinian Authority

Hamas’ many-splendored contradictions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) August 10, 2010 - 12:00am

Hamas was in the news last week, accused by Egypt of having been behind the rocket attacks from the Sinai against the Israeli town of Eilat and the Jordanian town of Aqaba. This, once again, told us something about the paradoxes of the Islamist group.

Proximity talks have their uses
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) July 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Later this week, the Arab League will decide whether to recommend that the PLO move from proximity to direct talks in its negotiations with the Netanyahu government. The American-led Quartet and the moderate Arab states are reportedly pressuring President Mahmoud Abbas to request precisely such a recommendation. This, then, is a good opportunity to reflect on the advantages of US-brokered proximity talks as opposed to direct talks in the Israeli-Palestinian context.

A PALESTINIAN VIEW: The price of indirect talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Mkhaimar Abusada - May 10, 2010 - 12:00am

The PLO Executive Committee's decision to approve so-called proximity talks between the Palestinians and Israelis marked a shift in Palestinian politics. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had previously stated that there would be no talks with Israel until it halts all settlement expansion, including in East Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, has not veered from his vow that building in Jerusalem is just like building in Tel Aviv.

The Nation: A Visit With Salam Fayyad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Nation
by Letty Cottin Pogrebin - April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

Before I arrived in Israel a few weeks ago, I'd read that Israeli President Shimon Peres had likened Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, to David Ben-Gurion, Israel's George Washington. So I was intrigued when, on my first night in Jerusalem, the conversation at my Israeli friends' Sabbath table was about the impressive speech Fayyad had delivered to the princes of Israel's security establishment at the recent Herzliya conference.

Armistice Now: An Interim Agreement for Israel and Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Affairs
by Ehud Yaari - (Opinion) March 5, 2010 - 1:00am

More than 16 years after the euphoria of the Oslo accords, the Israelis and the Palestinians have still not reached a final-status peace agreement. Indeed, the last decade has been dominated by setbacks -- the second intifada, which started in September 2000; Hamas' victory in the January 2006 Palestinian legislative elections; and then its military takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 -- all of which have aggravated the conflict.

'Fayyad is inciting violence'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz, Tovah Lazaroff - March 3, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestinian Authority officials headed by Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad, are inciting anti-Israel violence in the West Bank, defense officials charged on Sunday as violent demonstrations spread from Hebron to Jerusalem’s Old City. Four policemen and a number of protesters were hurt in clashes around the Temple Mount on Sunday and seven Arabs were arrested.

A real plan to build Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) February 2, 2010 - 1:00am

Two weeks ago the Palestinian Authority issued a detailed budget for the state and institution-building programme it adopted last August. The programme calls for Palestinians to unilaterally build the administrative, economic and institutional framework of an independent state in spite of the Israeli occupation and as a peaceful, constructive means of countering it.

Major New Palestinian State and Institution Building Document Issued
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - January 26, 2010 - 1:00am

The Ministries of Finance and Planning and Administrative Development of the Palestinian National Authority (PA) have issued a major new document pertaining to the state and institution building program of the Thirteenth Palestinian Government that was adopted in August, 2009.

Israel's Step Back From Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Saeb Erakat - March 28, 2009 - 12:00am

Emphasizing diplomacy and engagement over isolation and confrontation, President Obama has spoken eloquently of a new era of American leadership. Of the changes he has promised, the most important to Palestinians is his commitment to reinvigorating the Middle East peace process.

A Waltz With the Dogs of Memory
In Print by Hussein Ibish - The Nation - February 24, 2009 - 1:00am

Initial reaction to the surprising failure of the Israeli film Waltz with Bashir to win this year's Academy Award for best foreign-language picture has suggested that it confronts harsh truths and painful realities, especially about Israel, too unflinchingly for the Hollywood mainstream to embrace. As a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz put it, this year's Oscars demonstrated that "Hollywood knows exactly how it likes its Jews: Victims." Waltz with Bashir obviously provides little to feed that narrative.

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