Israeli tactics are 'uniting' Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jonathan Cook - (Opinion) November 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, is in the United States this week, but few observers expect an immediate or significant breakthrough in the stalled peace talks with the Palestinian leadership. In public, Mr Netanyahu maintains he is committed to the pledge he made last year, shortly after he formed his right-wing government, to work towards the creation of a demilitarised Palestinian state.

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The Audacity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Hussein Shobokshi - (Opinion) November 9, 2010 - 1:00am

The international community lacks merit, honesty, objectivity and credibility, when it focuses its attention on the issue of Iran's nuclear program, and yet turns a blind eye to the alarming situation that is Israel's well-established nuclear activity. This issue must be a cause for concern, considering the fact that Israel has a dangerous record in occupying the lands of others, and in unlawfully assaulting the property of neighbouring and non-neighbouring states, in a flagrant violation of international laws and conventions.

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Israel's own citizens are the new target of extremist settlers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jesse Rosenfeld - November 9, 2010 - 1:00am

West Bank settlers entered the Arab city under the cover of an armed escort. As they proceeded, security forces chased Palestinian youth down alleys, firing tear gas, stun grenades and foam-covered bullets. Masked in keffiyahs, local high school students who had been striking against the settlers' provocations reorganised, throwing stones at the Israeli forces from behind makeshift barricades.

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Israel artists boycott new theater in settlement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Karin Laub - November 8, 2010 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — An artists' boycott of a $11 million performing arts center opening Monday in the Jewish settlement of Ariel is giving a new twist to a pressing question — where should Israel's permanent borders run? Leading Israeli playwrights, actors and artists say they will not cross the "Green Line" — Israel's frontier before it captured the West Bank in 1967 — to perform in the new theater in Ariel, an Israeli enclave of 19,000 people. The artists wrote in a letter explaining the boycott that Ariel was built in the heart of a war-won land to prevent creation of a Palestinian state.

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PLO official: Egypt, Palestinians stress to halt Jewish settlement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
November 8, 2010 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian leadership and Egypt have agreed that any initiative to push forward peace talks between Palestinians and Israel should base on halting Jewish settlement in the occupied lands, a Palestinian official said Monday. Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO) official, denied reports that Egypt's recent efforts could ignore the Palestinian demand on settlement freeze in the West Bank. Egypt "wants a solution to all final-status issues, and not to seek a partial one," Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine Radio.

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Erekat: PA will ask US to recognize state if talks fail
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
November 8, 2010 - 1:00am

The Palestinian Authority plans to ask the US to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders in the event that "Netanyahu and the Israelis decide to choose settlements over peace," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said in an interview with Army Radio aired on Monday. "If the Americans can't do that," added Erekat, "we may turn to the UN Security Council." Erekat stated that while the Security Council cannot legally declare a Palestinian state, its permanent members can call on other nations to individually recognize a Palestinian state.

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Netanyahu strikes a deal on Israeli settlements – could it freeze peace, too?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - November 5, 2010 - 12:00am

Tel Aviv Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, long caught between intensifying US demands and the restlessness of his right-wing allies, appears to have struck a deal to delay Israeli settlement expansion without unsettling his government. Mr. Netanyahu's security cabinet is expected to narrowly approve a three-month Israeli settlement freeze in the West Bank, in exchange for US promises of $3 billion in military aid and a commitment not to support any United Nations resolution recognizing Palestinian sovereignty.

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Hague breaks protocol to meet Palestinian activists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - (Opinion) November 3, 2010 - 12:00am

William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, is to take the unusual step today of meeting Palestinian activists involved in regular unarmed protests and demonstrations against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

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New Palestinian peace plan may force Israel into action
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - November 2, 2010 - 12:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu has adopted the worn-out tactic of soccer coaches: the best defense is a good offense. Instead of offering reasons for his refusal to freeze construction in the settlements, the prime minister is attacking the Palestinians for deciding to end negotiations. The story goes as follows. A few days ago we reported that Netanyahu's representative to talks with the Palestinians and Americans, Isaac Molho, refused to accept a Palestinian position paper on core issues - including the division of Jerusalem - from the head of the Palestinian delegation, Saeb Erekat.

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'PM agreed to lease Jordan Valley from Palestinians'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
November 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli sources on Monday confirmed that the US proposed that Israel lease parts of the Jordan Valley from the Palestinians for an additional seven years, Army Radio reported. According to the Monday report, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to the idea, but demanded that the arrangement be for a longer period of time than the original offer. "Seven years is not enough - an arrangement like this needs to last for dozens of years," Netanyahu said in closed talks, according to Army Radio.

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