Beating the Mideast’s Black Hole
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) April 26, 2010 - 12:00am

The U.S. Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, has come and gone, again, with peace talks still on hold and one Israeli commentator, Yossi Sarid, musing that “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a black hole that swallows up goodwill ambassadors through the ages.” I can’t argue with that. Cold wars come and go, new technologies transform the world, but the clash of Zionism and Palestinian nationalism in the Holy Land defeats resolution.

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U.S. envoy Mitchell meets Israeli leaders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Douglas Hamilton - April 23, 2010 - 12:00am

U.S. envoy George Mitchell told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday Washington was committed to Israel's security and wanted a peace settlement that would give the Palestinians a state. "That has been American policy. That is American policy. That will be American policy," Mitchell told Netanyahu, repeating President Barack Obama's pledge of strong and enduring ties to Israel on its 62nd anniversary earlier this week.

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Israel PM seeks new plan as US envoy visits-report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Allyn Fisher-Ilan - April 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has proposed Palestinian statehood with temporary borders, to sidestep a deadlock over settlements ahead of talks on Friday with a U.S. envoy, a newspaper said. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected past Israeli suggestions for a state with provisional borders, but the Haaretz newspaper said Netanyahu was proposing a new interim deal to try and entice him back to the negotiating table.

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Netanyahu amenable to Palestinian state within temporary borders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - April 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is amenable to an interim agreement in the West Bank that would include the establishment of a Palestinian state within temporary borders. Netanyahu considers such an interim step a possible way to unfreeze the stalled political process that was created because of the Palestinian leadership's refusal to resume talks on a final settlement. However, the prime minister insists on delaying discussion on the final status of Jerusalem to the end of the process, and refuses to agree to a freeze on Jewish construction in East Jerusalem.

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A peaceful strategy for Palestinian independence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinians have recently been developing a peaceful multilevel strategy to achieve their national goals of a negotiated peace agreement with Israel, an end to the occupation, and the creation of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.

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What would happen if Palestinians unilaterally declared statehood?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shlomo Avineri - (Opinion) April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad recently announced that his government intends to declare an independent Palestinian state in the summer of 2011, even if no agreement is reached with Israel. This statement obviously generated unease in Israel, and not only among supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu's government - especially as it was accompanied by hints that European countries, and even the European Union itself, would recognize such a unilateral declaration of independence.

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A peaceful strategy for Palestinian independence
In Print by Ziad Asali - The Guardian - April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinians have recently been developing a peaceful multilevel strategy to achieve their national goals of a negotiated peace agreement with Israel, an end to the occupation, and the creation of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders.

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‘U.S. Can Stop Israeli Settlements’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Ziad Abu Zayyad, Jerrold Kessel, Pierre Klochendler - (Interview) April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Ziad Abuzayyad was Palestinian cabinet minister responsible for Jerusalem affairs and a member of the Palestinian Legislature. During previous rounds of peace talks with Israel he was a leading member of the Palestinian negotiating team Currently, Abuzayyad is co-editor of the ‘Palestine-Israel Journal’ which seeks to create a platform for exploring tangible ways to advance a peaceful two-state solution between Israel and Palestine.

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Middle East Peace: So Why Have We Failed?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Yossi Beilin, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Saeb Erakat, Gamal Helal, Daniel Kurtzer, Robert Malley, Michael B. Oren, Dov Weissglas, James Wolfensohn, Anthony Zinni - (Interview) April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

More than 60 years after Israel's stunning victory in the 1948 war that birthed the Jewish state, an end to the world's most exasperating conflict seems more distant than ever. U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to drag both sides kicking and screaming to the negotiating table after nearly a decade of no progress. But is there still any reason for hope?

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Asharq Al-Awsat Talks to Fatah's Azzam al-Ahmad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Ali El-saleh - (Interview) April 19, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority [PA] through more than one of its officials has called on Israel to rescind its decision to deport what it described as "infiltrators" into the Palestinian territories. Azzam al-Ahmad, member of Fatah Central Committee and leader of its parliamentary bloc, interprets the Israeli decision as a return to the military orders and military rule that existed before the Oslo Accord in 1993. According to Al-Ahmad, this means "relinquishing the Oslo accord and wriggling out of it, which in its turn means that the occupation still exists."

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