An open letter to Netanyahu: Act before it's too late
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ari Shavit - (Opinion) April 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Dear Mr. Prime Minister, It isn't every day a journalist writes an open letter to the prime minister. But today is no ordinary day. Nor is this an ordinary hour. This is the hour when the clock is about to strike midnight. A rare confluence of circumstances has created a situation in which on Israel's 62nd Independence Day, the state of the Jews is facing a challenge the likes of which it has not known since May 14, 1948. The year between this Independence Day and the next will be a crucial one.

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'No need to remove any settlements'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel should not have to remove any settlements in a peace agreement with the Palestinians, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon has told The Jerusalem Post, adding that just as Arabs live in Israel, so, too, should Jews be able to live in a future Palestinian entity. “If we are talking about coexistence and peace, why the [Palestinian] insistence that the territory they receive be ethnically cleansed of Jews?” Ya’alon asked during a wide-ranging interview that will appear in the Post’s Yom Ha’atzmaut supplement on Monday.

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Israel should help create Palestinian state in its interest: Peres
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 14, 2010 - 12:00am

PARIS, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Israeli President Shimon Peres said here on Tuesday that the peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians should be relaunched soon and a Palestinian state could be set up as long as it was in Israel's interest. "It's already late. A negotiation must be relaunched urgently so that we can reach a compromise ... We should help to create a Palestinian state in Israel's interest," the president said after meeting with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

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Obama Speech Signals a U.S. Shift on Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Helene Cooper, Mark Landler - April 14, 2010 - 12:00am

It was just a phrase at the end of President Obama’s news conference on Tuesday, but it was a stark reminder of a far-reaching shift in how the United States views the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how aggressively it might push for a peace agreement. When Mr. Obama declared that resolving the long-running Middle East dispute was a “vital national security interest of the United States,” he was highlighting a change that has resulted from a lengthy debate among his top officials over how best to balance support for Israel against other American interests.

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Towards a Palestinian State: Reforms for Fiscal Strengthening
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
April 13, 2010 - 12:00am

A viable state requires public institutions that create an enabling environment for private sector-driven growth, manage public finances efficiently, and are able to deliver effective services to the population. The Palestinian Authority (PA) is making steady progress on implementing its reform program and building the institutions required by a future state: the PA has strengthened its public financial management systems, improved service delivery, and made significant reforms to increase security and shore up its fiscal position.

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World Bank report: PA economy needs more private investment
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg
April 13, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority economic growth has been largely driven by donor aid, and more private investment is necessary to ensure that the expansion is sustained, the World Bank said in a report Monday. In 2009, the PA received almost $1.4 billion in budget support, following $1.8b. in 2008, allowing for expansionary fiscal policies to support growth, the report said. The share of sectors that are mostly government-funded, such as defense and public administration, rose from less than 21 percent of the economy in 1999 to almost 30% in 2009, it said.

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Salam Fayyad's big gamble
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Opinion) April 12, 2010 - 12:00am

I met Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, two weeks ago, and was again impressed by the calm and modesty he radiates. Generally, I meet him at demonstrations, such as those at the Bil'in fence. This time, too, there was no opportunity for more than a perfunctory handshake and a few polite words.

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Palestinian state on track says World Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck - April 12, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian government is on track to deliver on its promise of building the institutions of an independent state, the World Bank said on Monday. In its latest report, the bank offers a clear endorsement of the policies of Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister and the architect of an ambitious programme designed to achieve independence and statehood by the middle of next year. It notes the impressive economic growth in the West Bank in 2009, and praises recent improvements in the management of public finances.

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To achieve Mideast peace, Obama must make a bold Mideast trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Stephen Solarz - (Opinion) April 11, 2010 - 12:00am

More than three decades ago, Israeli statesman Moshe Dayan, speaking about an Egyptian town that controlled Israel's only outlet to the Red Sea, declared that he would rather have Sharm el-Sheikh without peace than peace without Sharm el-Sheikh. Had his views prevailed, Israel and Egypt would still be in a state of war. Today, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, with his pronouncements about the eternal and undivided capital of Israel, is conveying an updated version of Dayan's credo -- that he would rather have all of Jerusalem without peace than peace without all of Jerusalem.

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Asharq Al-Awsat Talks to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Ali El-saleh - April 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Fayyad stressed in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat that the Palestinian State exists and that the Israeli occupation is bound to end. Fayyad still believed that the establishment of a State is possible within two years, in the second half of 2011 to be specific, as stated in the State blueprint he announced last August.

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