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.

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PNA urges Washington to endorse Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Thursday called on the United States to take the initiative and announce it would recognize the future Palestinian state. "The Palestinians don't want to see new ideas to settle the conflict in the Middle East. They want international resolutions to be implemented," Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio. Erekat explained that the Palestinians want Washington "to go to the Security Council and announce its acceptance of the international law which accepts a Palestinian statehood, with Jerusalem as its capital."

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ATFP Senior Fellow Discusses Palestine and the Art of the Possible at Monmouth University
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - April 7, 2010 - 12:00am

A two-state negotiated agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is the only workable formula for peace, ATFP Senior Fellow Hussein Ibish told an audience of 50 at the ninth annual global understanding conference at Monmouth University. The address on the second day of the conference, April 6, 2010, touched on a number of themes centered around the idea of the art of the possible. Ibish explained in detail his view that alternatives to a two-state solution are all fanciful because one or more of the parties in question would simply not agree to them.


Statehood bid forces Israel to pay attention
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) April 7, 2010 - 12:00am

There are several sure-fire ways for Palestinians to get Israel’s attention to their grievances. One is to carry out military attacks, including suicide bombings. Another is to threaten to abolish the Palestinian Authority, saying in effect to Israel: “You want to collect our garbage and clean our streets? Go ahead.” It’s a third way, however, that has succeeded in really getting under Israel’s skin recently. By again floating the idea of unilaterally declaring an independent state, Palestinian officials have sent their Israeli counterparts into convulsions.

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Israeli FM warns Palestinians not to declare state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Matti Friedman - April 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's hard-line foreign minister warned Palestinians against plans to unilaterally declare independence next year, saying in an interview Tuesday that such a move could prompt Israel to annex parts of the West Bank and annul past peace agreements. Avigdor Lieberman also made harsh comments about Turkey, Israel's increasingly alienated ally, saying the Turkish prime minister was coming to resemble Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi. Lieberman, who heads an ultranationalist party, has become known for a belligerent tone that has earned him critics abroad and inside Israel.

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Gandhi says Jewish settlements obstruct establishment of Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 5, 2010 - 12:00am

Rajmohan Gandhi, the grandson of late Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi, said here Monday that the Jewish settlements in the West Bank obstruct the establishment of the future Palestinian state. Gandhi, chairman of the Initiatives of Change International, an NGO working for peace, reconciliation and human security worldwide, toured the West Bank and met with several Palestinian leaders. Gandhi told a news conference in Ramallah that the Jewish settlements, the road barriers and the separation wall in the West Bank are "more illegal and humiliating than I believed."

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Textbooks, Grasshoppers, and the Question of Incitement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) April 5, 2010 - 12:00am

There is a great opportunity in the next few months to reach a just peace between Israelis and Palestinians. This may seem a surprising view just now, but there is a competent and responsible Palestinian government in place which is serious about establishing a sovereign Palestinian state alongside Israel. And there is strong public support for this objective. The evidence is all around you if you come to see the reality.

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Palestinian PM to Haaretz: We will have a state next year
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - April 2, 2010 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH - Next year, "the birth of a Palestinian state will be celebrated as a day of joy by the entire community of nations," says Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in an exclusive interview to Haaretz. Relaying Passover greetings to the Jewish community, Fayyad hopes Israelis will also participate in the celebrations for the birth of a new state.

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Gazans celebrate Egypt's Mubarak's recovery
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Dozens of Palestinians gathered at the border between southern Gaza Strip and Egypt on Wednesday to celebrate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's recovery and return home. The rally, organized by the Islamic Hamas movement which rules the Gaza Strip, called on Mubarak to release Palestinian prisoners in Egyptian jails. "We came here today to the borderline area to send our congratulations to President Mubarak for his recovery and also to urge him to release the Palestinian prisoners in Egyptian jails," said the organizer.

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For Israel's Arabs, Land Day is our narrative and our justice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ahmad Tibi - (Opinion) April 1, 2010 - 12:00am

I remember the events of Land Day 1976 in particular detail. I was taking part in the demonstration in the center of Taibeh, just opposite the taxi station, when police began dispersing us with clubs, then shot and killed one of the demonstrators, Rafat Zohiri, in cold blood. As on all such days marked by the Arab population of Israel, discussions on Land Day revolve around the question of Arab citizens' place in Israeli society and also on our insistence on commemorating Nakba Day, Land Day and the riots of October 2000 every year.

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