Peace talks could be delayed for a year, warns Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Rupert Cornwell - March 24, 2010 - 12:00am

An unyielding Benjamin Netanyahu held a 90-minute meeting with Barack Obama at the White House last night as the US intensified pressure on the Israeli Prime Minister to rein in settlements in disputed East Jerusalem. But, in talks earlier in the day with Congressional leaders on Capitol Hill, Mr Netanyahu warned that peace negotiations could be delayed another year unless the Palestinians dropped their "illogical and unreasonable" demand for a full settlement freeze, according to his spokesman.

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Time to act
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Hassan Barari - (Opinion) March 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Arabs are enamoured with senior officials in the American administration who are at a loggerhead with Israel over the controversy of new development in East Jerusalem. Explicit in the plethora of articles in the Arabic press is the hope that the American administration will follow through on its effort to force the Israeli government to submit to American pressure.

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Palestinians clash with Israeli security
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Amy Teibel - March 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank lobbed rocks at Israeli security forces, set garbage bins and tires ablaze and torched an Israeli flag in a new outbreak of violence over contested Jerusalem building plans and unsubstantiated rumors about threats to the city's holiest shrine. Israeli forces responded with tear gas and stun grenades, but no serious injuries were reported.

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Lieberman on Quartet call: You can't make artificial peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - March 19, 2010 - 12:00am

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman responded Friday to the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators' call to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, saying that peace is not something which can be created artificially and with unrealistic timetables. "Peace will be established through actions and not by force," Lieberman told Belgium's Jewish community ahead of his scheduled talks with the ministers of several European nations.

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PNA to reduce dependence on Western training programs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 18, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) tends to reduce dependence on U.S. and European officers in training its forces in the West Bank, a spokesman said Thursday. Adnan Al-Dumiri, spokesman for the PNA's forces, said Palestinian officers who received training would start shifting their experience to newly-admitted cadets. "The PNA's dependence on the Americans and Europeans is decreasing," he told Xinhua.

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A pillar of state-building
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) March 15, 2010 - 12:00am

The program of the 13th Palestinian government, entitled "Ending the Occupation and Establishing the State", might have been similar to the programs of previous governments were it not for its political context. The two-year program, which has become known as the Fayyad Plan, is meant to prepare the ground for statehood through the necessary developments and improvements in building the institutions of a state. The plan gained political momentum, first on the international level, because it was received as a possible alternative to the decaying peace process.

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The best option
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) March 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Under prevailing circumstances, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's unilateral state-building plan is the best option available for all those truly concerned with advancing a two-state solution that maintains Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. Not only must Fayyad succeed in the coming year, but the international community must endorse and recognize his achievement and encourage Israel to follow suit.

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The problem with illegal settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - March 11, 2010 - 1:00am

The embarrassment the US vice president faced this week when, during his visit to Israel, the creation of a new settlement was announced should not have surprised him. The list of Israeli slaps in the face of US officials is endless. The situation has become such that many believe calls for a freeze of settlement activities should stop because they resulted in a frenzy to build even more Jewish settlements.

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Salam Fayyad: The Palestinian with a plan for statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Leslie Susser - (Analysis) March 8, 2010 - 1:00am

Pundits and politicians have taken recently to comparing Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to Israel's founding father, David Ben-Gurion. No less a figure than President Shimon Peres, one of Ben-Gurion's foremost disciples, is the latest Israeli leader to offer the accolade. The reason is simple: Like Ben-Gurion, Fayyad is building institutions of statehood.

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The perils of a new intifada
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Osama Al-Sharif - (Opinion) March 8, 2010 - 1:00am

If last Friday's incident at the Al Haram Al Sharif compound means anything it is this: Israel's right-wing government is out of control and is bent on executing a malicious scheme to undermine Palestinian rights.

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