Personality of the Month: Dr. Salam Fayyad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from This Week in Palestine
November 3, 2009 - 1:00am

Born in Nablus in 1952, Dr. Salam Fayyad remembers his early school years in Tulkarem, when doing well at school was not the main thing (as it continues to be today), it was the only thing. Well, almost the only thing. Back then, after-school street football was also a daily routine and a prominent item on his agenda.

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US view on settlement 'unchanged'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
November 2, 2009 - 1:00am

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that Washington has not changed its stance against Israeli settlements in the West Bank. She has been meeting Arab foreign ministers in Marrakech in Morocco. On Saturday, Mrs Clinton urged the Israelis and Palestinians to restart talks as soon as possible. This appeared to endorse an Israeli position that talks could start before a settlement freeze which the Palestinians are demanding. On Saturday, she met Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in a new US drive to restart the peace talks.

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Jordan Valley may be hurdle in peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - November 2, 2009 - 1:00am

The backhoes are busy on housing plots for this new Israeli settlement in the Jordan Valley, and young families, under army guard and toting M-16s, have begun cultivating dozens of acres of land with dates, olives and other crops. To the south, a water pipeline from Jerusalem has let veteran farmers double the land irrigated for date trees to 9,000 acres, with a second pipeline and more farmland expansion planned.

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‘Fayyad’s Two Year Plan is a Very Smart Move’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Felice Friedson - (Interview) November 2, 2009 - 1:00am

James L. Wolfensohn, a former head of The World Bank, served as the first Mideast envoy of the Quartet, the entities sponsoring the Road Map peace plan: the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia. While Mr. Wolfensohn’s experience and reputation in world finance is unparalleled, his service as the Quartet’s first envoy provides an expertise very few can match. He speaks with Felice Friedson, President and CEO of The Media Line.

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Palestinians must prepare for statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) November 2, 2009 - 1:00am

In an article last week, Ahmad Samhi Khalidi derisively dismissed the plan of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to build the infrastructural, administrative and economic framework of a Palestinian state in spite of the occupation.

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Clinton Denies Easing Pressure on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Mark Landler - November 2, 2009 - 1:00am

Struggling to stem protests from the Arab world, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday reiterated that the Obama administration still wanted Israel to freeze construction of Jewish settlements, even if it regarded Israel’s compromise offer as “unprecedented.” Arab officials expressed alarm that the United States seemed to be easing pressure on Israel after Mrs. Clinton said in Jerusalem on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal of restrained settlement building was better than anything previous Israeli governments had offered.

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Interview: How Salam Fayyad plans to save the Palestinian dream
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - (Interview) November 2, 2009 - 1:00am

Palestinian elections are scheduled to be held in less than three months, but the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), Salam Fayyad, isn't concerned about running for office. Rather, he's set his sights on a longer-term platform: establishing a Palestinian state by 2011 – a goal he outlined recently in a clear, well-organized booklet titled "Palestine: Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State."

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Palestinian PM criticizes Clinton for letting Israel set peace agenda
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - November 2, 2009 - 1:00am

Following US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit here this weekend, Palestinians are reacting with frustration over what appeared to be a shift in the Obama administration's policy toward Israeli settlement growth in the West Bank. Although Secretary Clinton had previously insisted that the US wanted a total freeze on West Bank settlement expansion, she said during her meetings here this weekend that Palestinians should return to negotiations without preconditions – and lauded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's steps toward limiting settlement growth as "unprecedented."

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Hillary Clinton to Embark upon Uphill Mideast Mission
Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In Xinhua - October 29, 2009 - 12:00am

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to visit Israel and the West Bank this weekend. This will be her second visit to the region since Barack Obama entered office as U.S. president some 10 months ago. Coming at a time when relations between Israel and the Palestinians show no outward sign of improvement, analysts see Hillary's visit to be a tough mission and do not expect it to achieve much. A NEGATIVE BACKDROP

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U.S. leaning toward indirect Mideast peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - October 28, 2009 - 12:00am

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will arrive in Israel on Saturday night for her first official visit since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government was sworn in. Clinton's visit underscores the goal of reaching a compromise that could see the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. In light of the ever-wide gaps between the Israeli and Palestinian sides, voices are growing within the Obama administration to shift strategy and suffice with indirect - rather than direct - negotiations.

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