Pressure Israel by acting first
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
August 25, 2009 - 12:00am

Salam Fayyad is certainly doing his best to dominate the headlines ahead of his Israeli counterpart’s visit to Europe. As Benjamin Netanyahu met with Gordon Brown to discuss faltering peace talks yesterday, the world was atwitter over the Palestinian prime minister’s stated intention to declare a “de facto” Palestinian state within two years. For an Israeli premier under pressure from both the United States and at home and attempting to overcome a resurgence of anti-Israeli sentiment in Europe, Mr Fayyad’s announcement could not have come at a worse time. That, of course, is the point.

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Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says time is running out for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by James Hider - August 25, 2009 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority intends to bypass failing peace talks and establish its own de facto state within two years, Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Prime Minister, said. Speaking on the eve of talks in London today between Binyamin Netanyahu and Gordon Brown, his Israeli and British counterparts, Mr Fayyad said that the idea was to “end the occupation, despite the occupation”. He told The Times in an interview: “After 16 years [of failed peace talks] why not change the discourse?

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Fayyad unveils plan for de facto state by 2011
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 25, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad unveiled his plan to establish a de facto state within two years on Tuesday. Fayyad’s plan is to build up the apparatus of a state in the West Bank and Gaza even before Israel has withdrawn its forces from Palestinian land. He said the Palestinian Authority wants to take “positive steps … despite the occupation.” “This is on the path to freedom,” he said at a Ramallah news conference on Tuesday.

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Palestinian PM: We'll form de facto state by 2011
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
August 25, 2009 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority intends to establish a de-facto state within the next two years, despite failing peace talks, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Tuesday. "We have decided to be proactive, to expedite the end of the occupation by working very hard to build positive facts on the ground, consistent with having our state emerge as a fact that cannot be ignored," Fayyad told the Times of London. "This is our agenda, and we want to pursue it doggedly." According to Fayyad, the idea would be to "end the occupation, despite the occupation."

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Obama Optimistic About Mideast Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Anne E. Kornblut, Mary Beth Sheridan - August 19, 2009 - 12:00am

Acknowledging that the Middle East peace process is in a "rut," President Obama nonetheless voiced confidence Tuesday that a breakthrough can be achieved -- and he thanked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whom he hosted for meetings at the White House, for playing a constructive role. "There has been movement in the right direction," Obama said. "If all sides are willing to move off of the rut that we're in currently, then I think there is an extraordinary opportunity to make real progress. But we're not there yet."

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Palestinian state is not synonym for terrorist entity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) August 17, 2009 - 12:00am

The soldier at the Qalandiyah checkpoint gave a bored look at the car with the Israeli license plates. No one asked for documents or passes. Ten minutes later we were in the heart of Ramallah, the capital of the Palestinian Authority. The security forces obviously know there is no cause for concern. Nowadays Tel Aviv's beaches are more dangerous than the West Bank's cities. According to statistics from the Prime Minister's Office, more Israelis have been murdered in the past month in Israel than those murdered since January 2007 in the territory of the PA.

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Abbas: We won't agree to temporary state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - August 14, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that Fatah would oppose any plan to form a Palestinian state with temporary borders. In a press conference held in the West Bank city of Ramallah following the end of the Fatah Congress in Bethlehem, Abbas said that the movement will adhere to former Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's legacy.

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For the Arab states, doing nothing is not an option
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Emile Hokayem - (Opinion) August 12, 2009 - 12:00am

When the Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al Faisal publicly expressed dissatisfaction with the slow and incremental US push for peace between Israel, Palestine and its other Arab neighbours two weeks ago, the Arab world was quick to applaud him. His frustration and impatience were made abundantly clear in the presence of the rebuffed US secretary of state Hillary Clinton: “Incrementalism and a step-by-step approach has not and we believe will not achieve peace. Temporary security, confidence-building measures will also not bring peace.”

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March 14 and Fatah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Walid Choucair - (Opinion) August 10, 2009 - 12:00am

It is no coincidence that King Abdel-Aziz of Saudi Arabia has recently sent a letter to the Fatah conference in Bethlehem, urging Palestinians to unite “because if the entire world agrees on a Palestinian state, it will not be established if your house is divided,” and dispatched his minister of culture and information, Abdel-Aziz Khoja, to Beirut to help halt the deterioration in relations among the March 14 coalition, and specifically between Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri and Walid Jumblatt, the head of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP).

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Palestinian Authority Approves West Bank's First Planned City: Is Palestine Inching Toward Statehood?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Catesby Holmes - July 28, 2009 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has officially approved the Master Plan for a large-scale mixed-used development on the West Bank, scheduled to break ground in September. Rawabi, which means "the hills" in Arabic, will be the first Palestinian city to be built in thousands of years and will provide affordable housing, office buildings, restaurants, retail shops, schools, banks, a movie theater, and more.

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