Palestinian Statehood | The American Task Force on Palestine

PA: UN still goal for September
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian leadership reaffirmed its goal to take the issue of statehood to the United Nations after a speech by the Israeli premier which failed to offer any new incentive to talk peace. In a 45-minute address to the US Congress, Benjamin Netanyahu laid out his vision of peace in a speech which pundits said contained nothing to deter the Palestinians from plans to seek UN recognition for their state later this year or to revive the moribund peace process.

By Begin's logic, the Palestinians should have a state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ron Ben-Tovim - (Opinion) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

In "The Revolt," his seminal depiction of the Jewish resistance against British rule in Palestine, Irgun chief and future Prime Minister Menachem Begin often returns to his interrogation at the hands of the Soviets. These references apparently are intended to counter a contemporary communist argument raised during these interrogations, that the Zionist movement was a hoax, a "puppet show," meant to divert attention from the Jews' revolutionary role in Europe and turn them into a tool for British imperialism in the Middle East.

As Bibi Slouches Toward September
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward
by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu had ample reason to congratulate himself on a job well done as he headed home from his five-day visit to Washington, D.C. He received thunderous hero’s welcomes from Congress and the pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which greeted him with its biggest-ever display of muscle. All this will serve him well at home. True, he had an ugly head-butt with President Obama at the White House, but this just reinforces his street cred, solidifies his coalition and dispirits his critics.

How Palestinians will use the GA to advance statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Horovitz - (Opinion) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

Editor's Notes: Israel’s complacent assumption has been that even an overwhelming vote to establish ‘Palestine’ at the GA in September would have merely ‘declaratory’ impact. Wrong. Jerusalem had forgotten about UNGA Resolution 377. Early in the Korean War, frustrated that the Soviet Union’s repeated use of its UN Security Council veto was thwarting council action to protect South Korea, the United States initiated what became known as the UN General Assembly’s “Uniting for Peace” resolution.

Obama pushes Europe not to support Palestinians' U.N. statehood bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Christi Parsons, Paul Richter - May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

A week after ratcheting up pressure on Israel's government to restart peace talks with Palestinians, President Obama launched a campaign to persuade European leaders not to endorse a separate Palestinian bid for statehood. But his appeal to Britain's prime minister, David Cameron, won only a noncommittal response. After a meeting Wednesday with Obama, Cameron said the time was not yet right for European leaders to decide on the Palestinian bid for United Nations recognition, which the Palestinian Authority leadership is expected to make at the U.N. General Assembly in September.

Ratting the Cage: Obama's albatross
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) May 25, 2011 - 12:00am

With that Salute to Judea and Samaria he just staged in Washington, our wise and fearless leader just screwed American policy in the Middle East, turned Israel into an albatross around the neck of the president of the United States, made Western Europe ashamed to be associated with us, waved a red flag at the Palestinians and the entire Muslim world, and I don’t know what else. Way to go, Bibi.

Goldberg: Why Palestinians Have Time on Their Side
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg
by Jeffrey Goldberg - (Opinion) May 24, 2011 - 12:00am

If I were a Palestinian (and, should there be any confusion on this point, I am not), and if I were the sort of Palestinian who believed that Israel should be wiped off the map, then I would be quite pleased with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s performance before Congress this morning. I would applaud Netanyahu for including no bold initiatives that would have suggested to the world that Israel is alive to the threat posed by its seemingly eternal occupation of the West Bank.

Palestinian UN bid enters unknown territory
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Karin Laub - May 23, 2011 - 12:00am

President Barack Obama threw down a gauntlet this weekend: no vote at the United Nations, he asserted, would ever create a Palestinian state. The Palestinians hope to prove him wrong. But their planned bid for U.N. recognition this fall of a state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem — territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 Mideast war — enters largely unknown legal ground, and the Palestinians are still trying to work out how best to work the U.N. labyrinth.

Abbas says UN support essential for statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
May 19, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that the UN has an essential role to help the Palestinians establish their statehood. "We will go to the UN to get the recognition of our independent state," Abbas said after meeting Tony Blair, the envoy of the Middle East Quartet, in Ramallah. He added that an end to Israel's occupation and the creation of the Palestinian state will enable the Palestinian people to live in peace and stability with their Israeli neighbors.

Avoid Palestinian mistakes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Gadi Taub - (Opinion) May 18, 2011 - 12:00am

It’s amazing how the tables have turned. During the political struggle for the State of Israel’s establishment, the Jewish community was practical, sophisticated and flexible. The Palestinian side, on the other hand, boycotted the process and turned its back to the international institutions engaged in the partition question. The Palestinians could have received about half of Eretz Yisrael’s territory, yet through their stubbornness and absolute refusal to recognize the other side’s rights they chose war and lost the opportunity.

Video: Inside ATFP Gala 2013

Photo Gallery: ATFP Gala 2013

Recent News