U.S. to hold separate peace talks with Israel, Palestinians: official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
December 8, 2010 - 1:00am

A senior Palestinian official revealed on Wednesday that the United States informed the Palestinian leadership that it wants to hold separate peace talks with Israel and the Palestinians. "We received an oral letter from the American Administration expressing its desire to hold separate talks with Israel and the Palestinians over the peace process," Yasser Abed Rabbo, Secretary General of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee told Voice of Palestine Radio.

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U.S. official: Obama does not and will not condone Israel's settlement activity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - December 8, 2010 - 1:00am

The United States does not and will not accept Israel's continued West Bank settlement activity, a top U.S. official said on Monday, stating that the fact that Washington no longer supports a temporary settlement freeze did not mean it condones continued building. The comment by State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley came as U.S. officials had confirmed that negotiations between Jerusalem and Washington over a new partial moratorium on settlement construction and on the terms of the guarantees proposed by U.S. President Barack Obama have hit a dead end.

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Middle East peace talks 'crisis' over settlement row
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
December 8, 2010 - 1:00am

His comments come hours after the US admitted that it had failed to get Israel to renew its settlement curbs. Mr Abbas suspended talks in September after a 10-month halt on Israeli building in the occupied West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, expired. The US has vowed to find other ways to bring the two sides together. The peace talks resumed in Washington in September after a break of almost two years, but broke down just weeks later over the settlement issue. US sweeteners

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The peace process is not captive to Israeli intransigence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) December 8, 2010 - 1:00am

Seasons may change, but renewal is never a guarantee. This is especially true for Middle Eastern peace, where an autumn of possibility has given way to a winter of discontent. Latin American support for a Palestinian state may be one way to help break the ice. This week Argentina and Uruguay joined the BRIC heavyweight Brazil in recognising an independent Palestine. Bolivia and Ecuador are expected to follow suit.

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ANALYSIS-Big Bang approach to Mideast peace won't work
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
by Crispian Balmer - (Analysis) December 8, 2010 - 1:00am

Washington's failure to revive direct peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians should finally dispel any lingering illusion that the decades-old Middle East conflict can be resolved in open negotiations. The best that can be hoped for are piecemeal, staggered accords, perhaps thrashed out in secret and probably implemented over many years, analysts and diplomats say.

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Giving up is not an option
In Print by Ziad Asali - The Huffington Post (Opinion) - December 8, 2010 - 1:00am

Introduction The Administration has mercifully, and honestly, admitted that the time has come to abandon its policy of seeking a settlement freeze as a path to negotiations.  It will pay a political price and will be blamed and endure the gloating of its critics. However, at the end of the day, the US government will be the one that everyone else will look to for providing answers and driving policy.  The two-state solution is the unchanging American policy because it is in our own national strategic interest.

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Encountering Peace: The house is on fire
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) December 7, 2010 - 1:00am

A week ago I wrote in this column that “the house is on fire and it’s time to wake up before everything we have built is destroyed by our own doing.” I was, of course, not referring to the tragic fire in the Carmel Forest. The fire is now out and Nature will have to work its wonders to bring life back where cinders now took over, but Nature knows how to recover.

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Abbas says dissolution of PNA not an option
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
December 7, 2010 - 1:00am

Visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that the Palestinians did not consider dissolving the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) an option as no demands for such an act had been voiced. Abbas told a joint press conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul that he would press for other states to recognize an independent Palestinian state if peace talks with Israel collapse, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported. However, the dissolution of the PNA was not among the various options of the Palestinians in case talks fail, he was quoted of saying.

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Clinton to issue statement on Israeli-Palestinian talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
December 6, 2010 - 1:00am

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States will issue a declaration this week on Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. "I will be making a very formal set of remarks about that next week," Clinton said in a interview over the weekend with Al Hurra, the U.S.-run Arab language broadcaster. "We have been talking with both parties very substantively, and I think that the United States can play a role to help each make decisions about very difficult matters that then can be presented to the other side."

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Fatah, Hamas argue over holding new reconciliation meeting
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
December 6, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement and its bitter rival Fatah party still argue over holding another round of dialogue to reach an inter-reconciliation deal and end their split, a Hamas official said Monday. Salah el-Bardaweel, a Gaza-based Hamas leader, told Xinhua that the contacts between Hamas and Fatah over setting up a date for holding another round of reconciliation dialogue are severed "and haven't led yet to anything new."

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