Netanyahu must present new peace initiative in Washington
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) May 4, 2011 - 12:00am

During his visit to Washington in less than three weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet an American administration which is credited by the free world with the killing of the arch terrorist Osama bin Laden. On Barack Obama's watch, the U.S. armed forces managed to kill the murderer of thousands of American citizens who had managed to evade punishment for more than nine years. The successful operation made the president popular among Americans and dampened his image as a soft leader, an image of him encouraged by his rivals on the right.

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Israelis differ on Fatah-Hamas accord
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
May 4, 2011 - 12:00am

An Israeli Foreign Ministry report leaked to Ha'aretz daily on Wednesday said the country could benefit from a Fatah-Hamas unity government, while Israeli officials continued to express their opposition to the internal Palestinian reconciliation deal. According to the document that was leaked to the Ha'aretz daily, "the Palestinian move is not only a security threat but also a strategic opportunity to create genuine change in the Palestinian context."

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U.S. to Palestinians: Unity deal must advance prospect of peace with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
May 4, 2011 - 12:00am

The White House on Wednesday urged Palestinians to ensure that a reconciliation deal between rival factions is implemented in a way that advances the prospect for peace with Israel rather than undermining it. "It's important now that Palestinians ensure implementation of that agreement in a way that advances the prospects of peace rather than undermines them," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, after the secular Fatah and Islamist Hamas groups signed an agreement to formally end a 4-year rift.

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Good news for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Blog) May 2, 2011 - 12:00am

The reconciliation agreement that was initialed between Fateh and Hamas and will be signed by them in Cairo, next Wednesday, is good news for both the Palestinian people and the peace process. A united Palestinian people is more conducive to a successful peace process than Palestinians splintered and in conflict. This is especially true if they are united on a political basis compatible to the fundamental requirements of the peace process and international legality.

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Hamas-Fatah: Looking for the Red Lines
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Ideas Daily
by Yehudah Mirsky - (Opinion) May 2, 2011 - 12:00am

Things can always get worse, and in the Middle East they usually will. That was made depressingly clear once again with the April 27 announcement in Cairo of a reconciliation agreement between the rival Palestinian organizations of Fatah and Hamas.

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Arabs yearn to move on
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) April 30, 2011 - 12:00am

Probably the most important clause in the Arab Peace Initiative, first adopted by the Arab League at the Beirut summit in 2002 and reaffirmed on several occasions including in 2007, is its commitment to "establish normal relations with Israel in the context of [a] comprehensive peace." This represented the culmination of decades of evolution of Arab thinking regarding relations with Israel, and the final repudiation of the Khartoum resolution of 1967, which insisted the Arabs would have "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it".

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Arabs yearn to move on
In Print by Hussein Ibish - Bitterlemons (Blog) - April 30, 2011 - 12:00am

Probably the most important clause in the Arab Peace Initiative, first adopted by the Arab League at the Beirut summit in 2002 and reaffirmed on several occasions including in 2007, is its commitment to "establish normal relations with Israel in the context of [a] comprehensive peace." This represented the culmination of decades of evolution of Arab thinking regarding relations with Israel, and the final repudiation of the Khartoum resolution of 1967, which insisted the Arabs would have "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it".

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Palestinian unity strips Israel of its false pretences
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) April 29, 2011 - 12:00am

If few expected the speed and skill of Egypt's diplomatic corps as it navigated Wednesday's deal between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, the response from Israel was all too predictable. "The Palestinian Authority has to decide on having peace with Israel or peace with Hamas," the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, declared in response to the preliminary accord inked in Cairo. "You can't have peace with both."

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Abbas meets Israeli Peace Initiative delegates
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 29, 2011 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas met Thursday with the leadership of the Israel Peace Initiative at his government headquarters in Ramallah, where he heard their presentation of a regional peace initiative. The group met a day after officials in Cairo announced a unity "understanding" between rival parties Fatah and Hamas, which will see the creation of a technocratic government to oversee the transition to the first government elections since 2006.

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America Must Lead
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
(Editorial) April 28, 2011 - 12:00am

September 1, 2010: President Obama hosts the leaders of Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority in what is optimistically billed as the opening meeting of a year-long effort to finally arrive at a two-state solution for Mideast peace. Eight months later: Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak is deposed, King Abdullah of Jordan is clutching onto power, and the three remaining leaders are veering dangerously into uncharted and conflicting diplomatic territory. Only one of them can recapture the initiative — the host of last September’s meeting.

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