US plans new push on Arab-Israeli peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Arshad Mohammed - April 13, 2011 - 12:00am

The United States plans a new push to promote comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday, suggesting a stronger U.S. hand in trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. President Barack Obama will lay out U.S. policy toward the Middle East and North Africa in the coming weeks, Clinton told Arab and U.S. policy makers in a speech that placed particular emphasis on Israeli-Palestinian peace.

»

Washington Watch: Playing ball at the peace table
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by D. Bloomfield - (Opinion) April 13, 2011 - 12:00am

If the Palestinian-Israeli peace process were a basketball game, both sides would be called for stalling. There’s a lot of trash talk going on, but no serious action. But it isn’t a basketball game, it’s a blame game. Neither side seems seriously interested in returning to the peace table, just in going through the motions to impress the fans. It’s a lot like last week’s budget battle between Republicans and Democrats; the real issue wasn’t what good we can achieve for the country, but who is going to get blamed when it all goes south.

»

Save a generation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Omar Rahman - (Opinion) April 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Just over one week after the ninth anniversary of the Arab Peace Initiative, some leaders within the Israeli business and security community have found the need to address this monumental peace proposal with a "partner declaration" of their own.

»

Accept with minor "interpretations"
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) April 13, 2011 - 12:00am

There is a certain formalistic justification in Israel's standoffish attitude toward the Arab Peace Initiative. After all, the API was never seriously "marketed" to Israel. The concluding paragraph of the API asks every relevant institution in the international community to "pursue the necessary contacts to gain support for this initiative"--everyone, that is, except Israel itself, the target of the initiative. At one point a few years ago, in response to protest over this lacuna, the Arab League sent the Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers to Jerusalem to present the API.

»

What the “Israeli Peace Initiative” has to offer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) April 12, 2011 - 12:00am

On April 6, a group of prominent Israelis released the “Israeli Peace Initiative,” an answer to the Peace Initiative adopted by the Arab League in 2002. The biggest difference between the two documents is that one is official, formally adopted by a large group of states, and the other is a civil society initiative. This puts the two documents on significantly unequal footing. However, the new Israeli private initiative bears serious consideration, given the paucity of any other Israeli response to the API and the lack of diplomatic activity generally.

»

U.S. postpones Quartet meet on Israel-Palestinian peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
April 12, 2011 - 12:00am

The United States blocked an initiative by Britain, France and Germany to restart stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks by proposing the outlines of a final settlement to their long conflict, United Nations diplomats and a U.S. official said Monday. The three European countries wanted UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the European Union to propose a settlement text at a meeting of the Quartet of Mideast mediators - the U.S., UN, EU and Russia - tentatively scheduled to take place Friday in Berlin on the sidelines of a NATO ministerial meeting, the diplomats said.

»

What the “Israeli Peace Initiative” has to offer
In Print by Hussein Ibish - NOW Lebanon - April 12, 2011 - 12:00am

On April 6, a group of prominent Israelis released the “Israeli Peace Initiative,” an answer to the Peace Initiative adopted by the Arab League in 2002. The biggest difference between the two documents is that one is official, formally adopted by a large group of states, and the other is a civil society initiative. This puts the two documents on significantly unequal footing. However, the new Israeli private initiative bears serious consideration, given the paucity of any other Israeli response to the API and the lack of diplomatic activity generally.

»

Abbas calls on Israel to stop settlement activities to resume peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 12, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday called on Israel to cease settlement constructions in the occupied territories to resume peace talks. He also said that Israel should commit itself to the references of the peace process, including the recognition of the goal that the negotiations should lead to a Palestinian statehood on the lands that Israel has occupied in 1967. Abbas made the remarks as he received Spain's Crown Prince Philip, his wife and Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

»

Arabs yearn to move on and enjoy genuine peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) April 11, 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 clause 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 allow “no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it.”

»

An Israeli initiative worth watching
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) April 9, 2011 - 12:00am

The historic transformations under way in many Arab countries have temporarily overshadowed other major regional issues. Well, this period seems to be coming to an end, forcing us all to refocus on understanding the hard reality that we can no longer isolate a single issue or conflict in the Middle East – Palestine-Israel, Iran, democratization, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq, terrorism, Anglo-American invaders, corruption, take your pick – and address it on its own.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017