Palestinians say U.S. presents new ideas to revive Mideast peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
February 18, 2011 - 1:00am

The Palestinian leadership will meet Friday in the West Bank to discuss new U.S. ideas aimed at reviving peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, sources said Thursday. President Mahmoud Abbas asked the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization and the Central Committee of his Fatah movement for an urgent meeting to discuss the ideas, the sources said. The sources said they do not have details about the new ideas, while Palestinian officials contacted by Xinhua refused to comment.

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Netanyahu faces international isolation as peace process stalls
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - February 17, 2011 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under increasing pressure and international isolation as a result of the breakdown in the peace process. European leaders do not believe he is serious about achieving peace, the Chinese are still furious with him for canceling his trip at the last minute in November, and India has been diplomatically sidestepping his request to visit.

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Abbas stresses Palestinian clinging to Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
February 16, 2011 - 1:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stressed Wednesday his leadership will never give up the Armenian area in East Jerusalem under any peace deal with Israel. "The Armenian Quarter is an undividable part of East Jerusalem, which is the capital of the (future) independent Palestinian state, " Abbas said during a meeting with Christian leaders at his office in Ramallah.

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Jordan calls for resuming Palestinian-Israeli peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
February 16, 2011 - 1:00am

Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh on Wednesday urged intensified international efforts to realize progress in resuming Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. In a joint press conference with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Judeh stressed the need for pushing peacemaking efforts forward and re-launching serious and effective negotiations that will address all final status issues. These negotiations should lead to the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital, Judeh said.

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Israel should join the new reality of world diplomacy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) February 16, 2011 - 1:00am

The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, the demonstrations in Iran and Bahrain and the general feeling of an earthquake rumbling across the Middle East have thus far conferred a sense of deliverance on Israel, as it has managed to escape the spotlight. After all, who wants to deal with the peace process, dismantling settlements, marking the border between Israel and Palestine or defining security arrangements when the entire world is holding its head, uncertain how to act in the face of these budding democracies?

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Encountering Peace: Thank you in advance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) February 14, 2011 - 1:00am

Congratulations to the people of Egypt! They have shown the real power of the people. Their success was, of course, linked to the fact that their feeling of being disenfranchised and without the ability to improve their lives was shared by the army. Tahrir Square was filled with young people who had no job, so their energies and frustrations were poured into the struggle for freedom, human rights, economic justice and democracy. They won also because their cause was just and they clearly held the higher moral ground.

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Palestinian peace negotiation unit disbanded
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
February 14, 2011 - 1:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to disband the Negotiations Support Unit (NSU) which provided him with technical help during long-running peace talks with Israel, an official said on Monday. The decision was made after it was discovered that employees in the unit were behind the leak of hundreds of documents to the television station al Jazeera which embarrassed Abbas's administration.

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Palestinian official denies contacts to resume peace negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
February 11, 2011 - 1:00am

A senior Palestinian official on Thursday affirmed that there were no contacts with Israel to resume stalled peace talks. "There has been no sort of contacts with the Israeli government recently," said Nabil Shaath, a member of the Palestinian negotiation team. Shaath was commenting on Israeli media reports that staff from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' office and officials at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office exchanged messages to discuss the resumption of the negotiations.

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The bigger picture eludes Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) February 10, 2011 - 1:00am

Why is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (and many other Israelis) behaving like an ostrich? He is digging his head in the sand and wondering why the Egyptian uprising, triggered by the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, has engulfed the Middle East and posed a threat to Israel. Netanyahu and his extreme right-wing cabinet may now be regretting their failure to push harder or, at least, be more accommodating in reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinian National Authority.

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A search for common ground, against the odds
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) February 8, 2011 - 1:00am

Since its inception in 2003, the American Task Force on Palestine, where I am a senior research fellow, has been trying to help lay the groundwork for an American alliance for a two-state solution. Such an alliance would bring Jewish-American supporters of Israel and their allies, and Arab-American supporters of Palestine and their allies, together to pursue the mutual interests of both peoples – and of course of the United States itself – in a stable peace agreement.

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