A Third Way to Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Affairs
by Robert Danin - (Opinion) January 1, 2011 - 1:00am

This past September, as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down in Washington to dine with U.S. President Barack Obama, a barely noticed event took place in Ramallah. With little fanfare, the 13th Palestinian Authority (PA) government, headed by Salam Fayyad, issued its one-year countdown to independence. This brief and understated document is likely to prove far more significant for the future of Palestine than the White House dinner and reflects nothing short of a revolutionary new approach to Palestinian statehood.

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Palestinians pursue 'Plan B' after failed talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
December 31, 2010 - 1:00am

Peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis have reached an impasse over the thorny issue of Jewish settlements. As Washington searches for a way forward, the Palestinians are taking things into their own hands by pursuing a "Plan B", asking countries to recognise an independent Palestinian state. The BBC's Yolande Knell reports from Jerusalem. As the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas laid the symbolic cornerstone for a new embassy in Brazil on Friday, he hoped the greater significance of the act would be noted.

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West Bank: Calling for New Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
December 31, 2010 - 1:00am

The Palestinian president called on the international community on Friday to draft a new formula for peace talks with Israel and set aside the current process, which he said was “managing the conflict but not solving it.” American mediators have turned to indirect talks to seek a way out of the impasse. But with those efforts in tatters and no clear way out, the president, Mahmoud Abbas, said in remarks in the West Bank that the international community should step in to devise a new vision for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

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Netanyahu can blame himself for decline in Israel's world standing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) December 22, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel has embarked on a vanguard diplomatic effort to foil the Palestinian initiative to gain international recognition for Palestine in the 1967 borders, and to fend off a resolution in the UN Security Council condemning settlements.

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Jewish refugees must not be neglected in peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Danny Ayalon - (Opinion) December 22, 2010 - 1:00am

For a long time now, we have been wanting and waiting to sit down and talk. After all, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not short of talking points that need to be urgently resolved. Unfortunately, however, instead of both sides discussing the problems, the Palestinians seem more comfortable issuing demands.

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US shift may mean end of bilateral approach
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - December 22, 2010 - 1:00am

The recent shift in the American approach for running the peace process left the Palestinians with different and sometimes contradicting reactions. Initially, the Palestinians were very worried after news leaked about possible American-Israeli negotiations over a deal that would involve American incentives to convince Israel to freeze settlement activities for two or three months. As one leading Palestinian politician put it, each one of these incentives could be potentially more dangerous to the Palestinians than the continuity of settlement activities themselves.

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The same song in a different key
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Akram Baker - (Opinion) December 22, 2010 - 1:00am

Much has been said about United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's December 10 speech at the Brookings Institute. Analysis has ranged from it being admission of complete failure on the part of the Obama administration and a win for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (with US President Barack Obama backing down on the settlements) to some in Palestinian-American circles declaring it a victory for the Palestinians (with the withdrawal of the much-criticized, so-called US "security sweetener" package for Israel in return for a 90-day settlement-building moratorium).

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Wooing the Gods of the Peace Process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Aaron David Miller - December 21, 2010 - 1:00am

If the peace process gods have a sense of humor (and history), sometime around next summer -- the 11th anniversary of Bill Clinton's failed Camp David summit -- another Democratic president's peace initiative will be tested.

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How did Obama go so wrong with Israel-Palestine peace?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) December 21, 2010 - 1:00am

Where it comes to the Mideast, the craft of peacemaking often bears marked resemblance to the art of war. Especially when it goes wrong. And where it comes to Israel-Palestine diplomacy in the two years of the Obama administration, little has gone right. Now, with the White House and State Department having gone back to the worn-thin drawing board, this would seem as good as any to invoke Sun Tzu's ancient The Art of War, to examine how things went awry, and how much point there is in trying, in the coming two years, to set it right.

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Encountering Peace: Wanted: A progressive leader
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) December 21, 2010 - 1:00am

The gathering of the leadership of the Israeli “peace camp” on Sunday in Ramallah under the auspices of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and almost the entire leadership of the PLO was its largest get-together in the past 10 years. What is left of the Left is a small group of dedicated individuals divided into splinter groups of political initiatives and non-government organizations sharing a very similar platform with a common sense of urgency and a total inability to work together.

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