Palestinians express doubts over 2-state future
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Tia Goldenberg - (Analysis) December 12, 2010 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Conventional wisdom on Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking has long held that Israel should relinquish most of the lands it occupied in 1967 in favor of a Palestinian state — the "two-state solution" that much of the world has supported for years.

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Erdogan pledges support for '67 state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 12, 2010 - 1:00am

ANKARA, Turkey (Ma’an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas visited Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan in his Ankara home on Sunday, to discuss developments in the peace negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators. Following the meeting, Ambassador of Palestine to Turkey Nabil Ma’roof told the official PA news agency WAFA that Erdogan pledged to support a bid for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. The official said he would speak with the leaders of all those nations with which Turkey had diplomatic relations.

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Reality Check
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Thomas L. Friedman - (Opinion) December 11, 2010 - 1:00am

The failed attempt by the U.S. to bribe Israel with a $3 billion security assistance package, diplomatic cover and advanced F-35 fighter aircraft — if Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu would simply agree to a 90-day settlements freeze to resume talks with the Palestinians — has been enormously clarifying. It demonstrates just how disconnected from reality both the Israeli and the Palestinian leaderships have become.

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Palestinians weigh options as talks freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Paralysis in U.S.-backed peace talks is prompting debate among Palestinians on alternatives to the two-decade old diplomatic process. The chances of another Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, similar to that which erupted when peace talks with Israel hit a dead-end a decade ago, are seen as remote.

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More Mideast talks futile without US shift
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
by Tom Perry - December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

More Middle East peace talks will be "an exercise in futility" unless the United States "curbs Israeli violations," a leading Palestinian said. Hanan Ashrawi, a veteran of the 20-year-old peace process, faulted the U.S. approach for giving Israel time to expand settlements and deepen its control over the land where the Palestinians aim to found a sovereign state. "I've had enough," said Ashrawi, a member of the delegation which negotiated with Israel for two years from 1991.

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U.S. working to resuscitate Israeli-Palestinian indirect talks: source
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Israeli officials close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are expressing satisfaction over the fact that the issue of a building freeze in the West Bank is off the agenda between Israel and the United States. "The Americans understood that it's not the right way," one official said, a source close to the government told Xinhua on Thursday. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak will fly to Washington soon to meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in order to discuss ways of getting the peace process moving again, according to the source.

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Palestinians Win Backing for Independence by Crackdown on Corruption
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by David Miller - December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Cleaner government in Ramallah and law and order on the streets of Jenin may be doing more to bring Palestine into the community of nation states than peace talks with Israel, officials and analysts said after Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil moved to recognize Palestine as an independent state.

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A Palestinian state born in South America
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

It was only a matter of time, the writing has been on the wall. The Palestinians have warned repeatedly that if negotiations did not move forward, they would resort to one of two strategies: to dismantle the Palestinian Authority and hand Israel responsibility for administering the West Bank; or, to ask the United Nations to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

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The returning issue of Palestine's refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Saeb Erakat - (Opinion) December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Before his murder in 1948, Lord Folke Bernadotte, the first UN mediator to the Arab-Israeli conflict, stated: "It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent [Palestinian] victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes, while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine." Lord Bernadotte paid for his candour with his life as Jewish militants assassinated him under the direction of Yitzhak Shamir, the man who would later become prime minister of Israel.

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Abject surrender
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) December 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Washington’s decision that it will no longer attempt to persuade the Israelis to impose a new moratorium on settlement construction in order to restart peace negotiations is an abject and shocking admission of failure. Everyone knew that that the Americans had serious difficulties trying to persuade the Israelis to concede on this vital issue. But there was wide belief that an ingenious diplomatic formula could be devised to enable talks to go ahead. No one imagined that President Barack Obama would simply capitulate to the Israelis. That is what has happened.

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