November 5th

U.N. Set to Endorse Inquiry Into Possible War Crimes in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Neil MacFarquhar - November 4, 2009 - 1:00am

UNITED NATIONS — The General Assembly is preparing to approve a resolution that would endorse a United Nations report calling on both Israel and the Palestinians to investigate possible war crimes in the Gaza Strip within three months.

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Clinton Backs Peace Talks Before Israeli Settlement Freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Mark Landler - November 4, 2009 - 1:00am

CAIRO — Winding up a Middle East tour, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton repeated on Wednesday that while the Obama administration rejects the legitimacy of Israeli settlement expansion, it nonetheless believes that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations should precede a permanent freeze on such construction. Her arguments conflicted with Arab and Palestinian demands that all settlement activity be frozen as a precondition for resuming talks with Israel.

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November 4th

Media analyses suggest that the Obama administration is lowering expectations on Middle East peace, and is focused on preventing a meltdown. The LA Times profiles nonviolent Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank. Controversy surrounds a draft UN General Assembly resolution on the Goldstone report. The U.S. House of Representatives passes a bill criticizing the report, while Rep. Brian Baird critiqued its language on the House floor. Ha'aretz suggests that the Israeli leadership may be preparing public opinion for another possible Gaza war. UN chief Ban Ki-moon urges Israel to end its "provocative actions" in the occupied East Jerusalem. A commentary in Ynet says PM Netanyahu is essentially a cautious politician who avoids both war and peace, while another in Ha'aretz urges US to get tough with Israel. Michael Lame interviews Palestinian entrepreneur Bashar Masri, and Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic Monthly interviews ATFP Senior Fellow Hussein Ibish.

Hussein Ibish on the Fantasy World of One-Staters
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Atlantic
by Jeffrey Goldberg - (Interview) November 3, 2009 - 1:00am

Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, which is the leading American group advocating for an independent Palestine alongside Israel, has a new book out, "What's Wrong With the One-State Agenda?" which does a comprehensive job of demolishing the arguments made by those who think that Israel should be eliminated and replaced by a single state of Jews and Palestinians. He has performed an important service with this book by noting one overwhelming truth about this debate: Virtually no one in Israel wants a single-state between the river and the sea.

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A bad month for Mideast peace-making
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) November 4, 2009 - 1:00am

In baseball three strikes mean you are out, but in American foreign policy in the Middle East three strikes seem to mean business as usual. In the past few days and weeks, the United States has made three very controversial moves related to Arab-Israeli issues that generate widespread skepticism and anguish – though their total significance remains difficult to gauge, because this depends on whatever else the US may do in the weeks and months ahead.

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For sale – one Middle East peace strategy (hardly used)
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Emile Hokayem - November 4, 2009 - 1:00am

Pity the Palestinians, but pity also the peacemakers whose good intentions inevitably stumble up against the harsh realities of Israeli-Palestinian politicking. The US secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s retreat from the position that a complete Israeli settlement freeze is a necessary confidence-building measure before final-status negotiations is not new; Barack Obama admitted as much in September. It simply reflects the dead end that US peace diplomacy has reached, and the need to start anew with a different approach.

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Despite progress, Obama hesitant about Netanyahu meeting
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - November 3, 2009 - 1:00am

With President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set to appear at the same convention of Jewish activists, and their governments nearing a deal on the thorny settlements issue, it would seem like a great time for a sit-down. But there's a problem: the reluctance of the Palestinians -- and by extension the Arab world -- to climb on board for renewed negotiations.

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Settlement by stealth belies promises of restraint
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - November 4, 2009 - 1:00am

Maysaa Al-Kurd has lived all her life in the home her family moved into in 1956. The pomegranate tree standing in the garden was planted by her father when she was still an infant nearly half a century ago. But that hardly reassured her yesterday when she heard the Jewish settlers break into the next-door extension building her brother Nabil built to house his family in 2001.

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Clinton tries to keep peace alive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
by Kim Ghattas - November 4, 2009 - 1:00am

Hillary Clinton was planning to be home by now after a week-long trip, but instead she took a detour through Egypt for talks with top officials including President Hosni Mubarak, looking for help from a country that is key to any progress in the Middle East peace process. In her discussions she is expected to try to undo some of the damage done by her comments in the past few days while also looking for ways to keep some semblance of movement in the moribund Middle East peace process. The Obama administration is worried that in the absence of any talks, violence might resume.

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BUILDING IN THE WEST BANK: An Interview with Bashar Masri
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Re-Think the Middle East
by Michael Lame - (Interview) November 3, 2009 - 1:00am

Bashar Masri is a Palestinian, born and raised in Nablus, educated in Egypt and the United States. Trained as a chemical engineer and with a background in management consulting, Bashar moved back to the West Bank from the Washington DC area in the mid-1990s, establishing himself in Ramallah. He was the founder and first publisher of the Palestinian daily newspaper Al Ayyam. A successful businessman, Bashar is CEO of Massar International, which engages in a variety of business activities across the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe.

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