September 22nd

West Bank settlements become havens of Israeli surburbanites
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - September 20, 2009 - 12:00am

Meet the Ovadiahs, the Allons, and the Cohens. They're new arrivals in Israeli neighborhoods where freshly laid red-tile roofs and toddler toys dotting green lawns are a picture of the Israeli equivalent of the American dream, minus the white picket fence.

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Israel makes secret offer on settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Times
by Eli Lake - September 22, 2009 - 12:00am

Ahead of the Obama administration's first U.S.-Palestinian-Israeli summit, Israel has agreed to a partial freeze of settlement construction for six to nine months but still wants to build more than 2,500 new housing units, said Israeli officials and an Israeli specialist familiar with the country's evolving policy.

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A false equivalency of false equivalencies?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog
by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) September 17, 2009 - 12:00am

I get a lot of interesting responses to the postings on the Ibishblog, but those regarding my last posting on the UN Goldstone commission of inquiry into the Gaza war were particularly revealing. Both Arab and Jewish partisans tend to become enraged by any suggestion of equivalency between Israel and any group of Palestinians, particularly when it comes to conflict, warfare and armed struggle. Indeed, both the Israeli government and Hamas condemned the Goldstone report for the sin of "false equivalency," among other things.

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A false equivalency of false equivalencies?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog
by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) September 22, 2009 - 12:00am

I get a lot of interesting responses to the postings on the Ibishblog, but those regarding my last posting on the UN Goldstone commission of inquiry into the Gaza war were particularly revealing. Both Arab and Jewish partisans tend to become enraged by any suggestion of equivalency between Israel and any group of Palestinians, particularly when it comes to conflict, warfare and armed struggle. Indeed, both the Israeli government and Hamas condemned the Goldstone report for the sin of "false equivalency," among other things.

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Low expectations for 'symbolic' trilateral summit in NY
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roni Sofer - September 22, 2009 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the US overnight Tuesday ahead of his scheduled meeting with US President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. White House officials said their expectations from the trilateral talks, which are set to begin at 6 pm (Israel time), were low. Sources in the PM's entourage said the meeting between Netanyahu, Abbas and Obama would likely be symbolic in nature, adding that they do not foresee any diplomatic achievements during the General Assembly's session.

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PA: Gaza no excuse for stalling peace negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - September 22, 2009 - 12:00am

"We expect (US President Barack) Obama to take advantage of the meeting with (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and (Palestinian President Mahmoud) Abbas to press Israel on the settlement issue," a senior Palestinian official told Ynet Tuesday, just hours before the Israeli, Palestinian and American leaders were scheduled to convene in New York. The official called on Obama to try and convince Israel to halt all settlement activity in the West Bank "so that his plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state within two years will not remain on paper alone."

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September 21st

President Obama is scheduled to meet Tuesday with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas at the UN, and Laura Rozen in Politico examines the stakes for all parties. Hamas leaders attack President Abbas’ legitimacy as the representative of the Palestinian people. A Washington Post op-ed by Steven Walt argues that Israel's government is not interested in a two-state agreement, while another by Jackson Diehl suggests the war in Gaza was actually a "success" for Israel. Israeli shelling leaves two Palestinians dead and three others injured in the northern Gaza Strip, while Israel also bombs smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza. Text messaging helps Palestinians combat unemployment in the West Bank. Raghida Dergham argues that President Obama's domestic problems are playing into the hands of Israel and Iran.

Commentary: Middle East tunnel vision
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Press International (UPI)
by Arnaud De Borchgrave - (Editorial) September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

The only bank this Rothschild ever owned was the West Bank. Danny Rothschild, an Israeli general and onetime coordinator of all government activities in the occupied territories, and now one of 1,200 former intelligence officers in Israel's Council for Peace and Security, says the Palestinians should be allowed to have their capital in Arab East Jerusalem. The very thought of allowing Palestinians to set up a government where 200,000 Israeli settlers moved in since the 1967 war, when Israeli forces "liberated" East Jerusalem from Jordanian rule, is sacrilegious.

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Iran and Israel are benefitting from a weakening Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Raghida Dergham - (Blog) September 18, 2009 - 12:00am

Presidents and Prime Ministers are flocking to the United Nations this week, some of them full of expectations, some burdened with depression and others less enthusiastic about meeting US President Barack Obama, after his international flame has waned as a result of internal battles that were waged against him or that he provoked, weighing him down.

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Gaza: Goldstone’s report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Is there no limit to the wiles of those dastardly anti-Semites? Now they have decided to slander the Jews with another blood libel. Not the old accusation of slaughtering Christian children to use their blood for baking Passover matzoth, as in the past, but of the mass slaughter of women and children in Gaza.

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