Prisoner swap pours cold water on peace process ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Khalaf Ahmad al Habtoor - (Opinion) October 27, 2011 - 12:00am I’ve lived long enough to know that not everything is as it seems at first glance. I’m sure that most Arabs view the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas as a good deal. After all, who can complain about exchanging one skinny youth weighing around 45 kilogrammes for 1,020 Palestinian prisoners, including many who were serving life sentences? Sounds great until one analyses the motivations and ramifications. » Read more

A joint proposal on the foundations of a two-state solution ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Alan Dershowitz, Chibli Mallat - (Opinion) October 27, 2011 - 12:00am Two professors at Harvard Law School, Chibli Mallat, Custodian of the Two Holy Places Visiting Professor of Islamic Legal Studies, and Alan Dershowitz, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, have adopted what they consider a compromise basis for negotiations on a two-state solution. What follows is their joint statement of principles on what could become a UN Security Council Resolution: » Read more

Simple refusal to hate ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times by Jonathan Jansen - (Opinion) October 27, 2011 - 12:00am For a Palestinian man whose daughters were maimed and killed, one decapitated, by a shell from an Israeli tank, Izzeldin Abuelaish is astonishingly without any bitterness. In response to this unspeakable family tragedy, the Gaza doctor established a foundation called Daughters for Life, which provides scholarships for studies to girls from the Middle East, including Jewish girls from inside Israel. I could see quiet tears in the mesmerised campus audience in the face of such uncommon grace. » Read more

Fadwa Barghouti: 'For peace to come, Israel must release my husband' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Donald MacIntyre - (Opinion) October 27, 2011 - 12:00am As a long-term Fatah activist, staunch nationalist and qualified lawyer married to the most famous and popular Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail, Fadwa Barghouti's reaction to the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas last week was perhaps surprising. "I was very happy that the mother of Shalit saw her son after five years," she says, before adding that she is speaking as a mother, not as a politician. "You cannot define motherhood in one place and redefine it in another – it's indivisible. » Read more

Egypt's new face in swap for Israeli 'spy' Ilan Grapel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Kevin Connolly - (Opinion) October 26, 2011 - 12:00am At first glance, Israel's decision to trade 25 prisoners with Egyptian passports for the release of Ilan Grapel from a Cairo prison has echoes of the exchange which saw captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit traded for a thousand Palestinian prisoners. But only at first glance. The plight of Sgt Shalit - a young conscript who was abducted by Palestinian militants five years ago - engaged the sympathy of the nation. His family staged a long vigil in a tent outside the residence of the Israeli prime minister and made his plight a central issue in Israeli life. » Read more

UNESCO Becomes a New Battleground ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by A.D. McKenzie - (Analysis) October 27, 2011 - 12:00am Palestine’s bid to become a member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has created a tense atmosphere here, as the United States threatens to cut financing if the application is approved. Delegates to the agency’s 36th General Conference, which began this week, faced heightened security and a barrage of international media attention, as UNESCO’s 193 member states prepare to vote on the Palestinian request. » Read more

Review: Exploring the diversity of Palestinian identity ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency by Mya Guarnieri - (Opinion) October 27, 2011 - 12:00am The PLO's UN bid for statehood is divisive. It has furthered America’s and Israel’s drift from the international community as well as confirming, yet again, the United States’ deep bias toward Israel. The request is also controversial within Palestinian circles. Even if it is successful, will it create meaningful change on the ground? Can it end the occupation? What about equal rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel? » Read more

The Mideast deal that could have been ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by David Ignatius - (Opinion) October 26, 2011 - 12:00am To the catalogue of missed opportunities for peace in the Middle East, we can add a tantalizing if also depressing chapter: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s secret offer in 2008 to create a Palestinian state that would feature international control of holy sites in a divided Jerusalem — a concession many Israelis have said was impossible. » Read more

It's Either Abbas or Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now by Ori Nir - (Blog) October 27, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said this week that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas should leave his post soon and that "anyone who replaces (Abbas) will be better than he is." Lieberman called Abbas "an obstacle to peace." The firebrand foreign minister was talking about the same Abbas who Prime Minister Netanyahu called "my partner in peace," the same Abbas who Israel's President Shimon Peres recently characterized as "the best (Palestinian) leader we will work with," the same Abbas who former Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin this week called a "statesman." » Read more

Israel Evicting the Indigenous ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by Jillian Kestler-D'Amours - October 26, 2011 - 12:00am JERUSALEM, Oct 26, 2011 (IPS) - As Israel moves ahead with a plan to forcibly displace tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouins in the occupied West Bank, Mohammad Al-Korshan and his family are facing the real prospect of not only losing their home, but their traditional way of life. » Read more