NEWS: Palestinians are still studying their options for a UN initiative. Lebanon and Qatar may play a crucial role. PM Netanyahu lobbies international diplomats against Palestinian statehood. Hamas is late in paying its employees wages. Israel arrests 11 Palestinians in the West Bank. Projectiles fired from Gaza land in Israel without causing injuries. Gazans defy handicaps to lead full lives. A Palestinian textile factory is booming online. Israel arrests another actor from the Jenin freedom theater. COMMENTARY: Ha'aretz says Netanyahu must distance himself from inflammatory comments by FM Lieberman. Gabriel Bacalor says Palestinians are ready for peace but Israeli policies are not. Yossi Alpher says Israel's West Bank separation barrier was justified despite many mistakes, but Ghassan Khatib says it was illegal, unjustified and ultimately destructive. Alon Ben-Meir says Israeli-Palestinian coexistence is inevitable and they must determine its form. Hussein Ibish says the latest Israeli settlement announcement shows how desperate the situation is for Palestinians.

Facts on the Ground
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) August 8, 2011 - 12:00am

With negotiations hopelessly stalled and the deadline for a potential confrontation at the United Nations in September rapidly approaching, the Israeli government apparently decided that now would be the appropriate time to announce a major expansion of one of its most provocative settlements. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said last week that final approval has been given for 900 new units in the Jerusalem "Har Homa" settlement, an area known to Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim.

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Israel and the Palestinians Must Face the Inescapable
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Alon Ben-meir - (Opinion) August 8, 2011 - 12:00am

Coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians is inevitable and, short of catastrophic developments, the two peoples are doomed or destined to live between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. They must now decide on the quality of that coexistence. Do they want to live with mutual hatred and fear while demonizing one another or do they want to live in peace and amity and realize the biblical prophecy of making their shared land the true Land of Milk and Honey?

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Illegal, unjust and ultimately destructive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) August 8, 2011 - 12:00am

Ten years after Israel started building a Wall in the occupied West Bank, the project has not proven Israeli arguments in its defense, but rather illustrated the Palestinian view that this is one more component of illegal Israeli settlement expansion. Israel, for the most part, said that the Wall was needed for its security. In response, Palestinians asked why then it was built to incorporate settlements into Israel, rather than on the internationally-recognized 1967 borders between Israel and the West Bank.

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Justified, despite the many mistakes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) August 8, 2011 - 12:00am

Successive Israeli governments since those of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon have made nearly every mistake possible in creating the West Bank security fence. Yet the fence has not only served its original security purpose well; it has also delineated the broad outline of a future Israeli-Palestinian border everywhere in the West Bank except Jerusalem.

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Palestinians for dummies
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gabriel Bacalor - (Opinion) August 8, 2011 - 12:00am

According to recent opinion polls conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR), an overwhelming majority of the Palestinians (61 percent) want their government to follow the peace policies of Fatah and President Mahmoud Abbas, while only 18% support the agenda of Hamas. The survey also highlights a broad popular perception of threat in Palestinian society, with 81% of the West Bankers and 82% of Gazans believing that Israel’s long-term goal is to annex the West Bank and expel its inhabitants or deny them their political rights.

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Owning a Piece of Palestine: Syria's Assad Regimes and the Palestinian Question
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Ziad Asali - (Analysis) August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

What follows are my opening remarks at Carnegie-ATFP. Wednesday, July 27, Moderator Ziad Asali: Thank you very much, Marina. It is a privilege to be doing this program with Carnegie and have you with us, and we look forward to more association in the future. Thank you, everyone, for attending this program. It is about Syria, and the title is, "Owning a Piece of Palestine."

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Netanyahu must distance himself from Lieberman
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

The growing social-economic protest is, as could be expected, giving rise to efforts to divert resources from the issues of the day to a different set of priorities. The prime minister and the finance minister were quick to grab hold of the crisis in the money market following the downgrading of America's credit rating. The foreign minister harnessed for his needs the political crisis expected to occur in the wake of a United Nations decision to recognize a Palestinian state.

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Israel arrests third actor in refugee theatre group
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Catrina Stewart - August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Organisers of a pioneering drama project in a Palestinian refugee camp have accused Israel of a campaign of intimidation after soldiers arrested a third member in the space of a few days. Rami Hwayel, an actor with the Jenin Freedom Theatre, was arrested two days ago at an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank as he drove home with friends to see his family for Ramadan.

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Social media offers last keffiyeh factory lifeline
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Howard Johnson - August 8, 2011 - 12:00am

Hirbawi Textiles is located on a nondescript road on the outskirts of the Palestinian city Hebron. To the outsider it looks like any other ageing factory. In the dank, strip-light lit interior there are rows of disused machines with cogs wrapped in cobwebs. But three years ago the factory became the focus of the world's media, when it became apparent it was the last in the Palestinian Territories to produce the keffiyeh, the traditional Arab headdress and favourite of former leader Yasser Arafat.

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