NEWS: Israelis seem satisfied with their own lives but gloomy about peace. Tensions are rising in the occupied West Bank. As expected, the UNSC refers the Palestinian membership application to its standing committee on new members. Sec. Clinton and Egyptian FM Amr both call for resumed negotiations. Clinton calls Israels settlement plans in occupied East Jerusalem "counterproductive." Palestinian FM Malki says Gabon and Nigeria have both promised to support Palestinian UN membership in a possible UNSC vote, leaving only one more required for a majority. Palestinian deny reports they are asking for Quartet Envoy Tony Blair to be replaced. The Prosector of the ICC reaffirms that a Palestinian non-member observer state could join the ICC. House Republicans continue to push for a cutoff of US aid to the PA. Under Pres. Obama, the US has sold bunker-buster technology to Israel. COMMENTARY: Saliba Sarsar and Hussein Ibish say both Abbas and Netanyahu have strengthened their political hands and should now work on positive moves on the ground. Moshe Arens says Israel did not face a "diplomatic tsunami" after all. Sarah Kreimer says Israel has placed ancient sites in the hands of fanatics. The National says Israel's stalling over the Quartet statement and settlement expansion plans show its real intentions. Abdullah Iskandar says Hamas has missed a historic opportunity by denouncing the Palestinian UN initiative. John Whitbeck thinks the US is playing a dangerous game at the UN. The Arab News says even a Palestinian defeat at the UN would be a moral victory. Asharq Al-Awsat and Raghida Dergham both interview Pres. Abbas.

Exclusive Interview With Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: a Humble Moment in History
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Raghida Dergham - (Interview) September 26, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had just delivered the most important speech in his life and he is now sitting with his aides, his jacket and neck tie removed, cutting his steak amidst silence after the storm. It is Friday, September 23, and he had just returned from the United Nations General Assembly where he received roaring applause for submitting Palestine's request for full membership in the UN despite American threats to veto the request and punish the Palestinians financially. He is now in a small cluttered living room at his hotel across the UN.

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Asharq Al-Awsat talks to Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Ali El-saleh - (Interview) September 28, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas looked very pleased hours after he delivered his historic speech at the United Nations General Assembly [UNGA] and submitted the application requesting full membership for the state of Palestine. This pleasure and happiness are justified. President Abbas disappointed those that cast doubts on his seriousness of going to the United Nations prior to presenting the membership allocation to UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon and delivering his speech.

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Victory in defeat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) September 29, 2011 - 12:00am

Sometimes a defeat can be a great moral victory. For the British, Dunkirk in 1940 was such; a mass retreat before Hitler’s forces was seen as a glorious success against all the odds, shipping the troops across the Channel in an armada of small boats. For Americans, the battle of the Alamo against the Mexican Army in 1836 was a glorious defeat.

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America’s dangerous game at the UN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by John V. Whitbeck - (Opinion) September 29, 2011 - 12:00am

The number of UN member states extending diplomatic recognition to the state of Palestine has now risen to 131, leaving only 62 UN member states on the wrong side of history and humanity. If one ignores small island states in the Caribbean and the Pacific, almost all of the non-recognisers are Western states, including all five of the settler-colonial states founded on the ethnic cleansing or genocide of indigenous populations and all eight of the former European colonial powers.

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Hamas Missed its Chance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Abdullah Iskandar - (Opinion) September 29, 2011 - 12:00am

Let us go through the best case scenario in regard to President Mahmoud Abbas’ request before the Security Council to earn the recognition of the Palestinian state: The Council decides during today’s session to transfer the request to the commission in charge of examining the petitions, which is at the same time composed of the fifteen member states. The committee ratifies the request and transfers it for voting at the Council, where it earns the sufficient number of votes (nine and above) only to be obstructed by the announced American veto and be consequently toppled.

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Israeli stalling hints at real agenda
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) September 29, 2011 - 12:00am

On Wednesday, the Israeli cabinet rejected a formula proposed by the Quartet of mediators - the US, UN, EU, and Russia - in a bid to bring Israelis and Palestinian back to the negotiating table. This followed by a day Israel's latest step toward building 1,100 more homes in the Gilo district of East Jerusalem. In grand understatement, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, labelled the settlement expansion "counterproductive to our efforts to resume direct negotiations between the parties."

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Israel Hands Ancient Site to Ideologues
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Sarah Kreimer - (Opinion) September 29, 2011 - 12:00am

Imagine stepping off the ferry to find that the Statue of Liberty monument is not run by the U.S. National Park Service, but that an evangelical Christian group has a special concession to operate this historic site. Also imagine that the film shown at the Ellis Island museum no longer emphasizes America’s multi-cultural history of immigration, but instead focuses almost exclusively on the contribution of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Sounds absurd?

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There was no political tsunami for Israel after all
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Moshe Arens - (Opinion) September 29, 2011 - 12:00am

The month of September is almost gone and Israel does not lie devastated like north-eastern Japan after the tsunami that hit that region in the wake of a 9.0 magnitude earthquake last March. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas submitted an application to the United Nations that Palestine be recognized as a state and admitted to the UN. Hamas, as was expected, objected to this move, and President Barack Obama said what any sensible person should have known - that bypassing direct negotiations by applying to the UN was not going to advance peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

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The Palestinian Statehood Bid - What Comes Next?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Hussein Ibish, Saliba Sarsar - (Opinion) September 29, 2011 - 12:00am

President Barack Obama, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu all played mainly to their domestic political bases at the United Nations General Assembly meeting last week. Despite the drama, nothing in the basic discourse has changed, no party shifted its bottom-line positions, and none of it brought us any closer to peace or improved the situation on the ground.

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