NEWS: The US and Israel are staging a massive air defense drill. Palestinian voters seem skeptical about the value of upcoming local elections in the occupied West Bank. Israeli warplanes attack militant facilities in northern Gaza. The PA anti-corruption commission is investigating PLO-owned land registered in the name of individual officials. An Israeli man suffers minor injuries after being stabbed by a Palestinian near Bethlehem. A new Israeli poll suggests PM Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition partners are stronger than ever.Palestinians say they don't expect any changes to Israeli policies as a result of the election. Palestinian parties in Israel may unite under a single ticket for the election. The Arab world seems uninterested in Israel's election. Netanyahu appears to be hoping to gain by the revival of Republican presidential candidate Romney's prospects. Palestinians urge Romney to take a more balanced view of the conflict. The PA says Israel is violating Oslo Agreement water pricing. EU officials say they warned Palestinians about the potential costs of a renewed UN bid. Outgoing Hamas leader Mishaal admits it is difficult to reconcile “resistance” with governance and calls on Islamists to manage their relations with the West. COMMENTARY: David Landau says former PM Olmert must run in the coming Israeli elections if there is any hope of defeating Netanyahu. Eric Yoffie says Israelis should make peace a central election issue. Roni Shaked says Hamas wants to avoid a major escalation with Israel in spite of recent violence. Douglas Bloomfield says Netanyahu has found the Iranian nuclear program a convenient excuse for no progress on peace with the Palestinians. Yolande Knell asks why Netanyahu has called an early election. Nathan Jeffay says Netanyahu laid the grounds for the new elections in his UN speech.

Netanyahu Planted Seeds for Early Vote at U.N.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Jeffay - (Opinion) October 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Tel Aviv — Nobody outside his inner circle knew it yet, but when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United Nations late last month, it was the start of his election campaign. He talked tough on Iran in the September 27 speech, presenting himself to Israelis as a leader who has the confidence to make demands for their security, and the guts to take out a red pen and draw the “red line” he is setting for the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program on a cartoon-style picture of a bomb.

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Why has Israel's PM called an early election?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Yolande Knell - (Analysis) October 10, 2012 - 12:00am

The announcement of an early Israeli general election by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came just in time for the main evening news bulletin on Tuesday but the public was already prepared. Last week, as Mr Netanyahu met the leaders of his coalition partners, it became clear that he did not have their support for the 2013 budget, which must be passed by the end of this year.

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Excuse for no peace process?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) October 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Whatever you may think of Binyamin Netanyahu, and very few people are neutral on the subject, there is no denying that though often abrasive and irritating, he has put the Iranian nuclear program high on the international agenda. Without his stubborn nudging it is fair to assume the intensity of international pressure on the Islamic Republic would be far weaker than it is today.

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Low key escalation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roni Shaked - (Opinion) October 10, 2012 - 12:00am

The Hamas rulers of Gaza do not shed a tear when Israel takes out global jihad terrorists. This was the case Sunday night when the Air Force targeted two terrorists in Rafah, only this time 11 passersby, including women and children, were also injured – two of them critically.

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A call to Israelis from U.S. Jews: Make peace an election issue
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Eric H. Yoffie - (Opinion) October 11, 2012 - 12:00am

It is time for us, as American Jews, to offer advice to Israelis on their election. This seems only right.  For the last year, my Israeli friends have inundated me and others with comments about the American election. 

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Run, Olmert, run
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by David Landau - (Opinion) October 11, 2012 - 12:00am

The worst thing that could happen to Ehud Olmert – if he chooses to run against Netanyahu in the Israeli general elections that have just been announced – the most demeaning, the cruelest, is that the High Court disqualifies him, before or after the election, amid outpourings of joy from the righteous hypocrisy crowd.

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Mashaal admits Hamas made mistakes in gov't
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - October 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was quoted Wednesday as admitting that it was difficult to combine governance with “resistance.” Speaking at a symposium in Qatar on Islamists and democratic regimes, Mashaal said that Hamas tried to “combine resistance with government, but this is difficult. Hamas has been and remains a resistance movement and is with the resistance.” Mashaal said that there should be no comparison between Hamas’s experience in power and the rise of Islamists to power in the Arab world.

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'EU warned PA of negative costs of UN bid'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - October 11, 2012 - 12:00am

The European Union is advising the Palestinian Authority to “be careful” regarding its stated plan to ask the UN for non-member state observer status at its General Assembly, Deputy Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Kourkoulas said Wednesday. Kourkoulas, on a one day trip to Israel where he met his counterpart Danny Ayalon and National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror, told The Jerusalem Post that while there has not been any formal EU discussion on the matter, informal deliberations are ongoing.

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Palestinian Authority: Israel violating Oslo deal on water prices
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - October 11, 2012 - 12:00am

This past summer, Palestinian water authority officials were hoping that the water crisis would ease up in the Hebron area and the Gaza Strip, after an agreement was reached over the purchase of additional water from Israel.

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