Western double standards and free speech ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) October 2, 2012 - 12:00am In my recent columns I've been critical of calls for a global "blasphemy" ban from the Organization of Islamic Conference and other Muslim leaders. But free-speech protections, if they are to be meaningful, must be universal. The greatest threat to them is double standards that are the bedrock of advocacy for the slippery slope of restrictions. » Read more

Behind Henry Siegman's Turn on Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - October 2, 2012 - 12:00am At 82, Henry Siegman felt pessimism setting in as he thought of the future of Israel and its decades-long conflict with the Palestinians. “The two-state solution,” he recently wrote “is dead.” » Read more

Behind Henry Siegman's Turn on Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - October 2, 2012 - 12:00am At 82, Henry Siegman felt pessimism setting in as he thought of the future of Israel and its decades-long conflict with the Palestinians. “The two-state solution,” he recently wrote “is dead.” » Read more

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Popularity on the Upswing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Linda Gradstein - October 1, 2012 - 12:00am As Israelis begin the observance of Sukkot, a week-long religious holiday celebrating the end of the harvest, talk on the streets is of travel plans and family visits. Many Israelis build a sukkah, an outdoor hut open to the stars, as commanded in the Bible, where they eat their meals – and where some even sleep -- for the week. » Read more

Arabs hold protest march to mark October riots ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Hassan Shaalan - October 1, 2012 - 12:00am Thousands demonstrated in Sakhnin on Monday marking 12 years since the October 2000 riots in which 12 Arab-Israelis, a Palestinian and a Jewish citizen were killed. They are protesting the State's failure to take legal action against members of the security forces who caused the victims' deaths. » Read more

PA releases Zakaria Zubeidi on bail ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency October 1, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Former Fatah fighter Zakaria Zubeidi was released from Palestinian Authority jail on Monday evening, his lawyer said. Zubeidi has been charged with connection to the shooting on the late Jenin governor's house in May, attorney Farid Hawash said. Qaddura Musa died hours later of a heart attack. Hawash said Zubeidi would plead not guilty at the next hearing on Oct. 7. The Jenin court released him on bail of 5,000 Jordanian dinar, he added. » Read more

Israel scrambles Palestinian 'right of return' with Jewish refugee talk ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Christa Case Bryant - October 1, 2012 - 12:00am More than 60 years after the founding of Israel precipitated two tides of refugees in the Middle East, the Israeli government has launched a campaign to persuade the world that it’s not just Palestinians who suffered in Israel's early days. » Read more

Palestinian official says Obama didn't ask to resume Mideast talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua October 1, 2012 - 12:00am   RAMALLAH, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- The United States President Barack Obama didn't ask the Palestinian side for resuming the peace talks with Israel, a senior Palestinian official said Monday. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Xinhua on telephone that the Palestinian side hasn't received any official offer or proposal from anybody to resume peace negotiations with Israel. » Read more

Hamas detains radical Salafi leader, 5 aides in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua October 1, 2012 - 12:00am GAZA, Oct. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Hamas movement's administration in the Gaza Strip has arrested the leader of a radical al-Qaeda affiliated Islamic Salafi group and five of his aides, the group said in a statement on Monday. The group, called the Army of the Nation (Jaish el-Omma), said in a statement sent to reporters that Hamas police arrested Abu Hafs al-Maqdisi, the group's leader, and five other activists of the group. » Read more

Pro-settler vandals deface Jerusalem monastery ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters October 2, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Suspected hardline Israelis scrawled pro-settler graffiti and religious insults on a monastery outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City on Tuesday, police said, in the latest of a series of attacks on non-Jewish sites. The vandals wrote the phrase "price tag" in Hebrew on the gate of the Monastery of Saint Francis on Mount Zion - a reference to a violent campaign supporting unauthorised settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. » Read more