September 10th

NEWS: A new UN report details poverty in Gaza. Palestinians continue to protest rising prices, as truck drivers block streets. Israeli officials rule out Palestinian requests to modify the Paris Protocol to ease economic woes. The PA says public employees will receive half pay on Wednesday. Protesters call on Pres. Abbas to resign. PM Fayyad says the protests demonstrate the PA's commitment to freedom of expression. A rocket fired from Gaza hits a house in southern Israel, causing damage but no injuries. Israel will compensate a Palestinian family which lost two sons in the 2009 Gaza war. Israel's Cabinet votes to upgrade the status of a school in a West Bank settlement to that of an officially recognized “university.” Palestinian children in occupied Hebron face serious challenges in returning to school. Some Palestinians in Jordan are threatened with losing their citizenship. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon suffer from long waits for medical care. COMMENTARY: Saud Abu Ramadan argues Salafist militants in Gaza are trying to drag Hamas into a war with Israel. Adam Gonn says there's a direct connection between a potential renewed Palestinian UN bid and the urgent need for economic relief. Amira Hass says Palestinians should remember their problems mainly stem from the occupation. Hagai Segal says the settlers have won the battle for the West Bank against Israeli moderates and the Palestinians. Alon Liel says Israel is repeating its “low stool” diplomatic tactics used against Turkish officials with US Amb. Shapiro. Salman Masalha says it's ridiculous that anybody involved in the Oslo Accords ever got a Nobel Peace Prize. Eric Yoffie says it won't matter much to Israel whether Pres. Obama is reelected or Mitt Romney wins the presidency. Robert Turner says the new UN report shows the urgent need to lift the blockade of Gaza. The National encourages the Palestinians to seek greater recognition at the UN. Tariq Alhomayed says it is political buffoonery for Arabs to allow Hamas and Hezbollah to thrive while the PA is on the brink of bankruptcy. Dan Ephron profiles Israel's powerful and growing settler movement.

A Dream Not Deferred
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Newsweek
by Dan Ephron - (Opinion) September 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Dror Etkes should have been pleased. Six years ago, the 44-year-old Israeli peace activist asked Israel’s High Court of Justice to intervene in the case of a Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank built on Palestinian farmland. Etkes, who spends much of his time fighting settlement expansion, thought the Migron outpost could be a test case. But when the court finally ordered Israeli authorities to evict the settlement’s 50 families last week, he couldn’t bring himself to celebrate.

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Love, bankruptcy and buffoonery in our region
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - (Opinion) September 10, 2012 - 12:00am

The Iranian President told his Palestinian counterpart that he loves the Palestinians, prompting Abbas to reply: “For God’s sake, love us all”, i.e. not just Hamas. But it is hard for Ahmadinejad to do that, for Iran and its adherers will not be satisfied with the Palestinians until they are a game in their hands, like Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Assad.

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UN recognition is best course for Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) September 10, 2012 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority is at a crossroads, although many will expect President Mahmoud Abbas to steer along the same deadend track. On Saturday, Mr Abbas repeated a promise to return to the United Nations to press for recognition of Palestinian statehood; and yesterday, the PA proposed renegotiating the Paris Protocols, which govern its economic arrangements with Israel.

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Gaza: an early warning of disaster
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Robert Turner - (Opinion) September 9, 2012 - 12:00am

The international system is often accused of failing to give adequate early warning; of being myopic and not furnishing the appropriate powers with data and analysis that would allow an effective, timely response to predictable disasters. With the recent publication of the report, Gaza in 2020: a Liveable Place?, it would be hard to level these accusations at the UN country team in the occupied Palestinian territory.

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Obama or Romney? Makes little difference for Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Eric H. Yoffie - (Opinion) September 10, 2012 - 12:00am

The conventions are finally over.  We have listened to the speeches, seen the videos, and read the platforms.  And as American Jews committed to the Jewish state, we can now say with confidence:  It makes very little difference to Israel who wins this election. There is a single American foreign policy on Israel, embraced by the two major parties, with some differences in style but very modest differences in substance.

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The dwarfs of Oslo
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Salman Masalha - (Opinion) September 10, 2012 - 12:00am

In 1993, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to two African leaders: Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk. The award went to them for bringing to an end the apartheid regime in South Africa by peaceful means. These two leaders were certainly deserving of the prestigious prize.

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‘Low Stool,’ the sequel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Alon Liel - (Opinion) September 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Hollywood always recycles successful movies. Thus we had the privilege of seeing “The Godfather 2” and “Superman 2,” as well as many others that were not always such wonderful productions. In our region, too, they have learned to recycle successes, and sometimes also failures. So we got the Second Intifada and the Second Lebanon War. But now we seem to have done even better: Someone in the Israeli government has decided to recycle the “Low Stool” and we have now witnessed the horrifying turn of events in “Low Stool 2.”

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Great year for settlers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hagai Segal - (Opinion) September 10, 2012 - 12:00am

I admit that the recent evacuation of the Migron outpost in the West Bank did not upset me too much. It was a sad day for those who support the settlement enterprise, and maybe for any Israeli with some sense of compassion, but it was not a major disaster. Comparing it to the uprooting of Yamit or the disengagement from Gaza is ridiculous.

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Someone tell the Palestinians: It's the occupation, stupid!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - (Opinion) September 10, 2012 - 12:00am

“Geniuses,” I said to myself when dozens of trucks and taxis blocked traffic in the heart of Hebron last Wednesday in protest against the price hikes. “Geniuses,” I continued to think when four hours later I passed by the same place, and heard that other demonstrators had set fire to an effigy of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

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