Need for US-sponsored Arab-Israeli deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Ghassan Rubeiz - (Opinion) November 3, 2009 - 1:00am Palestinians and Israelis are locked in a relationship of deep mistrust. A credible outside force must intervene to break up an enduring cycle of despair. In the foreseeable future, there seems to be no Middle East miracle cure, spontaneous recovery, inspiration, powerful leadership or any of those signs of self-generated breakthroughs. » Read more

PLO Factions to Run on One Ticket against Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Kifah Zaboun - November 2, 2009 - 1:00am Ramallah, Asharq Al-Awsat-Well-informed sources have told Asharq Al-Awsat that PLO factions are studying a proposal by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas to run in the forthcoming presidential and legislative elections as one list to confront Hamas, which achieved a sweeping victory in the previous elections four years ago, when it won majority seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council [PLC]. » Read more

Palestinian revolutionary dies ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Omar Karmi - November 3, 2009 - 1:00am Sakher Habash, the Palestinian revolutionary and intellectual who died on Sunday after a stroke aged 70, devoted the greater part of his life to the Palestinian struggle. Known by his nom de guerre Abu Nizar, Habash was a founding member of the Fatah Party and although he supported the Oslo process of talks with Israel in the mid-1990s, he never rejected armed resistance. Violence, he argued, was a legitimate way for Palestinians to struggle for their rights. To the end, like his lifelong compadre Yasser Arafat, Habash donned the revolutionary uniform. » Read more

Obama betrays hope created by Cairo speech ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Craig Nelson - (Opinion) November 3, 2009 - 1:00am It’s official: forget Cairo. Fold up the speech and throw it in the bin, or put it in that already bulging folder marked “Bad Faith & Broken Promises”. That seems to be the unintended but unavoidably obvious message of the about-face by the US president Barack Obama and his decision last weekend to press ahead with Israeli-Palestinian talks despite Arab and Palestinian demands that Israel halt West Bank settlement construction first. » Read more

Jerusalem artists go underground ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News November 3, 2009 - 1:00am Jerusalem has played host to a two-day arts festival with a difference as part of Palestinian attempts to celebrate the city's year of being Capital of Arab Culture. The BBC Arabic Service correspondent in the city, Ahmad Budeiri, joined the audience. A group of about 100 specially invited guests gathered at Jerusalem's Damascus Gate for the evening's programme to begin. » Read more

US view on settlement 'unchanged' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News November 2, 2009 - 1:00am US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that Washington has not changed its stance against Israeli settlements in the West Bank. She has been meeting Arab foreign ministers in Marrakech in Morocco. On Saturday, Mrs Clinton urged the Israelis and Palestinians to restart talks as soon as possible. This appeared to endorse an Israeli position that talks could start before a settlement freeze which the Palestinians are demanding. On Saturday, she met Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, in a new US drive to restart the peace talks. » Read more

U.K., France want Israel, PA to probe Goldstone war crimes claims ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - November 3, 2009 - 1:00am A joint French-British UN initiative would call on Israel and the Palestinians to hold immediate, independent investigations into war crimes allegations stemming from the war in Gaza, as part of a bid to send the Goldstone report back to Geneva and out of the hands of the Security Council or the International Criminal Court at The Hague. The proposal comes before the United Nations General Assembly is scheduled Wednesday to deliberate on the Goldstone report on the war in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. » Read more

ANALYSIS / PA fury over U.S. policy on settlements paid off ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - (Analysis) November 3, 2009 - 1:00am The statements and condemnations of the Palestinian Authority, which is insisting the U.S. change its stance regarding a settlement freeze, appear to have paid off. In Israel on Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stance on limiting settlement construction and calling for a resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians. However, in Morocco Monday, she sought to tone down her statements. » Read more

MI chief: Hamas missiles can strike Tel Aviv ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Jonathan Lis - November 3, 2009 - 1:00am Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip possess in their military arsenal a missile that is capable of striking Tel Aviv, the army's top military intelligence officer told a parliamentary panel in Jerusalem on Tuesday. The head of Military Intelligence for the Israel Defense Forces, General Amos Yadlin, told the Knesset foreign affairs and defense committee on Tuesday that Hamas has recently tested a missile capable of reaching targets at a distance of 60 kilometers. » Read more

Personality of the Month: Dr. Salam Fayyad ATFP World Press Roundup Article from This Week in Palestine November 3, 2009 - 1:00am Born in Nablus in 1952, Dr. Salam Fayyad remembers his early school years in Tulkarem, when doing well at school was not the main thing (as it continues to be today), it was the only thing. Well, almost the only thing. Back then, after-school street football was also a daily routine and a prominent item on his agenda. » Read more