Drawing borders is the first step ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) August 17, 2009 - 12:00am We still have no real idea of when or what President Obama will present as an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. In the meantime, the Prime Minister's special emissary, Yitzhak Molcho, is off to Washington to try and reach some understandings with the US administration prior to the next meeting between Senator Mitchell and Netanyahu. The rumors floating around suggest that Obama's plan will aim to focus first on setting borders between the State of Israel and the future State of Palestine, now that Netanyahu has accepted the two-state solution. » Read more

Fatah, reunited and reinvigorated ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) August 18, 2009 - 12:00am Fatah, the leading movement within the Palestine Liberation Organization, has moved one step closer to becoming a normal political party. It has just concluded its sixth congress, held for the first time in the Occupied Territories, which meant that former guerrillas from Lebanon and Jordan were allowed entry by Israel. The conference, it appears, succeeded in reuniting and reinvigorating the movement, which has suffered since the death of its founder and long-time leader, Yasser Arafat. » Read more

Hamas, the Emirate and the Waiting ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat by Ghassan Charbel - (Opinion) August 17, 2009 - 12:00am Hamas has eliminated the Islamic emirate announced by Abdel Latif Moussa (Abou Nour Makdessi) in Rafah. It has eliminated the emirate and its prince. Hamas cannot stand Moussa’s accusations. He said that if the Hamas government maintained its status, it would be like a secular party “fraudulently associating itself with Islam like (Turkish Prime Minister) Recep Tayyip Erdogan”. It is not easy for Hamas to see the “Prince of the Jihadi Salafists” stand in a mosque and challenge its image and approach then call his armed men to the street, challenging its authority and status. » Read more

Israel wrecked Arafat, crowned Hamas, and gave birth to Al-Qaida in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Nehemia Shtrasler - (Analysis) August 18, 2009 - 12:00am This week marked four years since the Gaza disengagement, and it seems that the Strip is becoming increasingly radical - that peace is more distant and the settlers who were removed from the enclave are more embittered. Did Ariel Sharon and the majority of the Israeli public that supported the move make a bad deal? » Read more

Quiet slicing of the West Bank makes abstract prayers for peace obscene ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Slavoj Zizek - (Opinion) August 18, 2009 - 12:00am On 2 August 2009, after cordoning off part of the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in east Jerusalem, Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families (more than 50 people) from their homes; Jewish settlers immediately moved into the emptied houses. Although Israeli police cited a ruling by the country's supreme court, the evicted Arab families had been living there for more than 50 years. The event – which, rather exceptionally, did attract the attention of the world media – is part of a much larger and mostly ignored ongoing process. » Read more

Egypt's Essential Partnership ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Abdel-Moneim Said - (Opinion) August 18, 2009 - 12:00am President Obama's second meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, scheduled to take place today, presents an opportunity to view this important bilateral relationship from a proper perspective. For too long, U.S.-Egyptian relations have focused, somewhat myopically, on only two things: the state of Egypt's peace with Israel and its progress toward democratization. » Read more

Israelis sour on Rahm Emanuel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico by Kenneth P. Vogel - August 17, 2009 - 12:00am As the Obama administration presses Israel to cease settlement expansion as part of a renewed push for a Middle East peace deal — a course of action that many Israelis have interpreted as evidence of the president’s favoritism towards Palestinians — Israelis have increasingly focused their disappointment not on Obama, but rather on his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. » Read more

U.S. Jews press Mubarak ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) August 17, 2009 - 12:00am U.S. Jewish leaders urged Egypt's president to take the lead in encouraging other Arab nations to make conciliatory gestures to Israel. Hosni Mubarak is in Washington this week to meet with President Obama and advance plans to revive the peace process. Mubarak met Monday morning with an array of leaders from Jewish groups who told him that conciliatory measures from Arab nations, including allowing Israeli overflights and expanding business ties, would help Israel make concessions. Arab states and the Palestinians first want Israel to commit to a settlement freeze. » Read more

Oren navigates waters among Israel, U.S. government and American Jews ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ron Kampeas - August 17, 2009 - 12:00am Tweeted, a diplomat’s job would look something like this: Explain home abroad, explain abroad home. In recent weeks, it’s seemed as if the job description for Israeli envoys would encroach on the 140-character limit: Explain home abroad, explain abroad home, explain Jews abroad home, explain home to Jews abroad, explain, explain, explain. Michael Oren, the new Israeli ambassador to Washington, has had a busy six weeks, and he acknowledges that some of his difficulties have had to do with a debate within his government about whether to even engage with liberal American Jews. » Read more

Report: Obama, Mubarak to discuss compensation for refugees ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Roee Nahmias - August 18, 2009 - 12:00am Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his American counterpart, Barack Obama, are expected during their White House meeting Tuesday to discuss "an initiative of leaders" for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East, in which the Palestinians will waive the right of return in exchange for compensation, the London-based Arabic-language al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper reported Tuesday. » Read more