Legitimize Hamas and kiss the PLO goodbye ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) September 6, 2010 - 12:00am With the resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, numerous voices in the United States have been urging the inclusion of Hamas in international diplomacy, a focus on Palestinian unity, or some formal American outreach to the Palestinian Islamist group. » Read more

Sadat's Shadow ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Adel Al Toraifi - (Opinion) September 7, 2010 - 12:00am For more than two decades, the United States has tried to conclude a peace agreement between the PLO and Israel. In the beginning there were the 1993 Oslo accords, which was a difficult breakthrough. However, this was the agreement that allowed the opportunity to form much-needed state institutions on the Palestinian territories. Yet this did not happen both as a result of the influence of religious parties on both sides, and as a result of dozens of suicide attacks carried out by the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, which disrupted all guarantees of security and reconciliation. » Read more

Israeli police accused of targeting Jerusalem's Arab residents ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Catrina Stewart - September 6, 2010 - 12:00am A leading civil-rights group has accused Israeli police of systematic discrimination against the Arab residents of East Jerusalem as growing numbers of hardline religious Jews take up residence in Palestinian areas. A report from the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri) found that violent confrontations between Jewish residents and their Palestinian neighbours had risen rapidly, but that Israeli police have largely ignored Palestinian complaints. » Read more

U.S. banning its diplomats from West Bank travel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) September 6, 2010 - 12:00am The United States temporarily banned its diplomats from traveling to the West Bank and Jerusalem's Old City because of shooting attacks. "Due to heightened tensions and increased security presence after the Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 attacks in the West Bank, the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem has prohibited all Consulate personnel from personal travel to the West Bank" through Monday, said a statement from the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, which handles the West Bank. » Read more

This time in Washington, honest brokerage is not going to be enough ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Avi Shlaim - (Opinion) September 7, 2010 - 12:00am The pope, according to a no doubt apocryphal story, maintains that there are two possible solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict – the realistic and the miraculous. The realistic solution involves divine intervention; the miraculous solution involves a voluntary agreement between the parties themselves. The American-sponsored peace talks that got under way in Washington last week may be viewed in this light. It will take nothing less than a miracle to produce a peaceful settlement of the century-old conflict between Jews and Arabs over the Holy Land. » Read more

IMF: Israel Keeps Palestinian Economy Booming ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Benjamin Joffe-Walt - September 5, 2010 - 12:00am Israel’s decision to relax controls on movement in the Palestinian Territories has allowed the Palestinian economy to continue to boom in 2010, with growth rates of 14 percent in the Gaza Strip and 11 percent in the West Bank, the International Monetary Fund has said. » Read more

A Special Place in Hell / Real men don't talk Mideast peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Bradley Burston - (Blog) September 6, 2010 - 12:00am There was something wrong with the air here the day President Obama hosted Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. There was a bottom-heavy grip to the heat, the air almost too thick to breathe, as though it had to be forced down, like medicine. In other places, this freight in the weather is the kind which announces a monsoon, or an earthquake. Not here. Here it was murder that was in the air. It just hadn't happened yet. » Read more

Egypt: Peace will 'cost' world $50B ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Roee Nahmias - September 7, 2010 - 12:00am Peace with a hefty price? Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Tuesday that a future peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will "cost" the world between $40 and $50 billion. Speaking with Cairo's official news agency, Aboul Gheit said the amount will allow the fledgling Palestinian state to sustain itself, and offer the Palestinians some compensation for lands and services lost. In reference to the settlement freeze, which is scheduled to end on September 26, Aboul Gheit said that the subject will be "the first test to Israel earnest in the process." » Read more

A condition for peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Shaul Arieli - (Opinion) September 7, 2010 - 12:00am In light of the Palestinians' acceptance of a land swap, the battle over the construction freeze in the settlements is not a struggle for their very existence, since most of them and their residents will be annexed to Israel in any agreement. The battle over the construction freeze is a battle for perception in Israel and abroad - between Greater Israel on the one hand and two states for two peoples on the other. So this battle is important for the existence of the diplomatic process. » Read more

Israeli FM pushes for new settlement construction ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Matti Friedman - September 6, 2010 - 12:00am Israel's hard-line foreign minister said Monday that his party will try to block any extension of Israel's settlement slowdown, a move that could derail the recently launched Mideast peace negotiations. Avigdor Lieberman said the Israeli government must keep its promise to voters that the 10-month slowdown, declared last November under U.S. pressure in order to draw the Palestinians to the negotiating table, will end as scheduled at the end of the month. » Read more