Middle East peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist by Gideon Lichfield - October 17, 2011 - 12:00am "Insanity", goes a motto* much quoted by jaded Jerusalem-based diplomats on their second gin-and-tonic, "is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results." Next month marks the 20th anniversary of the first public Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Madrid. At each step since then—in Oslo, Wye River, Camp David, Taba, Sharm el-Sheikh and Washington, DC—the negotiators, like Achilles approaching the tortoise in Zeno's famous paradox, have seemed to close one more fraction of the gap between them. Yet a gap always remains. » Read more

The story behind Abbas’s historic speech to the UN ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Ali El-saleh - (Analysis) October 15, 2011 - 12:00am This is the story of a speech that shook up the world; a speech that had been eagerly awaited by millions, at home and abroad; a speech that returned long-lost confidence to an entire people. I am, of course, talking about the historic speech delivered by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the United Nations [UN] General Assembly on 23 September, 2011, after he formally submitted an application for recognition to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. » Read more

Freeing Gilad Shalit: The Cost to Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Institute for Near East Policy by David Makovsky - October 13, 2011 - 12:00am On Tuesday, Israel and Hamas announced a two-phase prisoner exchange that would secure the release of Sgt. Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier kidnapped in 2006 and held for more than five years in Gaza. In return, Israel would release 1,027 prisoners, including 280 who are serving life sentences for their involvement in terrorist acts. The deal was initially mediated by Gerhard Conrad, a senior German official with expertise in the Middle East who has overseen prisoner swaps between Israel and Hizballah since the 1990s. But it was Egyptian intelligence chief Maj. Gen. » Read more

UN: Israel's plan for new settler district 'unacceptable' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency (Analysis) October 15, 2011 - 12:00am UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized Israel on Friday over reports that it plans to build 2,600 more housing units in East Jerusalem, saying further settlement activity was "unacceptable." "The Secretary-General is deeply concerned at continued efforts to advance planning for new Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem," Ban's press office said in a statement. » Read more

Israel plan for new Jerusalem-area housing development is revived ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - (Analysis) October 15, 2011 - 12:00am Israel is moving forward with another large housing project on territory it seized during the 1967 Mideast war, unveiling plans to build 2,610 units in what critics say would be the first entirely new development on disputed Jerusalem land in 14 years. » Read more

Arabs and Israelis both want peace; the problem is leadership ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by David Pollock - October 17, 2011 - 12:00am Around half of Israelis, Palestinians, and some other key Arab publics, according to opinion polls taken in the past decade, support something like the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002. Its basic concept is peace and Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for Israel’s full withdrawal from the territories captured in the 1967 war. Similarly, around half of each one of these publics would also support other analogous proposals focused more narrowly on “land for peace,” such as the unofficial Palestinian-Israeli Geneva initiative of 2003. » Read more

Turkey aided effort to free Israeli soldier but relations still frosty ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Thomas Seibert - October 17, 2011 - 12:00am The Turkish government helped secure the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit despite political tensions with Israel, officials from both countries said. But analysts warned yesterday that it was too early to tell whether Turkey's involvement in freeing the soldier could lead to improved ties with Israel. » Read more

Israel's Shalit eclipses Arab 'Shalloots' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Faisal Al Qasim - October 17, 2011 - 12:00am At long last the famous Israeli captive Gilad Shalit has secured his freedom from his Palestinian captors. Hamas and Israel have come to a prisoner swap agreement at a very dubious time to release Shalit in exchange for over a thousand Palestinian detainees. I bet millions, the world over, have heard of the Israeli soldier, who was captured by Hamas a couple of years ago to the extent that he has become, by all accounts, an international figure. He has been in the news for months and months on end. All American and European media have written extensively about his case. » Read more

Unprecedented silencing of dissent at UC Irvine ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Osama Shabaik - October 16, 2011 - 12:00am I was the first student to protest Ambassador Michael Oren’s appearance at the University of California, Irvine in February, 2010. Minutes into the speech, I stood up and yelled, “Michael Oren, propagating murder is not an expression of free speech!” » Read more

Hamas and Netanyahu share spoils of swap deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Vita Bekker, Hugh Naylor - (Analysis) October 13, 2011 - 12:00am Hamas and the Israeli government of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu are both likely to score political points from the deal to swap 1,027 Palestinian detainees for a captured Israeli soldier. Under the pact brokered by Egyptian and German mediators after five years of fruitless talks, Israel will free the detainees in exchange for Gilad Shalit, the 25-year-old soldier seized by Gaza militants during an attack on an Israeli army post on the Gaza border in 2006. » Read more