Last-minute deal could avert a collision course at the UN ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) September 20, 2011 - 12:00am The insistence by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that he will present a request for full UN membership for Palestine in its 1967 borders to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the General Assembly meeting later this week - although telegraphed months in advance - has sent shock waves through international relations, and Israeli and US domestic politics as well. » Read more

A new paradigm ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) September 20, 2011 - 12:00am With this week's start of the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, the Palestinian leadership can rightly say that it has begun to reap fruit from its decision to take the Palestinian cause to the international community. The Palestinian people and leadership have suffered for too long from the inattention of the international community, which insisted on leaving Palestinians and Israelis to their own devices to solve their problems. For the Palestinians, this was equal to leaving their people at the mercy of the brutal Israeli occupation. » Read more

Why the Middle East will never be the same again ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Robert Fisk - (Opinion) September 20, 2011 - 12:00am The Palestinians won't get a state this week. But they will prove – if they get enough votes in the General Assembly and if Mahmoud Abbas does not succumb to his characteristic grovelling in the face of US-Israeli power – that they are worthy of statehood. And they will establish for the Arabs what Israel likes to call – when it is enlarging its colonies on stolen land – "facts on the ground": never again can the United States and Israel snap their fingers and expect the Arabs to click their heels. The US has lost its purchase on the Middle East. » Read more

Palestinians may delay vote ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico by MJ Lee - (Analysis) September 19, 2011 - 12:00am The United States is working on a last-ditch plan to head off a vote on Palestinian statehood this week by having Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas submit a letter for recognition to the United Nations Security Council without actually holding a vote, CNN reports. » Read more

Encountering Peace: Maybe the whole world isn’t against us? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) September 20, 2011 - 12:00am This morning, I heard a conversation on the radio between Israeli journalist Yaron Dekel and Israeli lyricist Yoram Taharlev, who in the 1970’s wrote the song “Ha’olam kulo negdeinu” – “The whole world is against us.” "The whole world is against us it’s a very old refrain, that our fathers taught us, both to sing and to dance... The whole world is against us, never mind, we’ll cope. They don’t care for us... and we don’t care for them..." » Read more

The Tsuris ATFP World Press Roundup Article from New York Magazine by John Heilemann - (Opinion) September 20, 2011 - 12:00am The last time Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu shared each other’s company, you could say that the encounter did not go well—if by “not well” you mean abysmally. This was on May 20, the day after Obama gave his big speech on the Arab Spring, in which he unleashed a tsunami of tsuris by endorsing the use of Israel’s 1967 borders “with mutually agreed [land] swaps” as the basis for a two-state solution with the Palestinians. » Read more

Palestine UN bid difficult, says Nick Clegg ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Joe Churcher, Sam Lister - (Analysis) September 20, 2011 - 12:00am Britain faces a "difficult judgment" over whether to back Palestinian statehood at the United Nations, Nick Clegg said today amid reports of a coalition split on the issue. The Deputy Prime Minister said there had been "debates" at the top of Government over the position to adopt but said it would be unhelpful to air them in public. Diplomatic efforts are under way to persuade Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to table a Security Council statehood bid - which is opposed by the US and Israel. » Read more

Journey from Oslo to New York after 20 Years ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat by George Semaan - (Opinion) September 20, 2011 - 12:00am All the efforts to prevent the Palestinian authority from heading to the United Nations to ensure the proclamation of the state were expected to fail. The Israeli prime minister who kept knocking on Europe’s doors among others after he knocked on the United States’ doors to thwart this step maintained his position. He wants unconditional negotiations. This is the same position that froze the talks over a year ago, and the one that foiled all the American efforts to activate the settlement and reach the promised Palestinian state. » Read more

Palestinians seek state and trappings of a state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Jon Donnison - (Analysis) September 19, 2011 - 12:00am Palestinians got long awaited access to a global institution this month. "I've got a three-piece spicy chicken box with fries," beamed Shadi, an office worker in Ramallah, as he sat back and licked his lips. Kentucky Fried Chicken became the first major fast food franchise to open here. Ramallah has a "Stars And Bucks", mostly frequented by the latter, rather than the former. But no McDonald's. Not even Wimpy. In the week Palestinians take their quest for statehood to the United Nations, it obliged me to ask Shadi one simple, if facetious, question: today KFC, tomorrow a state? » Read more

Capitol Letter / Obama is stuck between a veto and a hard place ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Natasha Mozgovaya - (Blog) September 20, 2011 - 12:00am As President Barack Obama prepares to address the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, many recall what he said to the body last year when he devoted over a quarter of his speech to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. One particular phrase drew much attention: "When we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations - an independent, sovereign state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel." » Read more