A futile exercise? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Hassan Barari - (Opinion) February 9, 2012 - 1:00am Jordan's recent efforts to hold exploratory pre-negotiation talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis could not be more surprising. Over an extended period of time, King Abdullah II has reiterated his conviction that peace, although favorable, is not yet possible. Time and again, he has blamed Israel for the impasse in the peace process. Therefore, the sudden emergence of Amman's diplomatic activism is striking. » Read more

Jordan re-enters the fray ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Naseem Tarawnah - (Opinion) February 9, 2012 - 1:00am While King Abdullah has managed to maneuver through the turbulent regional weather of the past decade, hardly a year passes without Jordanians such as myself forced to wonder: what would his father King Hussein have done? » Read more

The End of the Exploitation of the Palestinian Cause ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat by Husam Itani - (Opinion) February 10, 2012 - 1:00am By drawing up the facets of a new world, the revolutions are reproducing the social and political powers, as well as their structures, and introducing definitions and concepts differing from the ones which prevailed over reality and our way of thinking throughout the past stages. » Read more

Building Barriers to Two-State Solution ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) February 12, 2012 - 1:00am Here’s a “sign of the times” factoid: In recent commentary on Israel’s settlement policy, the number of Jewish settlers beyond the Green Line has ballooned to 600,000 from 350,000 or so. It is as if there had suddenly been a mass immigration to the West Bank. But there has been no such immigration. What there has been, more ominously, is the inclusion in “beyond the Green Line” of two venerable major neighborhoods that had long since come to be regarded as part of Jerusalem proper: Ramot and French Hill, as well as other neighborhoods, such as Gilo, Pisgat Ze’ev, Ramat Shlomo, Har Homa. » Read more

Saved by our enemies ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Barry Rubin - (Opinion) February 12, 2012 - 1:00am President Barack Obama is campaigning on the claim that he is a great friend of Israel despite the fact that this is clearly not true. After all, the announcement of a coalition government between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas, a genocidally oriented terrorist group that is openly anti- Semitic and rejects all of the agreements with Israel on which the PA is based prompts no US (or European) policy response. » Read more

Abbas will have to choose ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yigal B. Caspi - (Opinion) February 12, 2012 - 1:00am Hamas and Fatah, the ruling faction in the Palestinian Authority, signed an agreement in Doha, Qatar on 6 February 2012 to form an interim unity government. According to the agreement, PA President and leader of Fatah Mahmoud Abbas will head the government, replacing the current Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, who is supported by the West. The move is a further step in implementing the so-called reconciliation agreement that the two Palestinian factions signed in Cairo in May 2011. » Read more

Israel's new peace camp is playing into Hamas' hands ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) February 13, 2012 - 1:00am There was a time - before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad starred here in the role of Hitler - when the "elites" were Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's number one enemy. » Read more

Lesson in extremism at Israel 'peace' school ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Donald MacIntyre - February 13, 2012 - 1:00am A school set up to promote peace and understanding between Arab and Jewish communities in Jerusalem has been hit by vandals who have daubed racist threats on its playground walls, including "Death to Arabs". » Read more

Report: Palestinian killed, three injured in IAF strike on Gaza sites ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz February 12, 2012 - 1:00am A man was killed and three others were injured in an attack by the Israeli Air Force on tunnels and a weapons depot in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, described as retaliation for a cross-border rocket launch, the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported. The man killed was Abdul Karim Zaytuna (69), according to Ma'an. An Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman said she had no immediate information about the casualties from Sunday's air strikes. » Read more

Israel bars Al-Quds University doctors from practicing in East Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Nir Hasson - February 12, 2012 - 1:00am Health Ministry officials refuse to allow 35 Palestinian doctors from East Jerusalem to attend Israeli certification exams - and help relieve a shortage of doctors there. The ministry claims the doctors, who graduated from Al-Quds University, are not eligible to sit the certification exams, usually taken by doctors who qualified abroad to enable them to practice in Israel. The ministry says Al-Quds cannot be considered a "foreign university" since it holds offices in Jerusalem. » Read more