Faded hopes of Palestinian place at UN ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Jon Donnison - (Opinion) September 14, 2012 - 12:00am Car horns blared as people craned out of their sunroofs waving red, black, green and white Palestinian flags. The crowds had just watched President Mahmoud Abbas, live on a giant screen from New York, as he told the United Nations he was heading to the Security Council to ask for Palestine to be admitted as a member state. Although the move was unlikely to change facts on the ground for Palestinians, or end Israel's occupation, Mr Abbas saw it as a way of putting diplomatic pressure on the Israeli government. » Read more

Peace with Israel remains far away 19 years after Oslo treaties ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua (Analysis) September 13, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Nineteen years after the signing of the interim peace treaties, better known as Oslo accords, chances of reaching a permanent deal between Israel and the Palestinians became slim once again as their peace talks have been stalled since October 2010. » Read more

A "Palestinian Spring": A Renewed Fatah Bid to Remove Fayyad ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gatestone Institute by Khaled Abu Toameh - (Opinion) September 14, 2012 - 12:00am It is no secret that Fatah has long been trying to get rid of Fayyad who, its representatives argue, had been imposed on the Palestinians by the Americans and Europeans. Abbas and Fatah have been trying for years to replace Fayyad with one of their own so that they could regain control over the Palestinian Authority's finances. The US and most Western donors have repeatedly made it clear to Abbas that removing Fayyad from his post would prompt them to reconsider financial aid to the Palestinians. » Read more

Palestinians Angry with Leaders, But Unity Remains Key ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ayyam by Ashraf Al Ajrami - (Opinion) September 13, 2012 - 12:00am The recent developments that took place in different regions of the West Bank, mainly in Galilee and Nablus, are reminiscent of the First and Second Intifadas. Palestinians are revolting against the Palestinian Authority (PA) as if they wish to topple it, because they see it as their worst enemy. According to the protesters, the main reason for their demonstrations is the soaring price of goods — mainly gas and other products — in addition to low salaries and a delay in disbursing the wages of government officials. » Read more

A new era of discontent ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) September 14, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH - In many ways, the Palestinian protest movement that swept the West Bank for nearly seven days before fading out late this week symbolizes the end of an era, the era of the Palestinian Authority. Thousands of protesters took to the streets, clashing with Palestinian security forces, hurling shoes at photographs of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and defacing other PA symbols. In the process, they revealed the pros and cons of the "economic peace" theory espoused by Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. » Read more

Jerusalem, Why Did We Forget Thee? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) September 14, 2012 - 12:00am In a few days we’ll celebrate one of the emotional peaks in the Jewish calendar, the twice-yearly proclamation that ends the Yom Kippur fast and Passover feast: Next year in Jerusalem. We won’t mean it literally. For most it’s a metaphorical prayer for a better world, expressing faith that history has direction and meaning, with heavenly Jerusalem its symbolic end-point. But it’s also a literal affirmation of devotion to the earthly Jerusalem. » Read more

Israel: Learn the power of words, not just might, in the new Middle East ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Rachel Shabi - (Opinion) September 13, 2012 - 12:00am It’s pretty hard to combine schadenfreude with escalating panic, but when it comes to regional pronouncements, Israeli commentators have a special talent. Witness this incongruous cocktail in the analysis of Egypt’s new leadership – the gist of so much of which is: The Muslim Brotherhood in power is horrifying for Israel, but at the same time terrible news for Egyptians, who really shouldn’t be experimenting with the democracy to which they, being Arabs, clearly aren’t suited.   » Read more

Israel on the Ballot ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward (Editorial) September 13, 2012 - 12:00am It’s difficult to recall a time when an Israeli prime minister has inserted himself into a presidential election campaign in the way that Benjamin Netanyahu has. It’s even harder to recall a time when a trusted ally openly urged the American president to undertake a questionable, unpopular and highly risky war. We sure hope Netanyahu knows what he’s doing, because the stakes for him — and for the two nations he professes to care about the most — could not be higher. » Read more

The abandonment ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Charles Krauthammer - (Opinion) September 13, 2012 - 12:00am There are two positions one can take regarding the Iranian nuclear program: (a) it doesn’t matter, we can deter them; or (b) it does matter, we must stop them. In my view, the first position — that we can contain Iran as we did the Soviet Union — is totally wrong, a product of wishful thinking and misread history. But at least it’s internally coherent. » Read more

Israeli Fallout ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Eric L. Lewis - (Opinion) September 13, 2012 - 12:00am It should go without saying, but apparently does not, that the tragic crisis unfolding in the Middle East calls for sober statesmanship rather than political posturing. The jihadist murder of the American ambassador to a newly liberated Libya; the carnage unleashed by the Assad regime on the Syrian people; the emergence of a Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt; the conundrum of Iranian nuclear ambitions — the region presents decades worth of complex challenges telescoped into real time. » Read more