September 21st, 2011

Political war between Israel and Palestinians enters critical stage ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Blog) September 21, 2011 - 12:00am The political war between Israel and the Palestinians enters its critical phase today, with the start of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Both sides are hoping that the battle will remain there, in New York, rather than moving to the checkpoints and settlements of the West Bank. Violence in Ramallah and in Psagot, in Nablus and Yitzhar, would cast a shadow over the peace process and call into question the extent of the Palestinian Authority's control of the territory - control that is very important for the PA to demonstrate at this time. » Read more

U.S. should recognize Palestinian state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) September 21, 2011 - 12:00am Memory is short and forgetfulness is often deliberate, but 23 years ago the UN General Assembly decided to move its session from New York to Switzerland so that Palestine Liberation Organization head Yasser Arafat could deliver a speech. The reason: U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz refused to issue Yasser Arafat an entry visa to the United States. » Read more

Palestine progress seen up in air with U.N. bid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from USA Today by Oren Dorell - September 21, 2011 - 12:00am In the past two years, Palestinians who live in the West Bank have seen economic growth that would be the envy of other nations. The Israeli checkpoints that aim to stop terrorists but make travel difficult have been reduced by half. And there is an explosion of construction projects ranging from industrial parks to the first planned city in modern history in a territory that fails to treat much of its sewage. » Read more

The UN bid for Palestinian statehood is irresponsible and counter-productive. But the US must not restrict aid as a punishment ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Telegraph by Michael Weiss - (Blog) September 12, 2011 - 12:00am Last Friday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that he’ll be going to the United Nations on September 26 to seek full recognition of Palestinian statehood, based on 1967 borders with Israel, via the UN Security Council. The US is sure to vote “no” to full recognition, and various European countries may abstain or likewise reject the proposal. In that event, Abbas has said he’ll seek “non-member observer” status for Palestine, conveyed via the more flexible General Assembly. » Read more

.House G.O.P. Tightens Its Bond With Netanyahu ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Steven Lee Myers - September 20, 2011 - 12:00am WASHINGTON — When the Obama administration wanted to be certain that Congress would not block $50 million in new aid to the Palestinian Authority last month, it turned to a singularly influential lobbyist: Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. » Read more

September 20th

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