Abbas' Iran visit to explore options, not appease Ahmadinejad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Adam Gonn - (Analysis) July 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will make his first-ever visit to Iran next month, when he attends the Non-Aligned Movement Summit to be held in Tehran. "Historically speaking, this forum and its meetings have been extremely important for the Palestinians during the last 30-40 years," Prof. Bassem Zbeidi of Birzeit University told Xinhua on Monday. "We have plenty of supporters in this organization and Palestinians have a very good record in attending its meeting," he added.

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Minister: Abbas refused Israeli offer of selective prisoner release
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 9, 2012 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority Prisoners Minister Issa Qaraqe said Monday that President Mahmoud Abbas refused an Israeli offer for the staged release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for returning to peace talks. Abbas insists that all 123 prisoners held since before the 1994 Oslo agreement be freed in a single release, Qaraqe said. Israeli daily Haaretz reported earlier Monday that Israel offered to release some 25 Palestinian prisoners convicted of the murder of Israelis, followed by another 100 prisoners by the end of the year.

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This conflict in the Holy Land must end – for the children’s sake
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Emanuel Stoakes - (Blog) July 9, 2012 - 12:00am

The enduring fact of the failure of peace in the so-called Holy Land is a royal spring of misery from which bitter tensions flow, with mournful consequences for the entire restive middle-east region, already strained by wars and rumours of wars. In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, those who are innocent, small, defenceless or vulnerable are common, even inevitable, victims of the promiscuously-brutalising nature of this clash between the claimed descendants of Abraham.

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Abbas hurting himself
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Alex Fishman - (Opinion) July 9, 2012 - 12:00am

Mahmoud Abbas misses no Mideastern opportunity to fall into a pothole. What can you say, the man simply has no luck. He had a terrible year: Every international, regional or domestic initiative he touched has collapsed.

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What Putin's Trip To Jerusalem Really Means
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Dimi Reider - (Opinion) July 9, 2012 - 12:00am

Much of the coverage of the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories focused on two questions: Putin's perceived foot-dragging over Iran, and the visit's significance for the Russian-speaking Israelis who make up about one-fifth of the population, as large as Israel's Palestinian population.

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'Abbas not paying friendly visit to Iran'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Attila Somfalvi - July 8, 2012 - 12:00am

The Foreign Ministry responded to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' announcement that plans to attend the Non-Aligned Movement Summit in Tehran, saying that "it is not a state visit, and is solely aimed at attending the summit, which will take place in Iran."

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Palestinians skeptical on Clinton-Abbas meet
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Nida' Tuma - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am

Palestinian officials don’t believe that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Friday-scheduled meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and French President Francois Hollande will bring them back to the negotiation table. The meeting, which Clinton requested, will discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and the release of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails. The meeting agenda also includes a Palestinian plan to seek a UN resolution that condemns settlements in the “occupied” territories.

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No, Israel Didn't Offer to Trade the West Bank for Peace in 1967
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Gershom Gorenberg - (Opinion) July 5, 2012 - 12:00am

It's a reassuring story, regularly repeated by defenders of Israeli policy: After the Six-Day War, Israel offered to give up the land it had just occupied in return for peace. But the Arabs said no, first quietly, then publicly at the Khartoum Summit. Alas, Israel was stuck with the occupied territories. In some versions of the story, Israel had virtually no choice but to start building settlements once the Arabs rejected diplomacy.

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'Israel persuaded Russia not to sell Syria missiles'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz - June 28, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel played a role in influencing Russia to cancel its sale of the S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Syria, Army Radio quoted Defense Minister Ehud Barak as saying Thursday. Russia suspended the sale of the advanced system to Syria in what could be an outcome of President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Israel earlier this week. Both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres discussed the issue of Syria with the Russian leader during his short stay in Israel.

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Israel not top priority for new Egyptian president
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Adam Gonn - (Analysis) June 26, 2012 - 12:00am

A new era in the Israeli- Egyptian relations has started as the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Mohamed Morsi was declared the winner of Egypt's presidential election. While Egypt's former leader Hosni Mubarak, toppled in February 2011, was a secularist and military man, Morsi is a member of the Islamist Brotherhood, which maintains close ties with Hamas, the ruler of the Gaza Strip, a haven of anti-Israel militants.

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