Palestinian Diplomacy, Lost at Sea
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Council On Foreign Relations
by Elliott Abrams - (Blog) November 16, 2011 - 1:00am

“Palestinians ponder next step in their statehood bid,” said the Los Angeles Times. “Palestinians will keep knocking on U.N.’s door,” said Reuters. They will go to the Security Council; or they’ll go to the Security Council only if they’ll win; even if they won’t win; now, or maybe later; then to the General Assembly, or maybe not, after all. Palestinian “diplomacy” is now a series of contradictions that display little more than confusion. In this context it is not at all surprising to see renewed negotiations between Fatah and Hamas.

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Gilad Shalit and the Rising Price of an Israeli Life
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ronen Bergman - (Opinion) November 9, 2011 - 1:00am

On the afternoon of June 27, 1976, Palestinian and German terrorists hijacked an Air France flight originating from Israel and directed it eventually to Entebbe Airport in Uganda, where most of the non-Israelis on board were immediately released. More than 100 hostages remained, 83 of whom were Israeli. They were held for the next six days, until an elite team of Israel Defense Force commandos freed them in the famous raid known as Operation Entebbe.

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How to Save Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Slate
by Gershom Gorenberg - (Opinion) November 9, 2011 - 1:00am

I write from an Israel with a divided soul. It is not only defined by its contradictions; it is at risk of being torn apart by them. It is a country with uncertain borders and a government that ignores its own laws. Its democratic ideals, much as they have helped shape its history, or on the verge of being remembered among the false political promises of 20th-century ideologies.

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Release Marwan Barghouti
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Avinoam Bar-Yosef - (Opinion) November 8, 2011 - 1:00am

When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recently called on Israel to release more Palestinian prisoners in advance of any possible negotiations, he was setting a condition that he probably knew Israel would balk at. One of the prisoners on his list, Ahmed Saadat, is accused of killing an Israeli minister. More significantly, another one, if released, would most likely soon take Abbas’s place.

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Shalit saga was a defeat for Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Moshe Arens - (Opinion) November 8, 2011 - 1:00am

In those terrible days 10 years ago, when Palestinian terror was striking at Israeli civilians almost daily in the streets of the cities of Israel, there were those who argued that terror could not be defeated by military means, while some said that it could not be defeated by military means alone and others argued that terror can and should be defeated solely by military means.

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Reporters confirm Sarkozy's 'Bibi slip'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roy Simyoni - November 8, 2011 - 1:00am

Loose Lips? The double-presidential faux pas, which saw French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US President Barack Obama accidently tell the world what they really think of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, caused a media frenzy on Tuesday, with many media outlets worldwide dubbing it "the juiciest thing since WikiLeaks." French website "Arret sur Images" reported Monday that due to a technical glitch, the two presidents' microphones remained on after a G20 press conference held on Thursday.

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Sarkozy, Obama Anti-Netanyahu? Not So Simple
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Fox News
by Judith Miller - (Opinion) November 8, 2011 - 1:00am

Open mic. Open mouth. Insert foot. It seems that politicians never learn: wearing a microphone is like carrying a loaded weapon. You can never be sure when it will go off, or in this case, go live. The French government is deeply “chagrined” – now we know why it’s a French word – about the latest diplomatic “faux pas” that is turning into a major “scandale”: the all-too-candid conversation between French President Nicholas Sarkozy and President Obama about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the G-20 Summit in Cannes.

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Why do Sarkozy and Obama hate Netanyahu?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jackson Diehl - (Opinion) November 8, 2011 - 1:00am

Binyamin Netanyahu seems to have been the target of some ugly — if off the record — barbs from President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Speaking privately (they thought) following a news conference in Cannes last week, Sarkozy said “I cannot bear” Netanyahu, adding that he was “a liar.”

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Israeli diplomat: Le Pen lunch was an 'error'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - (Analysis) November 7, 2011 - 1:00am

Israel's Foreign Ministry said yesterday that the country's ambassador to the UN made an "error of judgement" by chatting and being photographed with Marine Le Pen, leader of France's extreme right wing National Front, at a New York reception.

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A message Palestinians see in Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange: Hamas - 1, Abbas - 0
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Dawoud Abu Lebdeh - (Opinion) November 3, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israel-Hamas prisoner exchange a couple weeks ago was a very emotional moment for thousands of Palestinians who were reunited with family members they had not seen for years. But it came at a diplomatic price. Some of the Palestinian public perceive the prisoner exchange deal (in which Israel released more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Hamas releasing Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit) as an achievement for Hamas’s militant approach. They see it as a success story that Palestinian diplomatic efforts and negotiations with Israel have not yet been able to deliver.

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