Does the Palestinian UN bid threaten refugee rights?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Opinion) September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

As the leadership in Ramallah prepares to approach the UN for membership in September, it is also fighting back charges that its initiative is shortsighted and even a threat to Palestinian refugees. Last week Ma'an published for the first time findings by an international law expert that the gambit could alter the PLO's status as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. The legal opinion, by Guy Goodwin-Gill of Oxford University, argued that the Diaspora could be left disenfranchised if this happened.

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Can Netanyahu still engage with Palestinians' UN bid?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

A few days ago Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor informed the Foreign Ministry that Israel has no chance to stop UN recognition of Palestine. This didn’t really surprise anybody. Defense Minister Ehud Barak already months ago warned of the “diplomatic tsunami” Israel would face in September.

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Whose side is Ahmadinejad on?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

After reading an article by the Scripps Howard News Service suggesting that “if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not on Israel’s payroll, he should be,” one reader responded: “Don’t forget to mention that Ahmadinejad is Jewish and possibly an undercover agent for Isreal [sic].” Some double agent; Ahmadinejad continues to be an outspoken booster for Palestinian statehood – perhaps a bit too outspoken, as when he declared last week that the creation of a Palestinian state would be “the first step” in the eradication of the Jewish state.

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Fate of the Egyptian – Israeli peace treaty
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Bilal Hassen - (Opinion) September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

The Eilat (Um al-Rushrash) Fedayeen [commando] attack on a number of Israeli targets which took place on 18 August 2011 [Southern Israel cross-border attacks], and the implications of this, continue to gather pace like a snowball rolling down a mountainside. Information surrounding this attack remains vague, and there is no concrete information about those who carried it out, or where they came from. Israel claim that the perpetrators came from Gaza, crossed the Sinai Peninsula, entered Egyptian territory, and attacked Israeli targets from Egyptian soil.

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The Palestinians' Statehood Dilemma: Full U.N. Membership or Observer Status?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Karl Vick - (Opinion) September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

It looks like a sure loser: the Palestinian bid for admission to the United Nations as a sovereign state. Never mind that a large majority of the U.N. General Assembly would vote "Yes." U.N. rules clearly state that all applications must first pass the Security Council, where the United States stands poised to exercise its veto, at the behest of Israel.

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A bad bill for everyone
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
(Opinion) September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

The big news in Ramallah, where a few extremely generous and well-informed journalists were nice enough to show me around on Sunday, is the expected move by the Palestinian Authority (PA) this month to push for recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN. This is a highly complicated and sensitive issue which many Palestinians view with some trepidation.

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Popular apathy and cumulative skepticism over September
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Akram Atallah Alaysa - (Analysis) September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

Most Palestinians, varied as they may be politically, intellectually and socially, often draw a connection between the Declaration of Independence that Yasser Arafat announced in 1988 and the current UN- based battle for statehood.

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Activists Aim to Revitalize Israeli Protests
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

For many Israelis, the size of Saturday night’s protests against the high cost of living and for social justice will serve as a barometer of whether the popular movement that began in this Mediterranean city and swept the country this summer is thriving or fading. After six weeks of tent encampments and rallies featuring popular singers that drew as many as 300,000 people into the streets on the first Saturday in August, the Sept. 3 rally has been described by its promoters as a million-person march.

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Diplomats: EU split on support of Palestinians' UN statehood bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

The European Union remains undecided whether to recognize the Palestinian push for recognition at the United Nations, diplomats said Thursday. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Thursday the question remained "hypothetical" because no resolution had been tabled yet. Ashton said the EU's 28 members were united "over the most critical issue, which is to try to get the talks moving," and reiterated the bloc's position that Israeli settlement-building in the occupied territories is illegal under international law.

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Finance Minister reneges on deal to give early payment to Palestinian Authority
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - August 31, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz rejected a Palestinian Authority request that it move up payment of NIS 380 million in tax revenues so that the PA could pay salaries before the holiday of Id al-Fitr, which began Tuesday.

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