Abbas reverses course on Goldstone report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 11, 2009 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday evening that he has instructed his envoy to the United Nations in Geneva to seek a new debate in the Human Rights Council on the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes in Gaza. During a televised speech, Abbas confirmed reports from Friday that his government had completely reversed course on the 575-page report. “I instructed the ambassador to call for another exceptional meeting of the Human Rights Council to vote on the report, seeking to punish all who committed the most grotesque crimes against women and children in Gaza,” Abbas said.

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Sources: Unity agreement to be signed on 15 October
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 11, 2009 - 12:00am

The rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah will finally sign a reconciliation agreement on 15 October, effectively ending two years of disunity and violence that began in the summer of 2007. Ma'an has learned from informed sources in Cairo that the deal proposed by Egypt will be accepted by both parties without amendment. According to these sources, Hamas and Fatah will receive copies of the draft agreement by Monday at the latest, and its signing will be scheduled as follows. - Drafts will be handed to Hamas and Fatah within 24 hours.

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Hamas's PR Campaign Against the Authority
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed - October 11, 2009 - 12:00am

Everyone knows that Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas differs much from his predecessor, the late Yasser Arafat, in his method of managing crises. This prompted President Abbas many times to go into isolation and sometimes threaten to resign because he could bear internal and external pressures.

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Quantcast Abbas' steps toward peace talks are echoing loudly
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Boudreaux - October 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Hounded by his moderate supporters and militant rivals alike, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is facing a leadership crisis that will make it harder for the Obama administration to draw him into peace talks with Israel. For months, Abbas enjoyed broad Palestinian support for his refusal to meet with the Israelis unless they stopped expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Then he made two concessions that ignited fury at home and across the Arab world:

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Goldstone fall-out plagues Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Heather Sharp - October 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinians sometimes joke about the fact that, when written in Arabic, "Palestinian National Authority" looks the same as "Palestinian National Salad". And to many here, the PA's handling of Richard Goldstone's UN report on the conflict in Gaza has been mixed up and limp. What began as the publication of a damning report on Israel's military conduct - although it also condemned Hamas - has turned into an embarrassing debacle for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and Fatah leader.

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Postponing Discussion on the Goldstone Report: Many Attackers and Even More Beneficiaries!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Raghida Dergham - October 9, 2009 - 12:00am

A useful comparison can be made between, on the one had, internal US discourse as well as US-international discourse over the issue of the problem of Afghanistan and the extent to which Islamic extremism affects the interests of nations, and, on the other, the way the international community as well as the Arabs – amongst themselves – is addressing the report of the head of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza War, Judge Richard Goldstone. This report condemned both Israel and Hamas for committing “war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity”.

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What to Do With Hamas? Question Snarls Peace Bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - October 7, 2009 - 12:00am

In the two years since it seized power here, the militant Hamas movement has undercut the influence of the Gaza Strip's major clans, brought competing paramilitary groups under its control, put down an uprising by a rival Islamist group, weathered a three-week war with Israel, worked around a strict economic embargo -- and through it all refused a set of international demands that could begin Gaza's rehabilitation.

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Abbas blames aides for motion's removal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - October 6, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is considering firing a number of his top aides who advised him to withdraw a motion to the UN Human Rights Council regarding the findings of the commission of inquiry led by Justice Richard Goldstone into Operation Cast Lead. Abbas's decision to withdraw the motion has triggered a wave of unprecedented criticism and condemnations among Palestinians and throughout the Arab world.

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'Old City violence may lead to 3rd intifada'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Abe Selig - October 6, 2009 - 12:00am

Recent violence in the capital and the ongoing tensions surrounding the Temple Mount could trigger a third intifada, senior Fatah official Hatem Abdel Kader warned in a conversation with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. "It's a very sensitive situation," the former Palestinian Authority minister for Jerusalem affairs said as he stood outside a home in the city's Wadi Joz neighborhood.

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Palestinians outraged over Abbas bowing to Israel, US
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - October 5, 2009 - 12:00am

Demonstrators descended Monday on this city's most famous traffic circle, Manara Square, which for years was a launching point of Palestinian protests against the Israeli occupation.

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