An Assessment of State-Building Efforts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Progress
by Robert Danin - (Interview) September 14, 2010 - 12:00am

September 14, 2010 Last time we spoke, you were head of the Office of the Quartet Representative, and you just recently returned from that posting. What are the main things that you learned from that experience?

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How the Palestinian Authority is fighting Hamas attacks
In Print by Hussein Ibish - The Washington Post (Opinion) - September 11, 2010 - 12:00am

The Sept. 8 editorial "The Hamas murders," on the drive-by attacks against Israeli settlers in the West Bank by Hamas, was exceptionally unfair to the Palestinian Authority. Demanding that the authority "fight terrorism," the editorial ignored the fact that the shootings occurred in an area under full Israeli security control.

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Hamas: Fatah protecting enemy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
September 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Hamas threatened the Palestinian Authority Thursday after members of the organization were arrested in relation to terror attacks that killed four and injured two in the West Bank. "This criminal campaign has crossed all red lines and constitutes direct cooperation with the enemy, in the clear light of day," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. On Tuesday the Palestinian Authority announced it had arrested the six terrorists who carried out the attacks one week earlier – four shooters and two accomplices.

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PA committed 'treason' in W.Bank terror suspects' arrests
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
September 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Hamas accused the Palestinian Authority of "direct cooperation with the enemy" after it arrested Hamas members in conjunction with recent West Bank terrorist attacks that left four Israelis dead and two others injured last week, Army Radio reported Thursday. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum likened the arrests to "treason" and warned the Fatah run authority not to hand the men over to Israel. "The continuation of this criminal campaign crosses all red lines and is direct cooperation with the enemy in the clear light of day," Barhum continued.

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Hamas warns PA: Stop arresting our people or we'll strike
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - September 8, 2010 - 12:00am

Hamas on Wednesday warned that it would harm the Palestinian Authority if security forces continued to arrest its operatives in the West Bank. In a harshly worded announcement, the Islamist group declared that "our patience will soon run out" and that they would not remain silent for long, Israel Radio reported. "You know that the hands that have reached the heart of the occupier can reach you too," Hamas warned, referring to its recent attacks against Israelis in the West Bank, adding that Hamas cannot be stopped, and will strike anywhere, at any time it wishes.

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Hamas militia's secret West Bank stronghold
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Jon Donnison - September 8, 2010 - 12:00am

Amid the dust at the side of the road at the Bani Nayim junction in the southern West Bank there is a small makeshift shrine - a pile of rocks covered with Israeli flags. It was here, just over a week ago, that four Israeli settlers were shot dead - their car riddled with bullets - in a drive-by attack by Hamas militants. That attack and another the following day at Ramallah, in which two Israeli settlers were injured, were together a message from Hamas: "You can't ignore us." Secret army Both attacks were carried out by the al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas military wing.

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Occupation, split complicate Palestinian forces' reform: report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
September 8, 2010 - 12:00am

Reforming Palestinian security forces in the West Bank would remain difficult as long as Israel occupies large parts of the area and internal Palestinian political split persists, a new report said. "Security reform is one of the Palestinian National Authority's (PNA) most notable successes," says the report named "Squaring the Circle: Palestinian Security Reform under Occupation," released this week by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

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PA says nabbed West Bank terrorists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - September 7, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority announced Tuesday that it had arrested six men who had carried out two terror attacks that killed four Israelis and injured two last week. The Palestinians say the first attack, which killed four residents of Beit Hagai at a junction near Hebron last Tuesday, was carried out by two shooters and an accomplice. A similarly composed terror cell was responsible for the attack that occurred one day later and injured a couple, according to the authority.

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Conscription in Gaza?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Omer Ghraieb - (Analysis) September 7, 2010 - 12:00am

[Gaza] It started first with the introduction of high taxes on cigarettes. It was the de facto government’s hope that this would prevent merchants from selling cigarettes, and that if they do, the cost would be too much for an average citizen to afford. Hamas believed this would eventually lead to the end of cigarette smoking in Gaza. Islam strongly discourages smoking and some even say that Muslims are forbidden from smoking cigarettes, since it is harmful to one’s health.

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This time in Washington, honest brokerage is not going to be enough
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Avi Shlaim - (Opinion) September 7, 2010 - 12:00am

The pope, according to a no doubt apocryphal story, maintains that there are two possible solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict – the realistic and the miraculous. The realistic solution involves divine intervention; the miraculous solution involves a voluntary agreement between the parties themselves. The American-sponsored peace talks that got under way in Washington last week may be viewed in this light. It will take nothing less than a miracle to produce a peaceful settlement of the century-old conflict between Jews and Arabs over the Holy Land.

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