Israel's Gaza flotilla inquest nears end -chairman
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Dan Williams - September 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's state-appointed inquiry into the lethal storming of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May is almost complete, the chief investigator said on Wednesday after one of his fellow panel members died. Set up in hope of stemming international fury at Israeli marines' killing of nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists aboard one of the ships, the Turkel Commission is also providing material for a separate inquest at the United Nations.

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Be a man, freeze the settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - (Opinion) September 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Leaders are tested by their ability to spot opportunities and leverage them for their own benefit. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now has such an opportunity. He must convene the cabinet on Sunday and inform it that the freeze on settlement construction will be extended by three months, during which he will conduct intensive negotiations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the future border between Israel and Palestine.

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Settlers: Damage caused by construction freeze is long term
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Aviel Magnezi - September 22, 2010 - 12:00am

The settler leadership in the West Bank said that initially only a few hundred housing units will be built once the construction moratorium expires on September 26, Ynet reported Tuesday night. One leader said the "damage" caused by the freeze will be mitigated only in the long term. "Estimates by left-wing organizations' saying the construction of about 2,000 housing units will be approved if the freeze ends entirely are fairly accurate, but it won't happen immediately. This process will take some time," he said.

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Gov’t prepares ‘contingency plans’ if direct talks blow up
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - September 22, 2010 - 12:00am

With five days left until the settlement construction moratorium ends, talks are continuing in the US between Israeli, Palestinian Authority and American officials to find a “creative” solution to the issue, even as Jerusalem was preparing for the possibility the PA may indeed walk away from direct talks over the matter.

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Abbas Extends a Hand
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward
(Editorial) September 22, 2010 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority have opened a new front in the Middle East conflict: a charm offensive. One can wonder why it has taken so long, yet welcome the move just the same.

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Netanyahu’s subtle, insidious, unworkable demand
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) September 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently been reiterating the demand he has focused on since regaining power that Palestinians and other Arabs recognize Israel as not only a “Jewish state” but specifically as “the nation-state of the Jewish people.” This demand has been flatly rejected not only by the Palestinian leadership, but more recently by the Arab League.

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Netanyahu’s subtle, insidious, unworkable demand
In Print by Hussein Ibish - NOW Lebanon (Opinion) - September 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recently been reiterating the demand he has focused on since regaining power that Palestinians and other Arabs recognize Israel as not only a “Jewish state” but specifically as “the nation-state of the Jewish people.” This demand has been flatly rejected not only by the Palestinian leadership, but more recently by the Arab League.

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Israeli Arabs pawns in a sham 'peace' gameli
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Linda Heard - September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

On Sunday, Israel’s unsavory Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened Palestinian negotiators that if they refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, Arab Israelis could have their rights to citizenship withdrawn. This “needs to be one of the central issues on the negotiating table in light of the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state,” he told his Cabinet colleagues.

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Israeli FM wants to exclude Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called for Israel's borders to be redrawn to exclude some Palestinian citizens, the Associated Press reported Sunday. Speaking ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting, Lieberman proposed a shift in the principle of peace talks, which he said "must not be land for peace, but an exchange of land and people," AP said. The border should be redrawn, Lieberman explained, so Israel's Arab citizens, who make up 20 percent of the country's population, would be on the Palestinian side, while Jewish settlements would be incorporated into Israel.

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To the End of the Land by David Grossman
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Jacqueline Rose - (Book Review) September 18, 2010 - 12:00am

For some time now, David Grossman has been describing his writing as a means of survival, as a way of no longer feeling a victim in the "disaster zone" of the seemingly eternal conflict that is Israel-Palestine. At moments he has talked of the risk of dispassion, of being paralysed with fear and despair. With the publication of this extraordinary, impassioned novel, such purpose or hope acquires a new meaning and intensity. It now seems that the life to be saved by writing, even though the struggle may be doomed, could only be – perhaps always has been – the life of a child.

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