U.S.: Israel move to legalize West Bank outposts 'unhelpful to peace efforts'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
October 13, 2011 - 12:00am

The U.S. State Department criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's newly launched attempt to legalize West Bank outposts on Wednesday, saying the move was "unhelpful" to Mideast peace efforts. On Tuesday, Netanyahu's office announced instructed Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to set up a task force to explore ways to legalize houses in the settlements that were built on private Palestinian land.

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UN rights chief urges Israel to 'protect Palestinian civilians' from settler attacks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Associated Press - October 11, 2011 - 12:00am

The United Nations human rights office urged Israel on Tuesday to stop Israeli extremists from attacking Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva that Israel has a legal obligation "to protect Palestinian civilians and property in the occupied Palestinian territory." Colville said that the wave of attacks occurring since September must be properly investigated and victims compensated, adding that they were "emblematic of the phenomenon of settler violence throughout the West Bank."

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Abbas urges Europe: Support Palestinian spring
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 7, 2011 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas told the Council of Europe on Thursday that security is created through peace, and not force. Addressing the council's parliamentary assembly in Strasbourg, Abbas appealed to Europe to support Palestine's bid for full UN membership, which is under review by a Security Council standing committee. "Today we are at the heart of the Arab spring: we say that the hour of the Palestinian spring has struck," he told European parliamentarians. "You supported the Arab spring which was seeking democracy and freedom," he said.

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Hamas, Israel's enemy or economic partner?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - October 7, 2011 - 12:00am

The line of trucks at the entry to Kerem Shalom, the southern crossing point into the Gaza Strip, is more than a kilometer long. The trucks, mostly from Israel and some from the West Bank, carry a variety of goodies: equipment from the German company Siemens for Gaza's power station, boxes of soft drinks, sacks of cement. North of the crossing point, on the Israeli side, renovation work to expand the terminal continues energetically, at an estimated cost of some NIS 100 million.

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Swedish academics call for boycott of Israeli institutions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
October 7, 2011 - 12:00am

More than 200 professors and students from Sweden have signed on to a call for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions. The boycott petition was initiated by the Action Group for the Boycott of Israel at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

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It’s about peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Uri Savir - (Opinion) October 7, 2011 - 12:00am

We are inundated with analysis in these days of soul-searching, regarding all the important issues that determine our well-being as a country in crisis in a tumultuous Middle East. Everyone seems to have a recipe for a better tomorrow. For Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu the magic wand is better hasbara – if we would just succeed to tell the world the “truth,” we would convince it to support Israel, except for Muslims and anti-Semites of course. From foreign policy to speechology.

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Palestinians Win a Vote on Bid to Join Unesco
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Erlanger - October 6, 2011 - 12:00am

Despite strong opposition from the United States, Germany and several other European states, the Palestinians gained initial approval on Wednesday of a bid for full membership in Unesco — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — as part of their broader campaign for recognition as a state by the United Nations Security Council. But full membership in Unesco could mean a legally mandated cutoff of all contributions from the United States, both dues and voluntary.

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Palestinian anger at US rising over UN veto threat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - October 6, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinians have long been skeptical of America's ability to help them win independence. But low expectations have turned into frustration and in some cases outright anger after the U.S. threatened to derail a bid for U.N. recognition of an independent state and Congress put a hold on $200 million in badly needed aid.

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Europeans want another settlement freeze from PM
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - October 6, 2011 - 12:00am

Some of Israel’s best friends in Europe, such as Germany and the Netherlands, are urging Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to freeze construction across the Green Line as a way to bring the Palestinian Authority back to talks, western diplomatic officials told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday. The idea, according to the officials, is for Israel to refrain “from provocative action” in order to pave the way for the Palestinians to accept the new Quartet proposals and get them back to the negotiating table.

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Why Kosovo but not Palestine?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English
by Zoltan Grossman - (Opinion) October 6, 2011 - 12:00am

In his September 21 speech to the United Nations, President Obama announced that he would veto UN recognition of a Palestinian state, because its independence was not a result of a negotiated settlement with Israel. He said that "peace depends upon compromise among people who must live together long after our ... votes have been tallied ... That's the lesson of Sudan, where a negotiated settlement led to an independent state. And that is and will be the path to a Palestinian state - negotiations between the parties."

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