Train Wreck in Turtle Bay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) September 8, 2011 - 12:00am

Late September is fast approaching, and the stage seems set for yet another crisis in the Middle East. Palestinian leaders are determined to push for greater international recognition of their state at the upcoming annual session of the U.N. General Assembly. A large number of countries are reportedly poised to vote in Palestine's favor, much to the chagrin of the Israeli government, which has mounted a vigorous lobbying campaign against recognition. COMMENTS (9) SHARE: Twitter Reddit Buzz More...

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Abbas says Palestinian UN bid came after Israel rebuffed int'l treaties
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinians decided to approach the United Nations for recognition after Israel refused to abide by the international agreements and laws, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday. "Approaching the UN is not an alternative to the peace talks," Abbas was quoted by the Palestinian official news agency Wafa as saying, "it is an opportunity to get out of the current impasse that the peace process is facing due to the Israeli policy of settlement." Abbas made the remarks at a meeting held at his Ramallah headquarters with Rabbi Menahim Fruman, according Wafa.

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‘Acceptance of PA’s UN bid will push back talks for years’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

A UN General Assembly resolution recognizing the Palestinian Authority as a nonmember state would create “unbridgeable gaps” and push back negotiations for years, a senior Israeli official warned Wednesday. The official said that once such a resolution was passed, the Palestinians would never be willing to negotiate on the basis of anything less, and no Israeli leader would ever be able to agree to what the Palestinians would likely get from the UN. He said that such a move would be a “strategic mistake by the world,” and said this was well understood by the US.

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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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Peres can't save Netanyahu from UN debacle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

Around 130 countries have pledged to vote in the UN General Assembly in about three weeks to recognize an independent Palestinian state in the occupied territories. Barak Ravid reported in Haaretz this week that Israel's UN ambassador, Ron Prosor, sent a classified cable to Jerusalem saying Israel had no chance of putting together a significant bloc of countries to oppose the resolution. Prosor said that only a few countries would vote against the Palestinian move and that at most a number of countries would abstain or be absent.

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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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Israel braces for Palestinian statehood bid at United Nations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg - August 31, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel is preparing security forces as well as diplomatic and legal responses for a planned Palestinian bid this month for admission as a state to the United Nations, but officials say they do not expect a major eruption of unrest as a result of the move. Despite intensive Israeli diplomatic efforts to head off U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state, a senior official involved in shaping the Israeli response said the government is resigned to the General Assembly endorsing the move later this month.

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Q+A-Can Palestine become a United Nations member state?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
by Louis Charbonneau - August 26, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinians have vowed to seek full U.N. membership for a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital, ignoring opposition from Washington and Israel. But there appears to be little chance it could succeed at present because the United States would veto it in the Security Council.

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September report to remain secret?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
August 25, 2011 - 12:00am

As the situation in the South escalates and the Palestinians prepare for their statehood bid in the United Nations next month, the Knesset has been busy arguing over a report criticizing Israel's readiness for this upcoming September. The report, initiated by the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee (FADC) Chairman Shaul Mofaz (Kadima), is set to be publicized on Sunday. However coalition members have been hard at work to try and prevent its publication.

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UN bid 'endangers Palestinian rights'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 24, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian team responsible for preparing the United Nations initiative in September has been given an independent legal opinion that reveals a high risk involved with its plan to join the UN. An initiative to transfer the Palestinians' representation from the PLO to a state will terminate the legal status held by the PLO in the UN since 1975 that it is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, according to the document.

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