Abbas falls short of Colombian support for UN bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 12, 2011 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas left Colombia empty-handed Tuesday after failing to secure support from President Juan Manuel Santos for his bid to gain state recognition at the United Nations. "We want the Palestinian state to exist. But this can only come as the result of a (UN) vote or resolution. It must be the product of negotiations (between Israelis and Palestinians) because this is the only way to achieve peace," Santos said after meeting Abbas in Bogota.

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Israeli-Hamas Agreement to Trade Prisoners May Reshape Politics in Region
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - October 12, 2011 - 12:00am

The prisoner exchange between Hamas and Israel that is expected to begin next week could reshape regional relationships, strengthening Egypt, Hamas and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel while posing an acute challenge to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. One result might be a more confrontational — and Hamas-imbued — Palestinian movement that could, in the long run, increase Israel’s difficulties, drawing inspiration from and invigorating popular protests across the Middle East. It could also tighten the relationship between Hamas, Egypt and Turkey.

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No simple solutions for Jerusalem, PBS correspondent Ray Suarez tells Philadelphia forum
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Episcopal News Service
by Mary Frances Schjonberg - (Opinion) October 11, 2011 - 12:00am

Just inside the door of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is the Stone of Anointing on which tradition says Jesus was prepared for burial. Watching pilgrims from all over the world fall to their knees to kiss the stone "makes you reconsider what it all means to them to you, to the people who live there, to the people who live far away," according to Public Broadcasting Service Senior Correspondent Ray Suarez.

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Netanyahu tells Ashton happy to meet Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
by Maayan Lubell - October 11, 2011 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Monday that he was willing to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in an effort to restart peace talks, his office said. Netanyahu told Ashton in a telephone conversation that he was "happy to meet Mahmoud Abbas at any time," the statement from his office said. Ashton on Sunday announced plans to invite Israeli and Palestinian representatives to meet "in the coming days" to discuss resuming peace negotiations, frozen for the past year.

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Palestine ready to negotiate with Israel: Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
October 11, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday that he was ready to start negotiations with Israel to reach peace in the Middle East. "We are going to finish the wars, and Israel is going to live in peace not only with us but also with all the Islamic countries," Abbas told the press. Abbas said relations with Colombia would continue to be friendly although Bogota kept its decision to reject Palestine's statehood bid in the upcoming vote at the UN Security Council.

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Gaza represents the ultimate failure of politics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by David Miliband - October 11, 2011 - 12:00am

Government is all about statistics. But life is about people, and the disjunction between the two explains a lot about the cynicism and disaffection with politics. This is true for domestic policy, but also in international affairs, where the confusion and fatigue induced by distance is increased by the seemingly intractable nature of many of the problems. The people who suffer are those who most need the attention of the world. This is notably true of the 1.5 million people crowded into the Gaza Strip, locked between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean sea.

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Isolation? What isolation?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Danny Ayalon - (Opinion) October 9, 2011 - 12:00am

During the past few months, Israel’s purported growing isolation has been the subject of much discussion. It is far from the truth, and it is ironic that this debate has taken place during an effective Israeli challenge to the long-standing paradigm of the Palestinians using the United Nations as a “rubber stamp” for its capricious policies.

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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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Carter: Obama must make good on Nobel Prize and back Palestinian statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
October 7, 2011 - 12:00am

U.S. President Barack Obama needs to make good on the promises that won him the Nobel Peace Prize, fellow laureate and former U.S. president Jimmy Carter said on Thursday. Carter called on the current American president to back the Palestinian’s bid to the UN for statehood and seize the opportunity provided by the Arab Spring to facilitate Palestinian-Israeli peace.

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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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