Obama: Palestinian statehood vote at UN would be counterproductive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
September 13, 2011 - 12:00am

U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday that if the Palestinians try to achieve statehood in the United Nations Security Council, the U.S. would oppose the proposal. "If this came to the Security Council we would object very strongly, precisely because we think it would be counterproductive. "We don't think that it would actually lead to the outcome that we want, which is a two-state solution," he told Spanish-language media in an interview.

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Palestinians' UN gambit could spur changes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Josef Federman - September 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Many Israelis are dismissing the Palestinians' efforts to win international recognition of their independence at the United Nations this month as merely symbolic. But the Palestinians hope the high-profile maneuvering, on a grand global stage, might yield results that have eluded them through decades of peace talks, popular uprisings and violence campaigns. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is set to address the U.N. next week, planning to ask the world to recognize a Palestinian state.

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Ten reasons Palestine is right to bring its case to the UN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Blog) September 13, 2011 - 12:00am

There's a certain implied danger in the idea of playing darts in the dark. Particularly when there are numerous players in a crowded room, and not one has a well-defined target. For Mahmoud Abbas' Palestine, for Benjamin Netanyahu's Israel, and no less, for the Obama administration, the effort to bring Palestinian statehood to the United Nations for endorsement has raised profound fears, prompting internal debates fully as bitter as they have been largely fruitless, with no dependably favorable outcome in sight – for anyone.

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Salam Fayyad's bid to prepare Palestine for statehood dying after foreign aid dries up
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - September 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Two years after launching an ambitious plan to trim bureaucracy and root out corruption, Salam Fayyad's "good government" initiative aimed at preparing Palestinian institutions for statehood is stagnant and dying. As the deadline to meet his goals came and went last month, a moment of pride for the Palestinian Authority prime minister and his attempt to foster Palestinian independence has become a disappointment.

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Britain should say yes to Palestinian statehood – and so should Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jonathan Freedland - (Opinion) September 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Britain doesn't usually count for much in the Middle East, but this time it could make all the difference. As the Palestinians seek United Nations recognition as a state, a quirk of diplomatic algebra leaves Britain with a chance to play the decisive role – and to complete some unfinished business dating back more than 60 years.

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Israel's political tsunami is largely of its own making
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Faisal Al Yafai - (Opinion) September 13, 2011 - 12:00am

When Recep Tayyip Erdogan stepped off the plane last night in Cairo, the Turkish prime minister stepped into a new political world. This is the first visit of a Turkish leader to Cairo in 15 years and, coming after Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador from Ankara, is the first time in three decades Israel finds itself without an embassy in the Arab world's largest country. Barely nine months after the Arab Spring began, the region's old certainties are being swept away.

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Humpty Dumpty Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) September 12, 2011 - 12:00am

In coming weeks, we're going to hear quite a bit at the United Nations and in world capitals about Palestinian rights, unity, and statehood. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) -- the original organizational embodiment of Palestinian nationalism -- will either succeed in gaining new status as a nonmember U.N. observer state, or win a General Assembly resolution supporting Palestinian statehood.

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Time for Israel to put out the fire with Egypt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
(Editorial) September 12, 2011 - 12:00am

The storming of Israel's embassy in Cairo is the climax of the public protest in Egypt against Israeli policy, especially against the killing of Egyptian soldiers during Israel's response to the terror attack near Eilat last month. It's natural for the events to raise deep concerns about the future of the peace agreement between the two countries.

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Diplomatic disasters incline Israel towards belligerence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Joseph Dana - (Opinion) September 12, 2011 - 12:00am

During his press conference on Saturday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared developments in the Middle East to the events of the First World War. He was speaking just hours after the dramatic removal of Israeli embassy staff in Cairo following riots by Egyptian protesters.

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Israel arrives at a tough diplomatic intersection
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - September 12, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel is expected to exercise "maximum restraint" as it faces a trio of regional challenges that threaten to further deepen its isolation, already more acute than the Jewish state has seen in decades. Powered by The sharp deterioration in ties with key partners Egypt and Turkey in recent days could pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to shift its approach to regional challenges – most immediately, the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations next week.

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