Whose side is Ahmadinejad on?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

After reading an article by the Scripps Howard News Service suggesting that “if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not on Israel’s payroll, he should be,” one reader responded: “Don’t forget to mention that Ahmadinejad is Jewish and possibly an undercover agent for Isreal [sic].” Some double agent; Ahmadinejad continues to be an outspoken booster for Palestinian statehood – perhaps a bit too outspoken, as when he declared last week that the creation of a Palestinian state would be “the first step” in the eradication of the Jewish state.

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Hardliner and Tent City Leader Tell Tale of Two Israels
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward
by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

There is a man in Israel of whom you most likely have never heard, though he is among the noisiest people in the country. His name is Danny Danon. He’s 40 years old, has been in the Knesset for all of two years, yet serves as deputy speaker and chair of its Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, as well as sitting on a plethora of other committees, including those dealing with foreign affairs and women’s and children’s issues. He is also chair of World Likud — and a close friend, so both of them say, of Glenn Beck.

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Fate of the Egyptian – Israeli peace treaty
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Bilal Hassen - (Opinion) September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

The Eilat (Um al-Rushrash) Fedayeen [commando] attack on a number of Israeli targets which took place on 18 August 2011 [Southern Israel cross-border attacks], and the implications of this, continue to gather pace like a snowball rolling down a mountainside. Information surrounding this attack remains vague, and there is no concrete information about those who carried it out, or where they came from. Israel claim that the perpetrators came from Gaza, crossed the Sinai Peninsula, entered Egyptian territory, and attacked Israeli targets from Egyptian soil.

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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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Popular apathy and cumulative skepticism over September
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Akram Atallah Alaysa - (Analysis) September 1, 2011 - 12:00am

Most Palestinians, varied as they may be politically, intellectually and socially, often draw a connection between the Declaration of Independence that Yasser Arafat announced in 1988 and the current UN- based battle for statehood.

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The Israel-Egypt junta alliance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) August 31, 2011 - 12:00am

We were shocked. Suddenly we were told that Egypt is being run by a "military junta." We were also surprised to discover that after 33 years of peace, the peace agreement was signed with a dictator, and that we continued on with the dictator who followed him after he was assassinated. And now this peace is about to collapse, because the dictator is gone and the junta has arrived.

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Steinitz: Palestinian UN bid 'greater threat' than Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 31, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- The Palestinian campaign to secure full UN membership presents a greater threat to Israel than that posed by Hamas, the Israeli finance minister said on Wednesday. "This Palestinian initiative represents a more serious threat than that posed by Hamas," Yuval Steinitz told Israel's public radio. If the Palestinians made good on their plans to seek United Nations membership, Israel would "respond," he promised.

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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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Sarkozy wants united EU voice on Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 31, 2011 - 12:00am

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday he wanted to see a united European Union voice on the issue of Palestinian statehood at next month's United Nations General Assembly and urged Washington to do more for peace. "The 27 countries of the European Union must express themselves with one voice," Sarkozy said in an opening speech to an annual conference of French ambassadors. "The role of the U.S. is uncontested and irreplaceable, but everybody sees that it is not enough. We have to widen the circle of negotiation, think of the role and pertinence of the quartet."

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The day after Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Avi Yesawich - (Opinion) August 30, 2011 - 12:00am

In three weeks, a sovereign Palestinian state will almost certainly be welcomed into the United Nations – if not by the UN Security Council then as a “non-member state” by the General Assembly. Worldwide celebrations in honor of the new Palestinian state will undoubtedly take place. Unfortunately, this festival will be honoring a superficial development; an illusion of achievement. In reality, recognition of a Palestinian state in the current political climate will not resolve any of the outstanding issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, only exacerbate them.

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