Lebanon to recognize Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
August 6, 2011 - 12:00am

BEIRUT: Lebanon is set to recognize the Palestinian state, various media reports said Saturday, adding that President Mahmoud Abbas will visit the country in mid-August. Lebanon’s decision comes as it is preparing to head the United Nations Security Council in September coinciding with the Palestinian Authority’s plan to campaign to win U.N. recognition. It is the only Arab country that has not yet recognized the Palestinian state.

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News Analysis: Palestinians insist on approaching UN for establishing state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Emad Drimly, Osama Radi - August 5, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- Over the past few months, the Palestinian leadership has been insisting that its only choice is to approach the United Nations in September to demand a full membership. Fifty days ahead of the annual UN General Assembly meetings in New York, observers said Palestinians will not retreat from applying to the UN. The Palestinians announced on Thursday that they had finalized the preparations for approaching the UN through out coordination with Arab countries. ARAB COUNTRIES' SUPPORT

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Examining the Palestinians’ Unilateral Bid for Statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Maen Areikat, Danny Ayalon, Alan Elsner, Lara Friedman, Shlomo Gazit, David Harris, Hussein Ibish, Gabriela Shalev - (Opinion) August 5, 2011 - 12:00am

Experts Weigh In on Implications of September Move Give Them A Reason Not To Do It By Hussein Ibish The wisdom of the various plans for Palestinians to approach the United Nations in September with a statehood-oriented diplomatic initiative may be debated, but not the Palestinians’ right to make the approach. Israel was, in effect, created by the U.N. Partition Plan of 1947 and gained U.N. membership in 1949 without the agreement of Palestinians or any of its neighbors.

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ANALYSIS-EU struggles to win influence in Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Justyna Pawlak - (Analysis) August 5, 2011 - 12:00am

BRUSSELS, Aug 5 (Reuters) - The European Union is working to build its credentials as a Middle East power broker but its efforts are complicated by internal divisions over Palestinian plans to seek UN recognition of a Palestinian state. The paralysis in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has encouraged EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to try to play more of a leading role, in the absence of any initiative by Washington.

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Egyptians unite behind Mubarak’s trail
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Joseph Mayton - August 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Cheers went up at the local café as the crowd applauded and watched on television former President Hosni Mubarak being wheeled into his courtroom cage, locked up like a dog. This trial of the man who ruled Egypt for nearly three decades was going to be as popular as a World Cup football final, with people tuning into to their radios or crowding around televisions as the streets wind down to a standstill.

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Israel chides Honduran envoy over support for Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 4, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli Foreign Ministry earlier this week summoned Honduran ambassador Jose Isaias Barahona, in order to clarify his country's declared intention to support recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September. The ministry's Deputy Director for Central and South American and the Caribbean, Dorit Shavit, met with Barahona on Sunday, according to a statement sent to Xinhua on Thursday.

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FADC: Palestinian UN bid will harm Israel in int'l arena
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Jpost.com Staff, Herb Keinon - August 3, 2011 - 12:00am

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said in a report presented Tuesday that recognition of Palestinian statehood in the United Nations this September would harm Israel's standing in the international arena and could lead to a continued state of escalation, Israel Radio reported. Heading the team that prepared the report was MK Yonathan Plesner of Kadima.

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Egypt-Sinai-Gaza: The triangular threat to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yoram Schweitzer, Gilad Stern, Einav Yogev - (Opinion) August 2, 2011 - 12:00am

Last week’s attack on the gas pipeline in the El- Arish area in northern Sinai was the fifth such attack in the past six months. According to reports in the Egyptian press, four armed, masked men infiltrated the gas terminal, blew it up and escaped without disclosing their identities. The explosion caused serious damage to the pipeline, even more extensive than the damage caused in the attack of the previous week.

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PA: Employees to receive salaries Tuesday
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 1, 2011 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority premier said Sunday that full salaries for the month of July would be paid Tuesday, following strike threats from a union representing government employees. But Salam Fayyad said that "the payment of full salaries will significantly reduce the ability of the Palestinian Authority to meet other needs during the next month.” Fayyad urged patience, saying he would continue to make tireless efforts to secure foreign aid that needed to overcome the crisis and enable the Palestinian Authority to meet all of its commitments.

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Palestinians in Lebanon voice growing support for Syrian protesters
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Brooke Anderson - July 31, 2011 - 12:00am

BEIRUT: When Suleiman Ghanem went home to Daraa to get married last March, his friends in Sabra joked that he was going there to die, so they snapped a picture of him. That same picture now hangs over the main street of the Sabra market, a tribute to a young martyr of the Syrian uprising.

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