Do the Arabs want peace?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Mudar Zahran - (Opinion) October 17, 2010 - 12:00am

Arab League states have announced their support of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s call for a complete halt of all settlement activity in order to resume negotiations. This decision is not all support for Abbas, as freezing the settlement activities has recently been an Arab states’ demand rather than a Palestinian one. Recently, King Abdullah II of Jordan addressed the United Nations and said the settlements posed a major threat to the peace talks, and could actually lead to a major war. This sentiment has been promoted heavily by the government-controlled Arab media.

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Hamas leaders banned from entering Egypt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Egyptian authorities will prevent a number of Hamas leaders from traveling through the country en route to Saudi Arabia for the annual Hajj. Hamas officials told Ma'an that among the leaders prohibited from accessing Egypt are lawmaker Salah Al-Bardawil and spokesmen Sami Abu Zuhri and Fawzi Barhoum. Abu Zuhri confirmed the ban, saying he was informed by Hamas' leadership that "an Egyptian official made contact and notified us of Egypt's refusal to allow a number of Hamas leaders to travel for Hajj."

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Iran and Israel are in Need of Mutual Enmity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Raghida Dergham - (Opinion) October 15, 2010 - 12:00am

Perhaps Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad truly believes that the Islamic Republic of Iran is capable of bringing down the United States of America and of wiping Israel out of existence. Perhaps this is why he wages escalation campaigns amid the international media attention gathered around him and the popular rallies organized for him, like the one prepared by Hezbollah to welcome him in Lebanon.

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No to a third intifada
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Common Ground News Service
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) October 14, 2010 - 12:00am

Whether or not a solution to the crisis over settlements is achieved in the coming days, it's becoming increasingly clear that the direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are in serious trouble. The Israeli daily Ha’aretz quoted unnamed Western officials as saying the talks are “going nowhere.” And the most cautious, sober and measured of the senior PLO leadership, Yasser Abed Rabbo who is a member of the negotiating team, has been moved to declare that, “there will be no serious political process with Netanyahu's government.”

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Smothered by Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Mustafa Barghouthi - (Opinion) October 14, 2010 - 12:00am

Negotiations between two unequal parties cannot succeed. Success in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations requires a reasonable balance of power, clear terms of reference and abstention of both sides from imposing unilateral facts on the ground. None of that existed in the talks that were re-initiated in September.

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Anger at West Bank protester's sentence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - October 13, 2010 - 12:00am

The British Foreign Office last night expressed concern over a one-year prison sentence handed down by a military court to Abdallah Abu Rahma, a leader of unarmed anti-occupation protests in the West Bank. Mr Abu Rahma, 39, was given the jail sentence along with a further six months suspended for three years and a 5000 shekel (£760) fine after being convicted for incitement and organising demonstrations against the separation barrier in the village of Bil'in. The demonstrations often end in clashes between stone-throwing protesters and youths using tear gas and gunfire.

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Should Israel Abandon Policy of Nuclear Ambiguity? A New Book Argues Yes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - October 13, 2010 - 12:00am

It’s a policy that has been around for so long that most Israelis and Americans cannot imagine a world without it. For the past four decades, Israel has adhered, almost religiously, to the idea of nuclear ambiguity, or opacity. It has refused to either confirm or deny it has the bomb, and it has repeated the same vague mantra that “Israel will not be the first country to use nuclear weapons” in the Middle East.

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Can the OECD stand up to Israel?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Sam Bahour - (Opinion) October 12, 2010 - 12:00am

What can be said for the state of international law when international organisations such as the OECD find themselves unable to prevent a member country from bringing its unlawful practice into the life of the organisation itself? In such situations, how can law-abiding member countries avoid being drawn into acquiescence? Later this month, these questions may find answers when Israel hosts an OECD gathering in Jerusalem to discuss global tourism.

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Loyalty oath law, causing stir in Israel, met by U.S. Jewish silence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - October 12, 2010 - 12:00am

A day after Israel’s Cabinet announced that it would consider making a loyalty oath mandatory for non-Jewish immigrants, the question put to The Israel Project’s president and founder was simple enough. “How did your organization react?” Natasha Mozgovoya, the Washington correspondent for Israel’s daily Haaretz, asked Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi at a news conference last week announcing an expansion of The Israel Project’s activities. “We didn’t put out a press release” was all Mizrahi would say at the time.

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Biding time
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) October 12, 2010 - 12:00am

The United States will most probably succeed in convincing Israel to extend its partial and temporary settlement moratorium for another two or three months. It has already offered a package of benefits that seems completely disproportionate to what is being asked for, and which even US newspaper The New York Times has described as “overly generous.”

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