Sinai: Shift in Egypt’s strategic doctrine?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Mohammad Fadhel - (Opinion) August 26, 2012 - 12:00am

As the army continues its campaign against terrorists in the Sinai peninsula, there are growing calls in Egypt for comprehensive development projects in Sinai. Opposition figures, politicians and former officials are seeing this goal as a strategic effort to enhance the country’s national security. It seems that this topic will become one of the priorities for President Mohammad Mursi and the entire Egyptian leadership.

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Official: Qatar to open office to oversee Gaza reconstruction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 24, 2012 - 12:00am

Qatar will open an office in Gaza to oversee its reconstruction projects in the enclave, an official in Gaza said Friday. Minister of Public Works and Housing Yousif al-Mansi said a Qatari delegation had agreed to start the first phase of a $224 million project during a visit to Gaza in June. "We're waiting for the delegation to come back in the next week or two to open a Qatari office in Gaza to start signing contracts and start the reconstruction projects," al-Mansi told Ma'an.

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US has no stomach for world dominance
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Marwan Kabalan - (Opinion) August 24, 2012 - 12:00am

As the US prepares to mark 11 years since the 9/11 attacks, one is tempted to look again at the ensuing shift in US foreign policy and see whether it has made America a stronger world power.

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PA thanks South Africa
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 23, 2012 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority applauded South Africa on Thursday after its cabinet voted to distinguish goods made in the occupied West Bank from normal Israeli products. Abdul Hafiz Nofal, the PA's deputy economy minister, said he thanked South Africa's ambassador for the decision to label settlement products as "Occupied Palestinian Territory" rather than "Israel."

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Ayalon: South Africa is still an Apartheid state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - August 23, 2012 - 12:00am

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon took a stab back at South African authorities Wednesday, following their decision to mandate special labels on products coming from settlements, for the killing of 34 striking platinum miners, the bloodiest operation since the end of white rule. "Unfortunately it turns out that the changes that took place in South Africa over the years have not brought about basic changes in the country, and it remains an Apartheid state," Ayalon charged.

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Has Support for Israel Hurt U.S. Credibility?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Michele Dunne, Daniel Gordis, Rashid Khalidi, Daoud Kuttab, Richard Land, Aaron David Miller, Dylan J. Williams - (Opinion) August 23, 2012 - 12:00am

he president of Israel is resisting calls for a unilateral strike against Iran, but it’s just the “unilateral” part that he finds troubling: “It is clear to us that we have to proceed together with America.” Even if this is just posturing, the statement shows one reason the U.S. struggles to make allies in the Arab world: Israelis and Arabs alike assume that the U.S. will take a side in Mideast conflicts, and that the U.S. will side with Israel. Are they right?

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Palestinian Statehood Returns (Ho-Hum)
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Ben Lynfield - (Opinion) August 19, 2012 - 12:00am

A second bid by the Palestinian Authority to have the United Nations recognize Palestinian statehood appears to be a case of “once more, but with less feeling.”

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Sinai Chaos Threatens Peacekeeping Mission
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - August 17, 2012 - 12:00am

Recent unrest and violence in Sinai are leaving more than 1,500 troops from the United States and other countries exposed as they seek to maintain a peacekeeping mission there that many experts now criticize as anachronistic. The troops’ presence in Sinai, mandated by the 1979 Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt, has served as a guarantor of that treaty. But current developments are transforming the peninsula, long seen as a vast desert buffer that reinforced the treaty, into a regional flashpoint putting the fragile peace between the two nations at risk.

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Iran’s President Calls Israel ‘an Insult to Humankind’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Rick Gladstone - August 17, 2012 - 12:00am

Iran’s president fanned the flames of confrontation with Israel on Friday, calling the Israeli government “an insult to humankind” in a speech on the annual Iranian holiday that calls for the Palestinian reclamation of Jerusalem from Israel’s control. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran was surrounded by his bodyguards at the demonstration, where he spoke.

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2 Palestinians killed in Yarmouk shelling
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

A Palestinian refugee and his child were killed Thursday after the Syrian regime bombed residential areas in Yarmouk camp in Damascus, local activists said. Palestinian activists in Yarmouk camp told Ma’an that the refugee, Jamal Abu al-Haija, and his daughter Hanin, 10, were killed by a mortar shell fired near their house in the sport city area. Activists said dozens of shells were fired at Yarmouk camp at dawn because Syrian and Palestinian houses are next to each other in the camp. He pointed out that the sounds of shells had frightened children.

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