Olmert's Lame-Duck Epiphany About Palestinian Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Scott MacLeod - September 29, 2008 - 8:00pm

He is a former leader in the rightist Likud Party who for decades staunchly believed that the West Bank and Gaza Strip belonged to the Jewish people and that the territories, along with the Golan Heights, should remain part of Greater Israel forever. Along with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert gradually came to understand that this was a fantasy. They broke away from Likud and created the centrist Kadima ("Onward") Party three years ago.

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Palestinian Economy: From Bad to Wretched
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arabic Media Internet Network
by Ramzy Baroud - September 28, 2008 - 8:00pm

The numbers are grim, whether in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian economy is in one of its most wretched states, and the disaster is mostly, if not entirely manmade, thus reversible.

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Palestinian?s Planned Cities Planner
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Felice Friedson - (Interview) September 27, 2008 - 8:00pm

Bashar Masri is chairman of the board of Massar International, a private development company with offices across the Middle East and Asia. Bashar is also the creator of the first planned Palestinian city, Rawabi. He spoke with The Media Line's Felice Friedson. TML: When you drive through Ramallah you see lots of construction going on, and business seems to be booming. Are foreign businesses investing in Palestinian areas?

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Beyond Law and Order in Jenin
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by Sadie Goldman - September 24, 2008 - 8:00pm

"There is no mistaking the fact that this is a different kind of Jenin.? Instead of armed gangs that once controlled the streets, "one could sense the overwhelming presence of the Palestinian security force,? Amos Harel and Avi Issacharov wrote in Haaretzthis week.

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Palestinians Pick Abbas Over Haniyeh
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Angus Reid Global Monitor
September 23, 2008 - 8:00pm

Few people are ready to elect Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to run the Palestinian Authority, according to a poll by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion (PCPO). If Haniyeh ran for the presidency against Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, Haniyeh would get 24.8 per cent of the vote, while Abbas would garner 46.6 per cent. In a different scenario, Haniyeh would also lose with 25.7 per cent of the vote against 48 per cent for Marwan Barghouthi, a Fatah member currently serving time in an Israeli jail.

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Fatah Official Says Military Option Against Hamas Possible
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Ali El-saleh - September 21, 2008 - 8:00pm

Palestinian National Security Forces Commander Major General Diyab al-Ali does not excluded a military solution as one of the options for retrieving the Gaza Strip from the hands of the Hamas movement and reuniting the homeland's two parts.

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Unveiled: Massive Investment Plan for West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Abd el-Raouf Arnaout - September 21, 2008 - 8:00pm

A leading private Palestinian company is planning to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, beginning in the coming months. Projects range from an electricity power-generation plant in the West Bank city of Qalqilya to a multi-purpose hall next to the Israeli Justice Ministry in ?Salah A-Din Street in the center of Arab-dominated east Jerusalem.

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A Precarious Coexistence?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ali Jarbawi - (Opinion) September 21, 2008 - 8:00pm

It is difficult to conceive of two more natural enemies than Hamas and the Zionist movement that dominates Israeli politics. In their different ways, each is rhetorically committed to the destruction of the other. However, their relationship is much more complex and symbiotic than a casual observer might expect.

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Jenin? Jenin!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amoss Harel, Avi Issacharoff - September 18, 2008 - 8:00pm

All military camps are similar, and in the Middle East they also occasionally change hands, without their external appearance undergoing any significant changes. As such, Israel handed Jenin's Muqata compound over to the Palestinian security forces in 1996. Although part of it was bombed in 2001, today the compound once again serves as an active Palestinian Authority headquarters. Even the mirror next to the exit gate, a familiar sight from every Israel Defense Forces base, has remained in place. Only the slogan, "Soldier, Improve Your Appearance," has been removed by the Palestinians.

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Israel and Palestine Can Still Achieve Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Mahmoud Abbas - (Editorial) September 18, 2008 - 8:00pm

This month marks 15 painful years since the Arafat-Rabin handshake on the White House lawn. Palestinian children who started school when the Oslo Agreement was signed in 1993 are now young adults. They have not known a day of true freedom or genuine security in their lives.

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