Disappointing state of affairs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) October 12, 2009 - 12:00am

George Mitchell, the US Middle East envoy, is dangerously close to going the way of so many others who have tried to mediate between the Palestinians and Israelis. It was hoped that Mitchell would arrive in Ramallah Friday with something to rescue the Palestinian leadership from the doldrums that it has found itself in ever since the PLO accepted the UN to defer a vote on the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes during Israel’s brutal offensive on Gaza earlier this year.

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Defiant Abbas Reiterates Conditions Before Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Times
by Howard Schneider - October 11, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday seemed to distance himself from U.S. efforts to restart peace talks and defended his recent handling of a report on war crimes in the Gaza Strip in a defiant televised address meant to boost his political standing amid growing criticism.

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U.S. upholds contiguous Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by David Harris - October 11, 2009 - 12:00am

U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell told reporters after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday that Washington supports the creation of a Palestinian state with "contiguous territory." The "contiguous" Palestinian state suggests that Palestinians would be able to travel between any two places of their future state without entering Israel. Analysts believe that Mitchell was reassuring Palestinians over its position of upholding the creation of a Palestinian state.

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Abbas reverses course on Goldstone report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 11, 2009 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday evening that he has instructed his envoy to the United Nations in Geneva to seek a new debate in the Human Rights Council on the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes in Gaza. During a televised speech, Abbas confirmed reports from Friday that his government had completely reversed course on the 575-page report. “I instructed the ambassador to call for another exceptional meeting of the Human Rights Council to vote on the report, seeking to punish all who committed the most grotesque crimes against women and children in Gaza,” Abbas said.

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Too early to villainize Obama in Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - October 10, 2009 - 12:00am

The Obama administration policy in the Middle East vis-à-vis the Arab-Israeli conflict is starting to become clearer, but remains mostly unclear. It is clearer because of recent moves on such matters as the Richard Goldstone report on the Gaza war or the pressure on Israel to freeze settlements, but it would be a mistake to jump to conclusions and assume that the Obama Middle East policy is quickly reverting to the traditional American default position of being in Israel’s pocket.

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Israel on Nobel Peace Prize: Hopes for progress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - October 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Top Israeli and Palestinian government officials both had words of praise for President Barack Obama following the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize. The well-wishers included Israeli President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. But Obama's efforts to push a comprehensive peace between Israelis and Arabs is still a work in progress, and many in both the Palestinian and Israeli camps have been disappointed as Obama has, so far, fallen short of expectations.

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'Fayyadism' tests the narrative of Palestinian dispossession
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Shlomo Ben-Ami - (Opinion) October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

The forthcoming United Nation’s conference commemorating the 60th anniversary of UNRWA (The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) could not come at a better moment. The restitution of lands occupied in 1967 will obviously continue to be indispensable to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it is the legacy of the 1948 war that both parties to the conflict have now put at the center of the debate.

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Israeli foreign minister: No chance for peace deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Amy Teibel - October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel's powerful foreign minister declared Thursday that there is no chance of reaching a final accord with the Palestinians any time soon, casting a pall over the U.S. Mideast envoy's latest effort to get peace talks moving again. Peacemaking policy in Israel is decided by the prime minister's office, and not the foreign ministry. But Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman carries significant weight in Israeli decision-making, and his is a sentiment common among confidants of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Fayyad: Road to statehood will not be of flowers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

Ramallah – Ma’an – “Building the road to the establishment of an independent state will not be furnished with flowers,” Palestinian Prime Minister of the caretaker government in Ramallah Salam Fayyad said Wednesday.

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Jordan's king to Haaretz: Without two states, there is no future
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

Jordan's King Abdullah II has asked Haaretz to relay a message to the Israeli public that it disavow the illusion that the status quo can be perpetuated, because as a result of the diplomatic impasse, "We are sliding back into the darkness. "Is Israel going to be fortress Israel or is it going to be part of the neighborhood? Because if there is no two-state solution, what future do we all have together?" he asked in an exclusive interview on Tuesday at his palace in Amman at the height of the disturbances in East Jerusalem.

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