Why Israel can't be a 'Jewish State'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English
(Opinion) September 30, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israeli government's current mantra is that the Palestinians must recognise a "Jewish State". Of course, the Palestinians have clearly and repeatedly recognised the State of Israel as such in the 1993 Oslo Accords (which were based on an Israeli promise to establish a Palestinian state within five years - a promise now shattered) and many times since. Recently, however, Israeli leaders have dramatically and unilaterally moved the goal-posts and are now clamouring that Palestinians must recognise Israel as a "Jewish State".

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2 for 2, or 2 for 1?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Thomas L. Friedman - September 27, 2011 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and President Obama all spoke at the U.N. last week and, honestly, it is hard to decide whose speech was worse. Netanyahu’s read like a pep rally to the Likud Central Committee. Abbas’s read like an address to an Arab League meeting. Obama’s read like an appeal to Jewish voters in Florida. The president meant well, but domestic politics required that he whisper where he once spoke bold truths to both sides.

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So what’s your plan, Mr. Prime Minister?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Susan Hattis Rolef - (Opinion) September 25, 2011 - 12:00am

Immediately after Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) ended his long and tedious speech at the UN General Assembly last Friday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman described it in a Channel 10 interview as “extremely harsh incitement.”

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Europe must save the two-state solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Carlo Strenger - (Blog) September 24, 2011 - 12:00am

The speeches have been given, and each leader pandered to his audiences. Netanyahu scolded the UN for singling out Israel unfairly for decades, quoting the Lubavicher Rebbe calling the UN house of lies. This was obviously not meant to gain him friends in the UN, but to show how connected he was to Jewish tradition. He put the blame on failed negotiations completely on the Palestinians, emphasizing the destructive impact of radical Islam.

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Do we really want peace?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Galila Golan - (Opinion) September 6, 2011 - 12:00am

I accuse the government of Israel (several of them) not only of failing to provide its citizens with their socioeconomic rights but also of failing to provide its citizens with security. The government of Israel has failed to provide its citizens with security because it has rejected ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. Some would go all the way back to the 1950s when Prime Minister Ben-Gurion expressed his lack of disappointment that the Egyptians were too demanding, because he believed that time was on our side. Many things, not least of which the 1967 war, proved that wrong.

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Talking Peace Is Only Language He Understands
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Jeffay - (Analysis) August 30, 2011 - 12:00am

When a series of terrorist attacks killed eight Israelis in and around the southern Israeli city of Eilat, Gershon Baskin knew immediately that the deaths had the potential to escalate into a full-blown conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza. And he saw himself as one of the few individuals who could do something to stop it. You Say You Want Mediation: Peace activist Gershon Baskin is stepping down as head of the joint Israeli-Palestinian think tank he helped found. He has no plans to stop mediating disputes between the two sides.

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Abbas: We refuse observer status at the UN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 19, 2011 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian leadership rejected upgrading Palestine to observer status at the UN and would demand full membership, the official news agency Wafa reported. Palestine refuses to be like the Vatican, which is not a member of the world body but has observer status, Abbas said. Speaking in Beirut, Abbas said 122 countries supported an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders, adding that the number could increase. Palestine also had the support of nine of the 15 UN Security Council members, the president said.

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Hill fight simmers over Palestinian statehood vote
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Marin Cogan, Jake Sherman - August 19, 2011 - 12:00am

Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill will spend much of the fall warring over budget deficits and the national debt, but a mass excursion by lawmakers to Israel this month offers a glimpse into a simmering foreign policy fight that could unify the two parties and cause headaches for the White House.

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Semites unite! You’ve nothing to lose but your pain
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Roi Ben-Yehuda - (Opinion) August 19, 2011 - 12:00am

On July 15 a small bit of history was made in Jerusalem. Around 3,000 Jews and Arabs marched from the Jaffa Gate in the Old City to the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem calling for Palestinian independence, freedom and dignity. The demonstration was organized by the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement and leaders of the Palestinian East Jerusalem neighborhood committees. We, an Israeli from Tel Aviv and a Palestinian resident of Jerusalem, were among those who joined and made our voices heard.

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Palestinians on statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Mona Alami - (Opinion) August 19, 2011 - 12:00am

Mahmoud Abbas most likely left Lebanon Thursday a satisfied man. With high-level talks—most notably with President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri—as well as the inauguration of the Palestinian Embassy in Lebanon on his itinerary, the Palestinian president has laid some important diplomatic groundwork in preparation of an event next month that has the potential to define his career.

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