Chabot: U.S. Warned That It Would Defund UNESCO
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Roll Call
by Representative Steve Chabot - (Opinion) December 1, 2011 - 1:00am

On Oct. 31, the United States announced that it would be withholding its contribution to UNESCO in response to that body’s decision to grant full membership to a state of Palestine. This decision was neither rash nor surprising; on the contrary, it was mandated by provisions of two U.S. laws, one of which has been on the books for more than a decade.

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Iceland becomes first Western European country to recognize Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
November 29, 2011 - 1:00am

Iceland's parliament voted on Tuesday in favor of recognizing the Palestinian Territories as an independent state, the first Western European country to do so according Iceland's foreign minister. The measure passed symbolically on the United Nation's annual day of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The vote paves the way for formal recognition by the small north Atlantic island, which led the way in recognizing the independence of the three Baltic states after the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991.

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'Dangerous' balancing act threatening Palestinian Authority leader
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - November 21, 2011 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM // Critics say Mahmoud Abbas's reputation as the president of the Palestinian Authority is that of an indecisive leader who has regularly caved in to foreign pressure. But lately, those same commentators have expressed empathy for the 76-year-old, who is grappling with daunting challenges. "All his options are difficult because all would involve some degree of conflict with Israel and the US at the same time," said George Giacaman, a professor in Birzeit University's democracy and human-rights programme.

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Advocating the two state solution: the best bet?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Open Democracy
by Brigitte Herremans - (Opinion) November 21, 2011 - 1:00am

Nowadays, it is not an easy task to be a staunch advocate of the two state solution. True, there is a near-universal consensus at the international level that a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in a viable and independent State of Palestine living in peace and security alongside the State of Israel.[i] However, far from the ideal solution, it is an imperfect compromise.

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Palestinian insistence is key
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Ahmad Majdoubeh - (Opinion) November 18, 2011 - 1:00am

Israel can be expected to be hostile to the Palestinian UN bid for statehood. The present Israeli government is not only not serious about peace, deliberately seeks to subvert all peace efforts and abort any attempts at arriving at Palestinian statehood, be it through negotiations or through the UN Security Council.

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Palestinians ponder next step in their statehood bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - (Analysis) November 14, 2011 - 1:00am

After gaining momentum with their successful bid to join UNESCO, Palestinians now seem uncertain about their next move to win full membership in the United Nations and frustrated with their progress. The Palestinians' U.N. application was discussed Friday at the world body's Security Council, but no vote was taken. Divisions among council members — including a veto threat from the U.S. — make the application almost certain to fail.

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I'm Palestinian - but where am I from?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Mourid Barghouti - (Opinion) November 11, 2011 - 1:00am

For years, the Facebook team has been reminding me that I have to edit my profile and add the country I come from. As a matter of fact, I deliberately left this out because of my irresponsible fancy that writers belong everywhere and to everyone. Fed up with the dogged persistence of that dialogue box, I finally complied and clicked the "edit" button to write down "Palestine". Oh, it was not as easy as I had thought. I am not allowed to type, I must select from an alphabetically prearranged list of countries.

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PA warns violence could follow stymied UN bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh, Tovah Lazaroff - November 11, 2011 - 1:00am

A Palestinian Authority official warned Thursday that the region could be headed toward “violence and anarchy” because of the failure of the Palestinian statehood bid. PA officials in Ramallah refused to say what they were planning to do now that the bid at the UN Security Council seems to have failed. A UN Security Council subcommittee is expected to report Friday that the PA does not have the nine votes it needs to assure the council’s approval of its request for full UN membership.

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Palestinians' Abbas needs token UN win to save face
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Tom Perry - (Analysis) November 10, 2011 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Facing failure in his bid to win full United Nations membership for Palestine, President Mahmoud Abbas may be forced to seek a lesser upgrade of his nation's status in the world body to protect his credibility from attack by Hamas. Even going for "observer state" rank at the U.N. will likely expose the Palestinian Authority to more pressure from the United States and Israel, which have imposed financial sanctions in a bid to curb the Abbas administration's diplomatic campaign.

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Despite UNESCO victory, Palestinian statehood push running aground
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In - November 8, 2011 - 1:00am

They may have scored a victory at UNESCO, but the Palestinians are running into new obstacles on their push for statehood recognition at the United Nations. The effort to pursue the issue at the U.N. Security Council has encountered a stumbling block in Bosnia, where the country’s Serbian co-president appears to have helped cost the Palestinians a crucial ninth vote. Meanwhile, U.N. officials are sending a strong message regarding any further efforts to get U.N. agencies to follow UNESCO’s lead in granting the Palestinians membership: Please stop.

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