Palestinians Roll Out Hero’s Welcome for Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - September 25, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Two days after seeking full membership for a State of Palestine in the United Nations, President Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, returned to a hero’s welcome here on Sunday, telling supporters that they were part of a “Palestinian Spring” and that he would resume peace talks with Israel only if it stopped building settlements.

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Plan for Mideast talks gets mixed reception
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg - September 25, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM— With a Palestinian application for UN membership under consideration by the Security Council, a proposal by international mediators to renew peace negotiations has received guarded Israeli approval and a cool reception from the Palestinians. The Israeli government and Palestinian leadership are expected to respond to Friday’s proposal by the Quartet of Middle East mediators — the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia — in the coming days, but early signals suggest different approaches to the initiative.

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Israel ponders response to Palestinian U.N. statehood bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - September 24, 2011 - 12:00am

Reporting from Jerusalem— As Israel considers its reaction to the Palestinian drive for recognition of statehood at the U.N., officials are weighing calls for swift retaliation against fear that tough measures could be counterproductive. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is evaluating Israel's next step. But key members of his right-wing coalition are pushing for a firm response, which they say would discourage Palestinians from pursuing their strategy of gaining United Nations recognition or taking other unilateral steps away from the negotiating table.

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Could a U.N. Upgrade Help the Palestinians Prosecute Israeli Officials?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Slate
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) September 23, 2011 - 12:00am

Would a Palestinian state recognized by the United Nations have the right to bring legal action against Israel and Israeli officials at the International Criminal Court or the U.N.'s own International Court of Justice?

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After Palestinian Statehood Bid, Where Do Mideast Talks Stand?
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In PBS - September 23, 2011 - 12:00am

RAY SUAREZ: Now two assessments of the speeches and what's next from Ghaith Al-Omari, a former adviser to President Abbas, now executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine, and David Makovsky, director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former executive editor of The Jerusalem Post. Well, Ghaith, earlier this week, the Obama administration tried to convince Mahmoud Abbas not to go ahead with the bid. Obviously, they didn't succeed. But why now and why this?

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The Do-Nothing Strategy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Aaron David Miller - (Analysis) September 23, 2011 - 12:00am

Governing is about choosing. And a much-diminished American president has made his choice. Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking isn't and shouldn't be Barack Obama's top priority. Getting reelected is. And that means carefully husbanding his eroding political currency and expending it on matters domestic and economic. Despite all the kerfuffle at the United Nations this week, the last thing he needs to do is pick an unproductive fight with Israel or the Republicans on an Israeli-Palestinian peace process that has been dead for some time now.

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The Palestinians' Bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
(Editorial) September 23, 2011 - 12:00am

Last year, President Obama’s speech to the United Nations was full of promise and determination to advance Palestinian statehood through negotiations with Israel. This year, his address was about lowering expectations and a dispiriting realpolitik as the president spoke of how “peace is hard” and vowed to veto the Palestinians’ bid for statehood if it came to a Security Council vote.

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The downgrading of the Palestinian UN bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - (Analysis) September 23, 2011 - 12:00am

Distinct similarities are beginning to emerge between the “freedom flotilla” that was supposed to set sail for Gaza from Europe this summer with “1,500 activists in 15 ships,” and the Palestinian’s unilateral statehood bid that PA President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to launch Friday at the UN. Both were accompanied by sound and fury and expectations of what these “dramatic, historic” steps would signify. Both were accompanied by nightmare predictions, here and abroad, of the damage that would be caused to Israel, and of how it would further isolate our already badly isolated country.

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Support the Palestinian Bid for Statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Keith Ellison - (Opinion) September 23, 2011 - 12:00am

The United States should support the Palestinian Authority’s bid for statehood at the United Nations. The Palestinian people deserve a state now. As the current debate unfolds, I am reminded of what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in 1965: “The time is always right to do what’s right.”

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Zakaria: I oppose the Palestinian U.N. bid for practical reasons
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNN
by Fareed Zakaria - (Opinion) September 23, 2011 - 12:00am

I am opposed to the Palestinian effort at the United Nations because I think that it is going to get them nowhere. This is not the time for romantic gestures. This is the time for them to do something that will actually help them get a Palestinian state - a goal that I support.

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