Israel?s Livni Asked to Form New Government
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
September 22, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel's President Shimon Peres asked Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday to form a new government, a day after scandal-plagued Prime Minister Ehud Olmert officially stepped down. Livni, 50, a former Mossad spy who replaced Olmert as head of the centrist Kadima party in a leadership vote on Wednesday, is hoping to become Israel's second woman prime minister after Golda Meir, who served from 1969 to 1974. "After consultations with the political parties, the president has asked Kadima party leader Tzipi Livni to form a government", public radio quoted an official statement as saying.

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Palestinians win Livni pledge on talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Wafa Amr - September 22, 2008 - 8:00pm

Chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurie won an assurance from Israeli prime minister-designate Tzipi Livni on Tuesday that peace talks will not stall while she tries to form a new coalition government. In an interview with Reuters following their meeting, Qurie warned that violence could erupt if the talks collapsed. "The Palestinians will continue to negotiate. But, if the talks reached a dead end, what do we do? Capitulate? Resistance in all its forms is a legitimate right," Qurie said.

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Few Palestinians Expect to Form Own State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Angus Reid Global Monitor
September 19, 2008 - 8:00pm

Few people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip expect to see the creation of a Palestinian state within the next five years, according to a poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. 27.5 per cent of respondents believe the chances for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state next to Israel are medium to high, while 69.2 per cent are more skeptical.

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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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'Establishment of Palestinian state is in Jordan?s strategic interest'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
September 18, 2008 - 8:00pm

Establishing an independent, contiguous and viable Palestinian state on Palestinian national soil serves Jordan?s ?higher strategic interests?, Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Nasser Judeh said on Thursday. Arriving at a just solution for the issue of refugees in accordance with international resolutions, especially UN General Assembly Resolution No. 194 that stipulates the Palestinian refugees? right to return and repatriation, is also in the Kingdom?s strategic interest, he noted.

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Israel's forgotten hero: The assassination of Count Bernadotte - and the death of peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - September 17, 2008 - 8:00pm

Sitting in the back seat, the blue-blooded Swedish aristocrat and the decorated French hero of two world wars had begun to relax from the tension of the journey as the big Chrysler, the last of a three-car convoy, started its final ascent up the narrow road through the now Jewish-occupied district of Katamon, towards Rehavia and the house of the Jerusalem military governor.

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Water shortage cripples Palestinian farming
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Mohammed Assadi - September 17, 2008 - 8:00pm

In the plains around the village of Bardala, the Israeli-Palestinian tug-of-war over land and water plays itself out in vivid colour -- largely brown Palestinian farms border green fields owned by Jewish settlers. Israel and the occupied West Bank have both been hit hard by drought, but Palestinian farmers say Israeli restrictions on their water supplies have made conditions far worse for them than for farmers in nearby Jewish settlements.

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Children Play with Death and Dispossession
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Mel Frykberg - September 17, 2008 - 8:00pm

Palestinian children continue to be victims of disproportionate and indiscriminate violence from the both the Israeli occupation and internal Palestinian infighting in the occupied Palestinian territories. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in its August report expressed concern for the inadequate protection afforded Palestinian children.

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Israel?s Livni seen pushing Palestinian talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Adam Entous - September 17, 2008 - 8:00pm

Many see Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's win in a party vote to succeed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a victory for Israelis who favor peace talks, but insiders played down the immediate prospect of bold moves. Livni, who clinched the leadership of the Kadima party in a ballot on Wednesday, has made clear to confidants and advisers that she wants to concentrate on talks with the Palestinians, pursuing a goal she shares with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of reaching an agreement on statehood borders.

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Palestinian official: Olmert, Abbas to meet as long as PM stays in office
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
September 16, 2008 - 8:00pm

A Palestinian official says President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will continue to met for peace talks as long as Olmert remains in office. Olmert has pledged to step down over corruption allegations but he could stay in his post until next year if his resignation leads to a new election. He and Abbas met Tuesday and an Israeli official said afterward that the two would meet again after Abbas returns from the UN General Assembly in New York later this month.

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