PLO: Don't let Israeli extremists derail peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Analysis) September 9, 2010 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- "The USA, the Quartet and the Arab world must exert their utmost efforts to ensure a complete cessation of settlement construction," a statement from the PLO's Executive Committee said Thursday night. The statement asked that parties invested in the talks work to "forbid extremist forces in Israel from derailing peace talks," and reiterated the support of the body for the negotiations.

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Stand up to fascist threat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Shulamit Aloni - (Opinion) September 9, 2010 - 12:00am

As the Jewish New Year begins, people spend time with their families, hope for the best in the coming year, and are said to be engaged in self-reflection. Yet this is rather banal if the latter refers to those heading to synagogues.

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Obama, Clinton call on US Jews, Muslims to back talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Hilary Leila Krieger - September 8, 2010 - 12:00am

US President Barack Obama indicated he understood recent Palestinian statements threatening to quit the peace process and rejecting compromise as political posturing, according to rabbis on a White House conference call Tuesday. Obama, who spoke with rabbis of various denominations in a call marking Rosh Hashanah, was asked by a participant about comments from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas perceived in Israel as hostile to the negotiating process he launched with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu just last Thursday.

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This time in Washington, honest brokerage is not going to be enough
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Avi Shlaim - (Opinion) September 7, 2010 - 12:00am

The pope, according to a no doubt apocryphal story, maintains that there are two possible solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict – the realistic and the miraculous. The realistic solution involves divine intervention; the miraculous solution involves a voluntary agreement between the parties themselves. The American-sponsored peace talks that got under way in Washington last week may be viewed in this light. It will take nothing less than a miracle to produce a peaceful settlement of the century-old conflict between Jews and Arabs over the Holy Land.

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Palestinian TV satire Watan ala Watar unites political rivals – in anger
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - September 7, 2010 - 12:00am

Political rivals Hamas and Fatah are united – in anger. But the bite-sized nightly satirical sketches of Watan ala Watar have become a Ramadan sensation, cheering thousands of Palestinian television viewers through the holy month. The show has distracted families from the iftar meal that breaks their traditional daily fast, causing them to abandon half-eaten plates of chicken, lamb and rice for 10 minutes of intensive mockery of their political leaders.

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A Special Place in Hell / Real men don't talk Mideast peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Blog) September 6, 2010 - 12:00am

There was something wrong with the air here the day President Obama hosted Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. There was a bottom-heavy grip to the heat, the air almost too thick to breathe, as though it had to be forced down, like medicine. In other places, this freight in the weather is the kind which announces a monsoon, or an earthquake. Not here. Here it was murder that was in the air. It just hadn't happened yet.

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Legitimize Hamas and kiss the PLO goodbye
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) September 6, 2010 - 12:00am

With the resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, numerous voices in the United States have been urging the inclusion of Hamas in international diplomacy, a focus on Palestinian unity, or some formal American outreach to the Palestinian Islamist group.

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Israeli-Palestinian talks: How to keep saboteurs at bay
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Clayton Jones - (Blog) September 3, 2010 - 12:00am

In coming weeks, if all goes well, the spotlight in the Middle East will be on direct talks that started Thursday between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). The two sides promise to meet every two weeks. But beware. Sabotage of the talks began even before they were launched in Washington. The likely aim? The derailing of any peace deal that creates a Palestinian state, a result known as the two-state solution.

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Wishing President Abbas Success
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed - September 2, 2010 - 12:00am

During the preparations for the historic [Israeli-Palestinian] negotiations due to commence today, Israeli Rabbi Ovadia Yosef called for the damnation of Mahmoud Abbas, so as to relieve the Israelis of him. And in Gaza, a group of Hamas imams have prayed that the call of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef be answered, and that Mahmoud Abbas and his negotiating team be killed.

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The quest for peace begins again
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Matt Bradley, Sharmila Devi, Omar Karmi - September 2, 2010 - 12:00am

Against a backdrop of almost universal pessimism about its chances of success, and threats by settlers to restart construction in the West Bank, the US president Barack Obama yesterday launched Washington’s third effort in a decade to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The formal resumption of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations after a 20-month hiatus will take place today at the US state department in Washington.

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