Goldstone findings will put Netanyahu on defensive at UN ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Natasha Mozgovaya - September 18, 2009 - 12:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reminisced how, at the start of his tenure as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in 1984, he met the Lubavitcher rebbe who told him that "you are going to the house of darkness but you must remember that even in the greatest darkness, if you light a small candle, it will shed its light to great distances." » Read more

'Mitchell meetings did not advance trilateral summit' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from by Akiva Eldar, Barak Ravid - September 18, 2009 - 12:00am A senior Palestinian official said on Friday that U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell has ended his latest shuttle without agreement on terms for renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians or for setting a trilateral summit. Envoy George Mitchell had hoped to lay the groundwork for such a meeting next week, perhaps also attended by President Barack Obama at the periphery of next week's United Nation General Assembly in New York. » Read more

Gaza charity: PA must freeze our accounts, we were taken over by Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency September 18, 2009 - 12:00am Head of Ishraqa, a Gazan charitable society, Wasfi Naser, urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to freeze the society’s accounts following what he described as a takeover by the de facto Hamas run Ministry of the Interior. Naser said he received a phone call from representatives of the de facto Ministry of the Interior last week telling him that they had appointed a new board of directors for the society. Ishraqa currently supports approximately 250 orphaned children in northern Gaza by raising funds from charities in the EU, US, and Canada. » Read more

Goldstone report: Israel's failings ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by George Bisharat - September 18, 2009 - 12:00am Will Israel's decades-long impunity from international law finally come to an end? That is the question facing the international community in the aftermath of the just-released Goldstone report. » Read more

Goldstone report unfair to Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Jeremy Sharon - September 18, 2009 - 12:00am U.S. Army Gen. George S. Patton once wrote that "battle is an orgy of disorder." This statement rings especially true now as Western nations continue to fight against enemies whose primary tactic is to sow as much confusion and disorder on the battlefield as possible. » Read more

U.S. Rejects U.N. Proposal to Compel War Crimes Probes of Gaza Conflict ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Colum Lynch - September 18, 2009 - 12:00am Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, rejected a U.N. proposal to compel Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip, to conduct credible investigations into war crimes during last winter's war in Gaza or face possible prosecution by an international prosecutor. » Read more

A Deadly Palestinian Divide ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Howard Schneider - September 18, 2009 - 12:00am The security officials who arrested Haytham Amr in June said they only wanted to "borrow him" for questioning about his ties to the Islamist Hamas movement, Amr's father said. » Read more

Mitchell extends Middle East trip ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico by Laura Rozen - September 18, 2009 - 12:00am U.S. Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell has extended his trip to the region to Friday. Negotiations continue between Mitchell and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to see if they can reach an agreement on some sort of settlement freeze. Such an agreement is one key element needed to make way for the announcement of a relaunch of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. » Read more