President Obama is scheduled to meet Tuesday with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas at the UN, and Laura Rozen in Politico examines the stakes for all parties. Hamas leaders attack President Abbas’ legitimacy as the representative of the Palestinian people. A Washington Post op-ed by Steven Walt argues that Israel's government is not interested in a two-state agreement, while another by Jackson Diehl suggests the war in Gaza was actually a "success" for Israel. Israeli shelling leaves two Palestinians dead and three others injured in the northern Gaza Strip, while Israel also bombs smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza. Text messaging helps Palestinians combat unemployment in the West Bank. Raghida Dergham argues that President Obama's domestic problems are playing into the hands of Israel and Iran.

Commentary: Middle East tunnel vision
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Press International (UPI)
by Arnaud De Borchgrave - (Editorial) September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

The only bank this Rothschild ever owned was the West Bank. Danny Rothschild, an Israeli general and onetime coordinator of all government activities in the occupied territories, and now one of 1,200 former intelligence officers in Israel's Council for Peace and Security, says the Palestinians should be allowed to have their capital in Arab East Jerusalem. The very thought of allowing Palestinians to set up a government where 200,000 Israeli settlers moved in since the 1967 war, when Israeli forces "liberated" East Jerusalem from Jordanian rule, is sacrilegious.

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Iran and Israel are benefitting from a weakening Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Raghida Dergham - (Blog) September 18, 2009 - 12:00am

Presidents and Prime Ministers are flocking to the United Nations this week, some of them full of expectations, some burdened with depression and others less enthusiastic about meeting US President Barack Obama, after his international flame has waned as a result of internal battles that were waged against him or that he provoked, weighing him down.

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Gaza: Goldstone’s report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Is there no limit to the wiles of those dastardly anti-Semites? Now they have decided to slander the Jews with another blood libel. Not the old accusation of slaughtering Christian children to use their blood for baking Passover matzoth, as in the past, but of the mass slaughter of women and children in Gaza.

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To show determination
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

It is no surprise that the US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, left the region empty handed after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A series of meetings were held between the two over the past few days in an effort to convince the Israeli premier that the Israeli settlement activity must end immediately. Netanyahu did not budge; his promises came short of the minimum demands of the Arab side and the rest of the international community, including, of course, the US.

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Fatah: Presidential Decree on Election Date by Oct 25
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Kifah Zaboun - September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Asharq Al-Awsat- High-level sources in Fatah have asserted to Asharq Al-Awsat that a final decision has been made on a presidential decree [related to the upcoming elections] by the Palestinian president to be issued before 25 October, as Asharq Al-Awsat had reported earlier.

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Text messaging helps young Palestinians find work
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Rory McCarthy - September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

A non-profit group in the occupied West Bank has started a scheme that uses mobile phone text messaging to help young Palestinians find work. The group, based in Ramallah, has already registered 8,000 Palestinians on its Souktel system, most of them recent graduates. The system connects them to about 150 leading employers who are looking for staff. Internet access in the West Bank remains low, reaching about one-third of the population. Most computer use is at internet cafes, which are largely male-dominated domains in what is still a conservative society.

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Jerusalem Diary: Monday 21 September
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Tim Franks - September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

It's one of the grandest geo-political entities of them all, every word capitalised … The Middle East Peace Process. But its current progress, or signal lack of it, has been hanging on something rather more lower case - whether Israel is prepared, for a few months, to stop giving out new permits for construction in West Bank settlements. Dani Dayan believes it's not so much mundane as barmy. He's the Chairman of the Settlers' Council. "Two pandemics are running wild all over the world," he says. "The first is swine flu, the second is 'settlement psychosis'."

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IDF bombs Gaza smuggling tunnels
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Air Force jets attacked three smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip late Sunday night, and hits were identified. The IDF Spokesperson's Office stated that the bombing was retaliation for the Qassam rocket fire from Gaza towards southern Israel Saturday night. The bombing was a conclusion to 24 hours of tension at the Gazan border. On Sunday afternoon two Palestinians were killed and four injured from IDF fire near the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya.

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Avi Issacharoff / Tripartite summit or PR for Obama?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

The tripartite summit Tuesday between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama is not likely to bring about a breakthrough or so much as a line for the final-status agreement. Both Israel and the PA have been emphasizing at every opportunity that the summit is not about negotiations, but merely a "preliminary meeting."

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