September 8th

Palestine statehood won’t cancel right of return ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Annie Slemrod - (Opinion) September 8, 2011 - 12:00am A successful statehood bid at the United Nations would not stand in the way of Lebanon’s Palestinian refugees eventually exercising their right of return, Palestine’s Social Affairs Minister said Wednesday. In an interview with The Daily Star, Majeda al-Masri discussed some of the stickier aspects of the potential Palestinian state, and how it might affect the future of Lebanon’s approximately 400,000 Palestinian refugees. » Read more

The Palestinian leader can't retreat now ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent (Opinion) September 8, 2011 - 12:00am The little Caribbean island of Grenada has a population smaller than the central Israeli town of Rehovot. But during the visit to Israel by its foreign minister Karl Hood this week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman have all made time to see him. The reason isn't hard to find. Grenada has a vote on the UN General Assembly as good as China's or the United States' and it has yet to make up its mind on how to vote when President Mahmoud Abbas takes his case for recognising Palestinian statehood to New York later this month. » Read more

Palestinian leadership stands up to pressure ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) September 8, 2011 - 12:00am The Palestinian leadership is experiencing a unique situation. Its insistence on going to the UN to seek recognition for statehood despite pressure from Israel and the US is beginning to bear fruit at the local level. Popular support for President Mahmoud Abbas is on an upwards trajectory as the majority of Palestinians are pleasantly surprised by their leader’s determination. » Read more

Turkey leads the way ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) September 8, 2011 - 12:00am Why does Barack Obama insist on burying his head in the sand, much like Benjamin Netanyahu, and take a back seat rather than seriously pursue, as expected, a resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, now in its 63rd year? It seems what got the American president and the Israeli prime minister to climb walls recently was Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s diehard determination to take the conflict to the United Nations later this month. » Read more

Turkey exposes Netanyahu's false bravado ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News (Editorial) September 8, 2011 - 12:00am The arrogant vacuity of Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Israel is being devastatingly exposed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's insistence that Israel should apologise, or at the very least take some responsibility, for the nine Turkish deaths and using excessive violence when Israeli forces stormed a Turkish ship trying to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza in May 2010. » Read more

Breaking up is hard to do ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gabriel Mitchell - (Opinion) September 8, 2011 - 12:00am The results of the UN Palmer Report (which summarizes the events surrounding the infamous “Flotilla Incident” on May 31, 2010) have driven another nail into the coffin that is Turkish-Israeli relations. As a student of the history and development of modern Turkey, I was dismayed by the behavior of the Turkish government: its support of the flotilla and its repeated, cheap attempts to pressure Israel into an apology. » Read more

Israeli pyromaniacs are setting the Mideast on fire ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - (Editorial) September 8, 2011 - 12:00am It's as if summer 2011 never happened, as if there had never been a protest here: Israel is being led with dreadful blindness by a handful of irresponsible politicians, dangerous pyromaniacs without equal, yet the public remains apathetic. The government is pregnant with danger, conducting a scandalous policy, yet there is no protest. » Read more

Netanyahu is biting off the U.S. hand that feeds him ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) September 8, 2011 - 12:00am Robert (Bob ) Gates was one of the most experienced and sophisticated figures in the U.S. administration. Through his skills and connections he became head of the CIA, won the confidence of presidents and members of their inner circles as far back as the Carter administration and was appointed the second secretary of defense in the George W. Bush administration. Gates was the only top Bush aide who was asked, and agreed, to remain in his post in the Obama administration as a Republican among Democrats. » Read more

Islamic Jihad operative killed in Gaza blast ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency September 7, 2011 - 12:00am A member of Islamic Jihad's military wing was killed late Wednesday in an explosion west of Deir Al-Balah, medics said, in what militants described as an airstrike but Israel's army denied. Al-Quds Brigades spokesman Abu Ahmad said an airstrike on a car west of Deir Al-Balah killed Remah Fayez Al-Husseni, 28, a member of the group from Shati refugee camp. Abu Ahmad said Israel was trying to "incite the resistance" to respond. But Israeli military officials denied any involvement in the militant's death. » Read more

As Tel Aviv tent city folds, Israel activists debate next step ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Batsheva Sobelman - September 7, 2011 - 12:00am The tent camp along one of Tel Aviv's trendiest streets that symbolized a large-scale social protest movement is coming down, leaving some to wonder if it was all just a summer fling. As more sections of the Rothschild Boulevard camp were dismantled Wednesday, protesters tried to keep spirits up, saying the tents may be folding but their efforts are not. The time has come, they said, to move to the next phase of their social justice movement. » Read more