September 16th

The Issue of Five Million Palestinian Refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed - September 15, 2008 - 8:00pm


Talking to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz last week, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas admitted that the refugees represent the main obstacle preventing a peace agreement with Israel. He said that matters are not yet clear; every issue has complicated details for those who would return to the West Bank and Gaza Strip and those whom Israel would agree to return to their land which is today's Israel.


EU firmly condemns Israeli settler violence in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
September 15, 2008 - 8:00pm


The Presidency of the European Union, currently held by France, on Tuesday severely rebuked extremist Israeli settlers for violence they carried out last weekend and strongly condemned an operation that terrorized several areas in the Occupied West Bank, where one Palestinian and several injured. "The Presidency of the European Union Council firmly condemns the violence perpetrated by the Israeli settlers, notably the fires, vandalism and aggressions that took place Saturday night near Nablus," a statement from the EU said.


The game that changed their world
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Chicago Tribune
by Joel Greenberg - September 15, 2008 - 8:00pm


Mai Abdo, an assistant principal and teacher in Jabal Mukabar, a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem, had a dream for the teenage girls in her school that rankled some people in her religiously conservative community. It sounded like a simple proposition: start a girls basketball program to promote fitness and build self-confidence.


Israel's Gaza shelling may be war crime - Tutu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
September 15, 2008 - 8:00pm


Israel's deadly shelling in the Gaza Strip in November 2006 may constitute a war crime, South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in a report to the United Nations released on Monday. Tutu, who serves as an independent UN human rights envoy, said Israel must be held accountable for its strike that hit two homes in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, killing 18 people.


Abbas and Olmert to meet amid doubts of a deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Wafa Amr - September 15, 2008 - 8:00pm


Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday in a last-minute bid to clinch an agreement a day before his Kadima party holds an election to replace him. "Olmert will make a last-ditch effort to reach a deal, but I doubt they can finalize anything in tonight's meeting," an Israeli political source said. Senior Abbas aides said the Palestinians had rejected Israeli proposals to sign a "shelf" deal, which would not go into effect until Abbas regained control of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.


September 15th

Abbas to Haaretz: We will compromise on refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - September 14, 2008 - 8:00pm


Perhaps it was the daytime fast and abstention from smoking during the holy month of Ramadan, and perhaps it was the conversation about the exhausting negotiations with Israel that caused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to press the white button at least three times in the course of last Wednesday's interview. Sa'id, his personal assistant, enters without a word, pulls out the packet and lights a cigarette for the president. Abu Mazen's relaxed mood does not hint at all the troubles bombarding him from inside and out.


A Mideast Crisis to Avert
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Dennis Ross - September 14, 2008 - 8:00pm


Having just spent a week visiting Israelis and Palestinians, I find it hard not to be struck by the sense that everything is in limbo. Even as they continue to negotiate, Israelis and Palestinians are, for the most part, biding their time as they wait to see what the political transition in Israel and in the United States will produce. But there is a looming issue that I found to be worrying Palestinians and Israelis alike: What happens in January when Mahmoud Abbas's term as president of the Palestinian Authority expires?


There's a Partner, but Who Cares?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - September 14, 2008 - 8:00pm


A new security reality has been developing in the West Bank in recent months, one that has been virtually ignored by the Israeli press. The chaos that once reigned in the West Bank's cities, villages and refugee camps has vanished, replaced by newly invigorated Palestinian security forces. In the 14 months since Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority has managed to revive a concept almost unknown to residents of the territories in recent years: law and order.


As peace talks sputter, Israelis and Palestinians eye Plan B
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - September 14, 2008 - 8:00pm


Over the past two decades of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, deadlines for peace agreements have come and gone with precious few treaties. Now, amid low expectations for an agreement before the expiration of the Bush administration's target for an accord by the end of 2008, voices are growing on both sides advocating abandoning talks on Palestinian statehood if they miss the mark yet again. "We certainly need to think outside the box," says Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian legislator and longtime supporter of peace talks. "The business-as-usual approach hasn't worked."


Israeli government debates settler evacuation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Times
by Matti Friedman - September 13, 2008 - 8:00pm


Israel's government had its first discussion Sunday of a plan to offer West Bank settlers cash to leave their homes, a largely symbolic step taken as the prime minister approaches the premature end of his term. The plan would pave the way for a large-scale pullback after a peace agreement with the Palestinians. But both sides say such a peace accord, or even a partial agreement, are far from completion.



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