Recognize Palestinian statehood now ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - November 17, 2009 - 1:00am The failure of the Obama administration to launch a serious negotiating process between the PLO and Israel has led to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, announcing that he will not seek re-election. He cited Washington's inability to ensure an Israeli settlement construction freeze as well as American bias toward Israel as the main reasons. » Read more

Hamas rejects PA’s UN move for statehood ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by HIsham Abu Taha - November 17, 2009 - 1:00am Hamas rejected Monday a Palestinian suggestion to seek UN Security Council support for unilaterally declaring a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Such a declaration would have no meaning and was merely an attempt by the rival Palestinian camp of President Mahmoud Abbas to pretend it had an alternative to faltering peace negotiations, other than armed struggle, said Hamas, which is ruling Gaza. » Read more

Why is Hamas keeping a low profile in the West Bank? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Omran Risheq - (Opinion) November 17, 2009 - 1:00am A question one hears frequently among Palestinians these days is why Hamas Movement, a group some view with suspicion and others with sympathy, has become nearly invisible in the West Bank. Certainly Hamas has suffered a series of security blows in the last few years. Israel arrested roughly a thousand Hamas members, including elected delegates of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), following the capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in June 2006. » Read more

Dilemma of the peace process ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Hassan Barari - (Opinion) November 17, 2009 - 1:00am Now, in the absence of a peace process in the Middle East, one feels compelled to discuss two main obstacles to conciliation that have been debated time and again to no avail. First, Israel will not proceed towards peace if the Americans are not on board. This explains the explicit demand, mainly voiced by the Arabs, that a third party intervention be secured if we really aspire to a quick fix to the seemingly intractable conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours. » Read more

Peace can be made despite Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) November 16, 2009 - 1:00am It might be tempting to dismiss as diplomatic bluster the statement by Saeb Erekat, chief negotiator for the Palestinians, that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation would declare statehood unilaterally in the near future. Certainly it would not be a novel analysis given how rife the peace process is with grandstanding and brinkmanship on both sides. The PLO tried it twice before under Yasser Arafat, who backed down both times in return for concessions and reassurances. But this time is different. » Read more

Palestinian threat to declare statehood seeks to put onus on Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Leslie Susser - November 16, 2009 - 1:00am Frustrated by a lack of progress toward statehood, the Palestinians are considering taking their case to the United Nations. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had hopes a more Muslim-friendly U.S. administration would press Israel into a peace deal on terms favorable to the Palestinians. When this failed to materialize, Abbas announced plans to resign. Now he is following up with a threat to go to the U.N. Security Council to ask for recognition of a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders, with eastern Jerusalem as its capital. » Read more

Donald Macintyre: Palestinians throw down challenge to Obama and UN ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Donald MacIntyre - (Analysis) November 17, 2009 - 1:00am As so often in the Middle East, we have been here before. The latest suggestion – that a frustrated Palestinian leadership would unilaterally declare a state and invite international recognition for it – is not new. It was made a decade ago by Yasser Arafat when Benjamin Netanyahu, then as now, was Prime Minister. It was made again after the collapse of the Camp David talks a year later, when then Prime Minister Ehud Barak, like some of Mr Netanyahu's more hawkish ministers now, threatened to annex the most populous settlements in the West Bank in retaliation. » Read more

Will settlers become illegal residents of Palestine? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Daniel Edelson - November 17, 2009 - 1:00am Legal experts told Ynet Monday that if the Palestinians go through with their plan of unilaterally declaring a state in the West Bank, the settlers there could find their status changed to that of illegal residents. The dean of Bar Ilan University's faculty of law, Professor Yaffa Zilbershatz, told Ynet that in the case of Palestinian statehood, "the settlers would become a minority that an enlightened state must respect". » Read more

The return of the illusionist ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Yoel Marcus - (Opinion) November 17, 2009 - 1:00am Let's say Benjamin Netanyahu was prime minister in 1977 instead of Menachem Begin. Would he have gone the same way? Made a peace agreement with Egypt via Camp David? Renounced all the Pithat Rafiah settlements? Withdrawn to the last millimeter in Sinai? Signed an agreement affirming the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people? » Read more

EU rejects Palestinian bid for unilateral declaration of state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz November 17, 2009 - 1:00am The European Union has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request to back its plan for gaining recognition as an independent state at the United Nations Security Council without Israeli consent. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the EU presidency, explained that the EU does not believe conditions are ripe yet for such a move. The EU is not on the Security Council, but EU members France and Britain are permanent council members that wield veto power. » Read more