The speech Yasser Arafat never gave ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ moving speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Friday was certainly the high point of his career. His address will be forever remembered because Abbas was able to do what no Palestinian leader has ever done in the past: make the moral case for Palestinian independence in a clear, coherent, reasonable manner at the highest international forum. » Read more

Abbas Strikes Out ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National Review by Elliott Abrams - (Opinion) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am The rapturous applause that greeted Mahmoud Abbas, appearing before the U.N. General Assembly in his role as chairman of the PLO, was deceiving. The collection of states that swooned when he mentioned Yasser Arafat’s 1974 appearance in the same hall will never give him a state — nor even the foreign-aid money to pay his delegation’s hotel bills. » Read more

Price to be paid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am This past week witnessed the culmination of the Palestinian political move to the United Nations. We have seen key speeches by US President Barack Obama, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in addition to the submission of the Palestinian application for state membership to the United Nations and, finally, a statement by the Middle East Quartet. » Read more

Three speeches, no progress ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am Last week, we heard three dramatic speeches at the United Nations General Assembly that were ostensibly intended to offer new ideas for dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian issue. They did not. United States President Barack Obama made an unusually pro-Israel speech that was obviously motivated by domestic American political considerations. Obama made clear that he was abdicating a leadership role regarding Israel-Palestine for the coming US election year. It's doubtful the rest of the Quartet, meaning essentially Europe, can fill the gap. » Read more

Dynamics of Arab Spring ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Joschka Fischer - (Opinion) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am Regardless of whether democratisation in the ‘new Middle East' succeeds or authoritarian forms of government prevail once again, one fundamental change has already become clear: no one will be able to govern without taking into account domestic public opinion. » Read more

After U.N. Drama, Little Hope for Peace Breakthrough ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward by Nathan Guttman - (Opinion) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am An intense week of high-profile speeches and backroom diplomacy, which reached its climax with an official Palestinian bid for statehood, has reshaped the Middle East peace process, eroding the American position as lead player — which may, in fact, be President Obama’s strategy. » Read more

Palestine, yes, but Israelis draw the line at Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Robert Fisk - (Opinion) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am They wear their wounds well, the buildings of the old "green line". Forget the new Jerusalem hotels across the road, the state-of-the-art tramway that glistens down the highway; just take a look at the bullet holes on the walls to the left, the shell gashes in the preserved façade of what was once an Israeli army bunker and is now Raphie Etgar's little art gallery. You can still peer between the rusting iron shutters, across the road. A hundred metres away was the Arab Legion. Just 300ft from here was the Jordanian frontier. » Read more

Shapiro: US opposes preconditions to peace talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post (Analysis) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am Washington does not agree that a settlement building freeze should be a precondition to the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, United States Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said Tuesday morning in an interview with Army Radio. He said that "the US has had the same policy for the past 40 years - against building settlements in the West Bank." However, he stressed that the US believes that direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, without preconditions, are the only way to resolve the conflict. » Read more

Reciprocity, mutuality – key to Mid-East peacemaking ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) September 26, 2011 - 12:00am Dear President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu, welcome home to both of you. You both did a fine job at the UN and made your peoples feel proud. You represented the cause of your peoples’ struggle for existence and peace with great honor. You can both claim victory and come home to a hero’s welcome. » Read more

Israel set to approve 1,100 new Jerusalem homes beyond the Green Line ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Nir Hasson - (Analysis) September 27, 2011 - 12:00am The Jerusalem District Planning Committee is set to approve 1,100 new housing units in Jerusalem's contested Gilo neighborhood on Tuesday, despite past U.S. objections concerning any construction that expanded Gilo further across the Green Line. The plan was submitted by a subsidiary to the Jewish National Fund, and must pass 60 days in which the public may oppose it before being finally approved by Jerusalem's planning authorities. » Read more