September 28th

The Entebbe Option ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Mark Perry - (Opinion) September 27, 2012 - 12:00am While no one in the Barack Obama administration knows whether Israel will strike Iran's nuclear program, America's war planners are preparing for a wide array of potential Israeli military options -- while also trying to limit the chances of the United States being drawn into a potentially bloody conflict in the Persian Gulf.  » Read more

Netanyahu and Abbas offer little hope for future peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Hugh Naylor - (Opinion) September 28, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM // The Palestinians and Israelis diverge on almost every issue but what they do have in common is that they have done little to satisfy the administration of Barack Obama. In his address at the United Nations yesterday, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, called for world recognition of a Palestinian state while Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, demanded firmer international pressure on Iran. » Read more

Netanyahu, Abbas display divergent priorities at UN ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Jonathan Marcus - (Opinion) September 27, 2012 - 12:00am t is perhaps one of the paradoxes of the past 18 months in the Middle East that as people protested and dictators toppled, so the region's longest-lasting conflict - that between Israel and the Palestinians - has largely disappeared from the headlines. What used to be termed "the peace process" has largely become moribund - a useless label as there is no peace process to describe. » Read more

A honeymoon that wasn’t ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist (Analysis) September 29, 2012 - 12:00am ABOVE Gaza’s parliament hangs a tableau of two smiling Islamist leaders. Muhammad Morsi, the new president of Egypt, and Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the neighbouring Gaza Strip, which is run by Hamas, the Palestinians’ dominant Islamist movement. The two men are raising their hands together, hailing a regional dawn against a backdrop of Cairo’s pyramids. The billboard’s message is that the new Egypt, under a Muslim Brother, recognises Hamas, originally a Brotherhood branch, as its new ally—and as the legitimate authority in Palestine. » Read more

As Sinai border heats up, Egypt buries its head in the sand ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) September 28, 2012 - 12:00am Beyond this week's dramatic media coverage of the female soldier deployed with the Karakal infantry battalion credited with helping to end a terror attack, and the subsequent Facebook correspondence between her and a female colleague who hid when the firing began, the incident last Friday in which Israel Defense Forces soldier Cpl. Natanel Yehoshua Yahalomi was killed gives Israel cause for concern. » Read more

What Netanyahu's meddling in US election means for Obama, Romney, and diplomacy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by David Weinberg - (Opinion) September 27, 2012 - 12:00am Some observers claim that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to tip the scales against President Obama in the elections this November. Judging by his recent behavior – and based on my own research about how such efforts have played out in other settings – these accusations are probably correct. » Read more

Abbas goes for UN bid of recognition as two-state solution retreated ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Saud Abu Ramadan - (Analysis) September 27, 2012 - 12:00am   RAMALLAH, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas found out that reviving the stalled peace process with Israel impossible and the United States retreated from backing the two-state solution, he decided to go to the UN to ask for recognizing a non-member Palestinian state. » Read more

Spineless bookkeeping: The use of Mizrahi Jews as pawns against Palestinian refugees ATFP World Press Roundup Article from 972 Magazine by Yehouda Shenhav - (Blog) September 25, 2012 - 12:00am In the last three years, we have witnessed an intensive campaign aimed at winning political and legal recognition of Arab Jews as “refugees.” The aim of this campaign is to create symmetry in public opinion between the Palestinian refugees and the “Oriental” Jews who arrived to Israeli in the 50s and 60s, presenting both populations as victims of the 1948 war. » Read more

Palestinian Jerusalem hospitals warn of financial crisis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star September 28, 2012 - 12:00am OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: A group of six medical facilities serving Palestinians in east Jerusalem warned Friday of an "unprecedented financial crisis" because of unpaid bills owed by the Palestinian Authority government. In a statement, the East Jerusalem Hospitals Network said they are owed more than 67.5 million shekels ($17 million, 13.3 million euros) for the treatment of Palestinians whose bills are supposed to be covered by the West Bank government. » Read more

Israel campaign throws spotlight on Jewish refugees from Arab lands ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Yolande Knell - September 28, 2012 - 12:00am At the edge of Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, elderly men sit playing backgammon - or shesh besh as it is known locally - wearing looks of intense concentration. It is a scene which can be found in coffee shops across the Middle East, such as in Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. In fact many of the men here are Jewish Israelis who originally came from those Arab countries. » Read more