IMF issues warning on Palestinian economy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Financial Times by Tobias Buck - September 18, 2012 - 12:00am The Palestinian economy is heading for a further slowdown in growth and a spike in unemployment just as it faces a “high risk” of continuing social unrest, according to the International Monetary Fund. The conclusions of the most recent IMF fact-finding mission make alarming reading both for Palestinian leaders and western governments amid growing concern over the viability of the Palestinian Authority and with peace talks with Israel frozen. » Read more

A Hollow Call For "Justice" ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) September 17, 2012 - 12:00am Ben Cohen's response to my recent piece systematically proves every point I make about Israel's cynical new campaign to raise the issue of Jewish refugees. In particular he demonstrates that this is not about defending the rights of Jewish refugees, since no substantive demands on their behalf are made, but simply about using them to try to obliterate the claims of Palestinians. It's one of the oddest cries for "justice" I've ever encountered, since it seeks merely to deny the claims of others. » Read more

Oh, Mitt..... ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Daniel W. Drezner - (Opinion) September 18, 2012 - 12:00am So yesterday David Corn at Mother Jones made some waves when he released a video of Mitt Romney locking up the Ayn Rand Institute's vote explaining that he had no chance of winning the  "47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government." Well, this morning, the foreign policy shoe dropped from the Romney video.  Here's the excerpt of Romney musing about the two-state situation for Israel and Palestine:  » Read more

Red Lines over Iran ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Samuel R. Berger - (Opinion) September 17, 2012 - 12:00am Even with all the turmoil in the Middle East, foreign policy is unlikely to have a decisive impact on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. But the outcome of the presidential election will have a profound impact on U.S. foreign policy. Nowhere is that more consequential than the debate over whether, when, and with whom we go to war against Iran. » Read more

What Would Israel Do Without Mahmoud Abbas? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Jeffay - (Opinion) September 15, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called Israel’s President Shimon Peres to offer him Rosh Hashanah greetings. “Happy holiday and a Happy New Year to you and the entire Israeli nation,” Abbas said.. Well, perhaps he meant all of Israel with one exception. At the same time as the phone call from Ramallah came in at Peres’ residence, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman had his team working on his attempt at character assassination of Abbas. » Read more

Exaggerated US-Israel Tensions ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Linda Gradstein - (Opinion) September 16, 2012 - 12:00am If you believe the Israeli and some of the US press, American-Israeli relations are at their lowest point ever. The New York Times accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “trying to browbeat President Obama into a pre-emptive strike (on Iran).” Israeli press this week ran banner headlines trumpeting the rift. » Read more

In Israel, we speak Republican ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Yossi Verter - (Opinion) September 15, 2012 - 12:00am In January 2009, on the eve of the Israeli general elections, and before the newly elected U.S. president, Barack Obama, was sworn in, the leading candidate for the premiership, Benjamin Netanyahu, met with his then-adviser and former consul general in New York, Alon Pinkas. Netanyahu asked Pinkas, who was close to the leaders of the Democratic Party, to help him build a bridge to the new administration. » Read more

Mahmoud Abbas’s U.N. gambit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post (Editorial) September 17, 2012 - 12:00am ONE OF THE winners in last week’s protests outside U.S. embassies in the Middle East was Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Before the eruption of outrage over an anti-Muslim film, Mr. Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad had faced a week of demonstrations and strikes in the West Bank that some were starting to compare to the revolts against other autocratic Arab rulers. Thanks to the eruption of anti-Americanism and Mr. Fayyad’s timely repeal of several recent price and tax increases, the opposition movement appears to have subsided for now. But one way or another, Mr. » Read more

Investor creates Palestinian facts on the ground ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Financial Times by Tobias Buck - September 17, 2012 - 12:00am Over the years, Palestinians have learnt to rue the sight of cranes and bulldozers going about their work on a West Bank hilltop. For more than four decades, such machinery has usually heralded the construction of a new Jewish settlement on occupied Palestinian land – and delivered a fresh blow to Palestinian hopes for an independent and viable state. » Read more

Palestinians protest anti-Islam film ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) September 17, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories — Hundreds of Palestinians on Monday staged a peaceful protest in Ramallah against an anti-Islam film that has sparked violent demonstrations in the Muslim world. Participants of the sit-in, organised by the Palestinian Authority's Waqf (religious endowment) and held outside its offices, held signs saying "We are against those who oppose you Mohammed" and "Do not touch our Prophet." Speaking at the event, Waqf minister Mahmoud Habbash called on the United States to remove the film and apologise for it. » Read more