September 28th

Abbas says to seek upgrade of Palestinian UN status ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Louis Charbonneau - September 27, 2012 - 12:00am UNITED NATIONS, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday he would seek to have the Palestinians' U.N. status upgraded to a sovereign country and cautioned that Israeli settlement expansion meant time was running out for a two-state solution. "Despite all the complexities of the prevailing reality and all the frustrations that abound, we say before the international community there is still a chance - maybe the last - to save the two-state solution and to salvage peace," Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly. » Read more

Mideast Peace Mired as Abbas Trades Taunts With Netanyahu ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg by Nicole Gaouette, Flavia Krause-Jackson - September 27, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exchanged taunts at the United Nations as the world body watched a peace process that has all but slipped away. » Read more

September 27th

Time bomb under Israel's nose ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yaron Friedman - (Opinion) September 26, 2012 - 12:00am » Read more

Shenanigans at work in the UN ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) September 27, 2012 - 12:00am The Middle East figured prominently, but not sufficiently, in the speech of the US President Barack Obama at the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Tuesday, six weeks before the US presidential elections and in the presence of 120 world leaders. » Read more

A year on, calls for statehood hide PA failures ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) September 27, 2012 - 12:00am A year ago, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas went to the United Nations with a rightful bid for state membership. The move for full membership was never voted on at the Security Council (largely due to US pressure).* Today Mr Abbas returns to the UN General Assembly, this time seeking to lay the groundwork for a new resolution to elevate the Palestinians from "observer entity" to "observer state". » Read more

Are Netanyahu, Abbas really interested in 2-state solution? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Paul Gross - (Opinion) September 27, 2012 - 12:00am With Binyamin Netanyahu’s focus firmly on the Iranian issue (and on how he can help the Romney campaign without Obama’s people finding out), and Mahmoud Abbas revisiting last year’s push for UN recognition of a Palestinian state in place of negotiations with Israel, the question should be asked: does either side actually want a two-state solution? The reality is that there has been less than a month of (tentative) negotiations in the three years since this government came to office. » Read more

Inside Out: Barak’s unilateral proposition ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jonathan Rosen - (Opinion) September 27, 2012 - 12:00am Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave a lengthy interview to Israel HaYom on Tuesday in which he called on the government and the public to consider a partial unilateral withdrawal from large swathes of the West Bank, in the absence of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Such a withdrawal would involve abandoning Israeli control over dozens of settlements and the creation of a Palestinian state in the vacated areas. » Read more

At UN, Netanyahu must put a stop to Iran 'noise' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) September 27, 2012 - 12:00am A dark shadow of distrust and suspicion between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama hangs over the prime minister as he mounts the rostrum at the United Nations General Assembly today in New York. The difference of opinion between the two men on the issue of Iran's nuclear program has injected itself into the American presidential election campaign and has become an open rift. » Read more

No Drama at Turtle Bay ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post by Ziad Asali - (Blog) September 26, 2012 - 12:00am At the United Nations General Assembly meeting, the world will be watching -- though with markedly less intensity than last year -- to see what the Palestinians will do. The prevailing mood among Palestinians appears to have assimilated some lessons from last year's experience -- that uncoordinated diplomatic initiatives can produce a damaging deterioration in relations with the West, a devastating reduction of aid, and no improvements in living conditions on the ground, even as they fail to achieve their stated objective. » Read more

Anti-Semitism Fight Hinges on Definition ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Seth Berkman - September 25, 2012 - 12:00am When the California State Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution recently, urging state-funded colleges to clamp down on anti-Semitism, the storm that followed sent some of the resolution’s supporters backtracking. The resolution’s wording, critics said, threatened to label as anti-Semitic those who strongly criticize Israel over its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, or advocate measures to oppose its policies. » Read more