Dashing hopes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) October 1, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not serious about arriving at peace with the Palestinians. He is only marking time or, better yet, wasting precious time for all sides involved. Tzipi Livni, former Israeli foreign minister and leader of Kadima, the main opposition party in Israel, knows Netanyahu only too well, having engaged in lengthy negotiations with him to form a national coalition government after the Israeli elections in which her party emerged the winner.

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Has Obama Dashed Arab Hopes?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - (Opinion) September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

The question being asked today is; has Obama dashed the hopes of the Arabs regarding his seriousness towards seeking a solution to the Arab – Israeli conflict? The barometer [being used to answer this question] is the extent of the US President's ability to put a halt to the construction of Israeli settlements.

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Former Arafat aide: Third Intifada on its way
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Bassam Abu Sharif, a former senior advisor to late President Yasser Arafat, added his voice to a chorus of those raising the possibility of a third Intifada, or uprising against Israel.

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No radical change in American policy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Sobhi Ghandour - (Opinion) September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

US President Barack Obama has been in office for eight months, but there have been no major changes in American foreign policy, apart from the decision to cancel the missile shield planned for Eastern Europe. The absence of any other significant changes in US policy has been a great disappointment, especially in this region, which was pinning much hope on the new administration with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

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How we didn't defeat Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yehuda Ben Meir - (Opinion) September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

There is great rejoicing in the settler camp and among its supporters on the right. As they see it, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defeated U.S. President Barack Obama in an arm wrestling match when, at the tripartite summit, the latter had to retreat from his demand for a total settlement freeze. The settlement freeze, say the settlers, is off the agenda and the danger of American pressure from the school of Barack Hussein Obama has vanished from the earth.

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Netanyahu finally agrees to Sarkozy request to rebuild Gaza hospital
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally agreed Tuesday to a request by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to rebuild a Gaza hospital damaged during Operation Cast Lead. Netanyahu told Sarkozy by phone Tuesday that he had decided to approve the project as a humanitarian gesture. The premier also said he wished to accommodate Paris due to the "strident stance that France has taken on Iran's nuclear program." Sarkozy made the request during Netanyahu's visit to Paris earlier this year. The hospital in question is Al-Quds Hospital, which is managed by the Red Crescent Society in Gaza.

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Goldstone defends UN Gaza report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

As the UN human rights watchdog debated the report, which accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes, he rejected what he called a "barrage of criticism". A US official dubbed the report "deeply flawed". Israel dismissed it as biased. Separately, a UK court has rejected an attempt by a Palestinian group to have Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak arrested for alleged war crimes. Under the principle of universal jurisdiction, war crimes suspects can be tried in British courts. But the British court ruled that Mr Barak had diplomatic immunity.

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Israel, Hamas in mutual gestures on prisoners
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel will free 20 Palestinian women from jail as early as Friday in exchange for a videotape from Hamas proving an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip since 2006 is alive, officials on both sides said on Wednesday. Egyptian and German mediators are continuing to work on a final deal to swap the soldier, Gilad Shalit, for hundreds of Hamas prisoners. The negotiations are part of international efforts to ease Israel's blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

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New negotiations will test Netanyahu’s commitment
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Yasser Arafat was enticed to attend a meeting with Ehud Barak at Camp David during the summer of 2000 with the promise that he would not be blamed if it turned out to be a failure. It did, and he was. Last week the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was invited to attend a meeting with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York without any such promise. He was not blamed and the meeting was not a failure.

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Fayyad demands end to Israeli attacks, settler violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 29, 2009 - 12:00am

“What is going on in Jerusalem, the Israeli attacks, is against the International law,” Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told reporters in Ramallah Tuesday. “Both Arab and foreign countries must take clear positions to compel Israel to stop its arbitrary practices" he said specifically referring to the clashes that broke out in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem when extremist Israelis entered the area with armed soldiers on Sunday.

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