Where things stand in the Middle East after Sec. Clinton's not-so-excellent adventure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog
by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) November 3, 2009 - 1:00am

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to the Middle East and inadvertently created yet another crisis for the Obama peace initiative. It's not so much that she badly mishandled everything -- although that argument could certainly be made -- it's more that I think her difficulties demonstrate how complicated and in some practical senses almost impossible the American diplomatic task at hand really is.

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So that the Goldstone Report Does not Get Buried at the Security Council
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Raghida Dergham - (Opinion) November 2, 2009 - 1:00am

A third mistake lies in wait for the Palestinian Authority if it does not pay heed to the dynamics of the interests shared by the five permanent members of the Security Council, represented by their unwillingness to allow the Goldstone Report to reach the council hall at this juncture.

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Support the boycott-Israel campaign
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adel Safty - (Opinion) November 2, 2009 - 1:00am

A new dimension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is emerging as an effective means of peaceful protest against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land: boycotting Israel. Some four years ago, a loosely connected group of Palestinian activists and civil organisations launched an international appeal calling on citizens and corporations to join the boycott Israelcampaign to protest the occupation.

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Bashing Human Rights Watch
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Scott MacLeod - (Opinion) October 30, 2009 - 12:00am

As a founder of Human Rights Watch, Robert L. Bernstein is a distinguished moral voice. So he stunned the human rights community last week when he leveled a devastating attack on the work of the organization he also chaired for two decades. He accused Human Rights Watch's Middle East division of giving Israel the "brunt" of its criticism while it "ignored" other countries in the region. The powerful denunciation in a New York Times Op-Ed article was swiftly endorsed by other eminent figures, including Nobel Peace laureate Elie Wiesel.

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Rattling the Cage: Some victims we are
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) October 29, 2009 - 12:00am

The kill ratio was 100-to-1 in our favor. The destruction ratio was much, much greater than that. To this day, thousands of Gazans are living in tents because we won't let them import cement to rebuild the homes we destroyed. We turned the Gaza Strip into a disaster area, a humanitarian case, and we're keeping it that way with our blockade. Meanwhile, here on the Israeli side of the border, it's hard to remember when life was so safe and secure. So let's decide: Who was the victim of Operation Cast Lead, them or us?

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EU lawyers draw up list of IDF officers suspected of Gaza war crimes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Anshel Pfeffer - October 27, 2009 - 12:00am

Human rights lawyers and pro-Palestinian activists in a number of European countries hold lists with names of Israel Defense Forces soldiers allegedly linked to war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip. Existing legislation enables arrest warrants to be issued against these officers if they enter those countries.

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'Just means against an unjust attack'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Lally Weymouth - (Interview) October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Lally Weymouth of Newsweek and The Post interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Q: What did you think of the Goldstone report?

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Israel to set up team to review Gaza war probe
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Following much deliberation and evasion, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have devised a plan to resolve pressure on Israel to independently investigate the war crimes allegations made by the Goldstone commission. The commission, headed by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, investigated the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces during their winter offensive in Gaza. In their report, the commission accused both Israel and Hamas, the Gaza rulers, of committing war crimes.

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As occupier, Israel must face up to Goldstone report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Goldstone was born in June 1967. I am not referring to the judge from South Africa, but to his report, or more precisely, the notion that Israel needs a synonym for the soul-searching it must carry out after 42 years of occupation. In the 575 pages of the report that is loaded with details, names, numbers, a list of weapons, interrogation methods and articles of international law, three paragraphs hide among the conclusions on pages 521 and 522, numbered 1674 to 1676. Here lies the explanation for the tragic results of Operation Cast Lead.

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'Iran is our friend,' says Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Robert Tait - October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

With its stunning vistas and former Ottoman palaces, the banks of the Bosphorus – the strategic waterway that cuts Istanbul in half and divides Europe from Asia – may be the perfect place to distinguish friend from foe and establish where your country's interests lie. And sitting in his grandiose headquarters beside the strait, long the symbol of Turkey's supposed role as bridge between east and west, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had little doubt about who was a friend and who wasn't.

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