Threats led to deferral of UN Gaza investigation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jonathan Cook - (Opinion) October 6, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel celebrated last weekend its success at the United Nations in forcing the Palestinians to defer demands that the International Criminal Court investigate allegations of war crimes committed by Israel during its winter assault on the Gaza Strip. The about-turn, following vigorous lobbying from Israel and the United States, appears to have buried the damning report of Richard Goldstone into the fighting, which killed almost 1,400 Palestinians, most of them civilians.

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US denies it pressured Abbas to delay UN action on Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 6, 2009 - 12:00am

The United States denied reports on Monday that it pressured President Mahmoud Abbas to allow the United Nations to delay action to bring alleged Israeli war criminals to justice. At the daily State Department press briefing on Monday, spokesperson Ian Kelly was asked about reports that US officials demanded that Abbas ask the UN Human Rights Council to delay a vote the report of investigator Richard Goldstone.

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War criminals must not be shielded
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Linda S. Heard - (Opinion) October 6, 2009 - 12:00am

Once again Palestinians have attempted to procure justice via recognised international channels to no avail. The United Nations Human Rights Council shelved the Goldstone report that compiled evidence that war crimes may have been committed by Israel in Gaza. This means that Israel has once again escaped referral to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The volte-face was the result of pressure from the White House which discounted the report as flawed and one-sided.

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Resistance denied
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ahram
by Stephen Lendman - October 6, 2009 - 12:00am

Established in 1992, the Addameer (Arabic for conscience) Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association helps Palestinian prisoners, and works to end torture, arbitrary arrests and detentions, other forms of abuse, and unjust, unequal treatment in Israel's criminal justice system, which handles Jews in one way and Palestinians in another.

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UN Panel Defers Vote on Gaza Report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Colum Lynch, Howard Schneider - October 5, 2009 - 12:00am

The U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday shelved a controversial report on Israel's recent war in the Gaza Strip, averting a crisis in the push to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks but potentially scuttling efforts to initiate broad war-crimes prosecutions over the conflict.

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Abbas faces uproar over deferred war crimes vote
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Karin Laub - October 5, 2009 - 12:00am

Engulfed by domestic outrage, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rushed Sunday to limit the fallout from his decision to suspend efforts to have Israeli officials prosecuted for war crimes over last winter's military offensive in Gaza. The decision set off a wave of condemnation, not just from his Islamic militant Hamas rivals, but also Palestinian human rights groups, intellectuals and commentators. Leading members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and even Abbas' own Fatah movement quickly distanced themselves, saying they had been taken by surprise.

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Vice Premier and ex-IDF chief cancels U.K. visit over arrest fears
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Uri Blau - October 5, 2009 - 12:00am

Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon recently canceled a planned trip to Britain for fear of being arrested there. Ya'alon was invited to London to attend a fund-raising dinner for Benji's Home, a group home for soldiers with no family in Israel. The project is the initiative of the parents of Maj. Benji Hillman, who was killed in the Second Lebanon War. Ya'alon was asked to attend the dinner by the British branch of the Jewish National Fund, which is helping the Hillmans raise money for the project, and said he would if the Foreign Ministry's legal department okayed it.

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PA source: US to press Israel on settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - October 5, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinian sources told Ynet the United States has reiterated its commitment to the Palestinian Authority in recent days to reach a peace deal with Israel within two years, based on the Road Map and the 1967 borders. The sources said that in light of the PA's position on the Goldstone Report on Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, the Americans said they would continue to pressure Israel in the matter of settlements, and said this would be put into action in the coming days with special Mideast envoy George Mitchell's visit to the region.

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Analysis: US backs Israel, but leaves door open for external Cast Lead probe
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Dan Izenberg - (Analysis) October 5, 2009 - 12:00am

The address last week by US Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner to the UN Human Rights Council on the Goldstone Report must have been music to Israel's ears. Posner said almost exactly what Israel has been trying to say, without much success, ever since the report was published last month. Here are some of those statements: • We believe that the document is deeply flawed and disagree sharply with its methodology and many of its recommendations, including their extraordinarily broad scope.

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Israel After Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - (Opinion) October 5, 2009 - 12:00am

If the agreement that Iran reached with Western states on its nuclear file is real- whereby nuclear enrichment will now take place outside of Iran thus preventing a major crisis- then now it must be Israel’s turn.

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