Senior Shin Bet official: Hamas completely lost Gaza war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel - October 21, 2009 - 12:00am

A senior official in the Shin Bet security service argues that Hamas failed militarily during Operation Cast Lead and did not achieve any of its aims. According to the official, the group's battle doctrine was proved hollow and failed to cause any real damage to Israel. This is the first assessment of its type published by a senior Shin Bet official since the end of the Gaza offensive nine months ago. The report was published on the Web site of a major research institute based in the United States.

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China against report's referral to UNSC
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
October 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Beijing will oppose discussing the Goldstone Commission's report at the UN Security Council and allowing the document to serve as a basis for law suits against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Chinese members of parliament told a visiting delegation of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in Beijing on Wednesday.

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Israel's missed opportunity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Richard Goldstone - (Opinion) October 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Five weeks after the release of the report of the fact-finding mission on Gaza, there has been no attempt by any of its critics to come to grips with its substance. It has been fulsomely approved by those whose interests it is thought to serve and rejected by those of the opposite view. Those who attack it do so too often by making personal attacks on its authors' motives and those who approve it rely on its authors' reputations.

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Israel Cabinet split over calls for war inquiry
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - October 21, 2009 - 12:00am

A meeting of Israel's inner security cabinet yesterday left ministers split over whether to yield to growing diplomatic pressure to hold a major public investigation to deflect the findings of the UN's Goldstone report on last winter's war in Gaza. The meeting postponed any decision on an independent investigation as it emerged that the Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, has so far led opposition to the setting up of an inquiry.

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Accountability: core of Goldstone's report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) October 21, 2009 - 12:00am

The Goldstone Report on the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip that was released by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) late last month generated a brief flash of publicity because it criticized Israel and Hamas over conduct in the war that could be classified as war crimes and crimes against humanity. The deeper and wider implications of the report, however, have not been sufficiently discussed or acted upon, which is a shame.

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Palestinian president to set Jan. election date
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
October 20, 2009 - 12:00am

The Palestinian president said Tuesday he will set Jan. 24 as the date for presidential and legislative elections, despite objections from his rivals in the Hamas militant group. Mahmoud Abbas told journalists in Cairo he will set the date in a presidential decree Sunday. Hamas, which wants the voting delayed, dismissed Abbas' announcement as an attempt to pressure the group into an agreement to end a bitter two-year division between the two sides that has interfered with peace talks with Israel and hampered reconstruction of war damage in Gaza.

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PM to decide on inquiry committee on Goldstone claims
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roni Sofer - October 20, 2009 - 12:00am

The Cabinet is set to convene Tuesday morning in order to debate the international battle waged by Israel against the reverberations of the Goldstone Report, which claims Israel committed war crimes in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet announced whether he will order the establishment of an inquiry committee on Operation Cast Lead. Meanwhile Defense Minister Ehud Barak and IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi have expressed their objection to such a move while the Justice Ministry said it may lend its support.

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Barak refuses to discuss Gaza probe
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - October 20, 2009 - 12:00am

The security cabinet on Tuesday did not discuss the matter of establishing an independent inquiry into Operation Cast Lead in Gaza last winter, at the request of Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Barak opposes an Israeli probe into the offensive as a response to the Goldstone Commission's report. Goldstone in Gaza. During the meeting, the security cabinet discussed different ways to deal with the report. Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz gave the cabinet a number of options, including putting together a commission of inquiry.

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Goldstone Tests Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Husam Itani - October 20, 2009 - 12:00am

It may be inferred from the statements given by the spokesman for the U.S State Department that Washington will not allow the Goldstone report to be presented before the UN Security Council, and that in case this report made its way there, the United States will use its veto power to nix any possible resolution endorsing the report’s recommendations.

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Israel’s Fear of the Goldstone Report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Bilal Hassen - October 20, 2009 - 12:00am

The Palestinian and Arab public campaign against the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) withdrawal of the request to discuss Judge Richard Goldstone’s report and to transfer it to the UN Security Council or the International Court of Justice in The Hague had a number of various outcomes. A negative outcome is that it weakened the PA’s reputation and status, and even destabilized its internal status, especially after it was heavily criticised by its own apparatuses and cadres.

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