Leadership failure betrays the Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) October 13, 2009 - 12:00am

Who would be George Mitchell? As the US peace envoy wearily boarded a plane for Washington after yet another fruitless round of shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East, two of the key players in the process were hurling abuse at each other between the West Bank and Damascus. If the scenario were not so tragic, it would be a farce. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas ,and the Hamas leader, Khaled Meshaal, traded insults in separate televised speeches, leaving Mr Mitchell looking like a travelling salesman trying in vain to sell hair-restorer to two bald men fighting over a comb.

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U.S. to Egypt: Fatah-Hamas deal undermines Israel-PA talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - October 13, 2009 - 12:00am

The United States sent a message to Egypt stating it does not support the proposed reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas as it would undermine negotiations with Israel, Haaretz has learned. George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy to the Middle East, met on Saturday night in Cairo with the chief of Egyptian intelligence, Gen. Omar Suleiman, and told him the United States would not support an agreement not aligned with the principles of the Quartet.

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The return of 1948
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Shlomo Ben-Ami - (Opinion) October 13, 2009 - 12:00am

The United Nations conference commemorating the 60th anniversary of UNRWA (the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) could not come at a better moment. The restitution of lands occupied in 1967 will obviously continue to be indispensable to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it is the legacy of the 1948 war that both parties to the conflict have now put at the centre of the debate.

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New negotiations will test Netanyahu's commitment
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) October 13, 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 month the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was invited to attend a meeting with 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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New negotiations will test Netanyahu's commitment
In Print by Ziad Asali - The Daily Star (Opinion) - October 13, 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 month the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was invited to attend a meeting with 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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Disappointing state of affairs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) October 12, 2009 - 12:00am

George Mitchell, the US Middle East envoy, is dangerously close to going the way of so many others who have tried to mediate between the Palestinians and Israelis. It was hoped that Mitchell would arrive in Ramallah Friday with something to rescue the Palestinian leadership from the doldrums that it has found itself in ever since the PLO accepted the UN to defer a vote on the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes during Israel’s brutal offensive on Gaza earlier this year.

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Livni accuses Netanyahu of 'humiliating Palestinians'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Amnon Meranda - October 12, 2009 - 12:00am

Opposition Chairwoman Tzipi Livni on Monday accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being responsible for the uproar created by the United Nations report into the Israeli operation in Gaza. She hinted that Israel was the one who revealed that the Palestinians had deferred a Human Rights Council vote on the report, because the prime minister "had to boast of his performance." Livni, who spoke during the opening ceremony of the Knesset's winter session, was interrupted several times by Likud Knesset members.

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Netanyahu: Our leaders won't be prosecuted in Hague
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Amnon Meranda - October 12, 2009 - 12:00am

The Knesset opened its winter session Monday, amid its members' promise for a stormy winter. The Knesset's factions are set to spend the next several months debating settlement freeze, the forming of a biometric database, a reform in the Israel Land Administration, a controversial budget cut and a referendum bill, to name a few. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dedicated most of his speech to a harsh attack on a United Nations report on the Israeli operation in Gaza, which accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes in Gaza.

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U.S. upholds contiguous Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by David Harris - October 11, 2009 - 12:00am

U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell told reporters after meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday that Washington supports the creation of a Palestinian state with "contiguous territory." The "contiguous" Palestinian state suggests that Palestinians would be able to travel between any two places of their future state without entering Israel. Analysts believe that Mitchell was reassuring Palestinians over its position of upholding the creation of a Palestinian state.

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Abbas reverses course on Goldstone report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 11, 2009 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday evening that he has instructed his envoy to the United Nations in Geneva to seek a new debate in the Human Rights Council on the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes in Gaza. During a televised speech, Abbas confirmed reports from Friday that his government had completely reversed course on the 575-page report. “I instructed the ambassador to call for another exceptional meeting of the Human Rights Council to vote on the report, seeking to punish all who committed the most grotesque crimes against women and children in Gaza,” Abbas said.

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