Challenging the Insupportable Arguments against Palestinian Statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National Interest
by Henry Siegman - (Opinion) August 10, 2011 - 12:00am

In their near-hysterical efforts to prevent Palestinians from asking the United Nations to recognize the Palestinian right to self-determination and statehood in the West Bank and Gaza, Israel and the United States have put forward a number of insupportable arguments that cannot be allowed to go unchallenged.

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Palestinians study UN status options
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Permanent Palestinian observer to the United Nations Riyad Mansour said Tuesday that the option of changing Palestine's status from "observer entity" to a "non-member state" is still being studied. Mansour told the Italian news agency AKI that becoming a non-member state "does not invalidate the right to become a member state as recommended by several UN resolutions such as resolution 181 in 1947." The ultimate goal would be to obtain full UN membership like South Sudan, he said, however if that objective is not met then Palestine would seek a status similar to that of the Vatican.

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Arab states to head UN in September
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yitzhak Benhorin - August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Two Arab states will head the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly in September, the month which is expected to see a vote on recognition for a Palestinian state. Lebanon will serve as president of the Security Council in September and Qatar will head the General Assembly for one year as of next month. The Security Council has five permanent member states with veto power (The United States, Russia, China, France and Britain) but Arab states are invariably represented among the 10 remaining rotating states.

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PM lobbies world envoys against Palestinian statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel is prepared to make concessions, but the Palestinians have shown no indication of a willingness on their own for compromise, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday to a group of 18 ambassadors to Washington from Asian, European, African and Latin American countries who don’t usually vote for Israel at the UN. “Six prime ministers, including myself, have come out in support of a Palestinian state, and two offered far-reaching concessions, but this hasn’t helped,” Netanyahu said, in a reference to the concessions offered by Ehud Barak in 2000, and Ehud Olmert in 2008.

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Why the US must support bid for Palestinian statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ibrahim Sharqieh - (Opinion) August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

In 1998, while attending a peace process conference in Germany, I witnessed intense discussions about whether Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat should unilaterally declare a Palestinian state. (The Oslo Accord’s five-year interim phase was to end one month after the conference date.) European diplomats argued aggressively against the declaration, insisting that more time should be given to negotiations. Ultimately, pressure, particularly from Europe and the United States, changed the course of action for Mr. Arafat, and no state was declared.

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Encouraging Peace: Forgetting September
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

The sudden sprouting of tent camps and Israeli demonstrations has allowed the public a brief reprieve from having to confront Israel’s international reality and the Palestinian decision to bring the conflict to the UN Security Council in September.While the public is busy thinking about solutions to all the social-economic distortions, the US has been busy trying to pre-empt disaster.

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In accepting ‘67 lines for talks, Netanyahu tries some political maneuvering
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Jessica Steinberg - (Opinion) August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- In the never-ending game of diplomatic chess played by Israeli and Palestinian leaders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week made a new move to try to outflank the Palestinians. On Aug. 2, he said that Israel is ready to use the pre-1967 lines as a rough starting point for discussion of a Palestinian state -- if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state and back down from their plan to petition the United Nations for statehood recognition in September.

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The UN Vote and a Viable Two-State Vision
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dissent
by Farid Abdel-Nour - (Opinion) August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

IN HIS May 19, 2011 speech on the Middle East, President Obama made an oblique reference to the Palestinian plan to seek full membership in the United Nations. He said that this would be a “symbolic action” and that it “won’t create an independent state.” Both claims are undeniable, but neither warrants dismissing or opposing the plan. Indeed, symbolism is a good reason for supporting it. The Obama administration has made it clear that it would like to avoid “a showdown” at the UN in September.

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Former Israeli diplomat sees waning image
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - August 8, 2011 - 12:00am

When Gabriela Shalev arrived at the United Nations in 2008 as Israel's first female ambassador, she was determined to launch a diplomatic offensive to improve her country's international standing. But the respected contract-law scholar says she ended up spending most of her tenure on the defense, coping with reactions to Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip, the subsequent Goldstone Commission's inquiry into allegations of war crimes and the high-seas raid of the protest ship Mavi Marmara, in which Israeli commandos killed nine pro-Palestinian activists.

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Israeli minister: Cut ties with Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Ian Deitch - August 7, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel's foreign minister on Sunday accused the Palestinian Authority of planning "unprecedented bloodshed" next month after an expected symbolic U.N. endorsement of Palestinian independence. Accenting his warning, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called for Israel to sever ties with the West Bank-based government. Lieberman's allegation runs counter to other Israeli assessments and stands in stark contrast to public and private statements by the Palestinians.

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