Mideast Quartet meets to avoid looming crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 11, 2011 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Envoys from the Middle East diplomatic Quartet meet on Monday in Washington in one of the final attempts to avoid a major confrontation at the United Nations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Monday's meeting sees the senior diplomats -- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov -- "compare notes about where we are and plot a course forward" on the peace process, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Friday.

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A new state of affairs as UN nears a vote on Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Charles Glass - (Opinion) July 11, 2011 - 12:00am

On Saturday, the world welcomed a new country into the community of nations. South Sudan has achieved independence from the northern half of the country, as Sudan itself did in 1956 when Egypt surrendered control of what had been known as Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. However, "independence" is not synonymous with "freedom", as the presence of the Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe at the independence celebrations in the capital, Juba, should remind South Sudan's eight million new citizens. The hard part is just beginning.

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Palestinians start to feel pain from new strategy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
by Tom Perry and Ali Sawafta - July 11, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinians' drive to forge a new Middle East strategy, opposed by Israel and the United States, is starting to exact a financial price that will test their resolve. Palestinian Authority employees, who received only half wages in July, are getting a taste of what could be in store if their leaders defy Washington and follow through on plans to take their statehood quest to the United Nations in September.

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Frequently asked questions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Blog) July 11, 2011 - 12:00am

Some three weeks ago I published, together with Colette Avital, Shlomo Gazit and Mark Heller, the following components of a proposed "win-win" United Nations resolution regarding Palestinian statehood:

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A question of will, not semantics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Blog) July 11, 2011 - 12:00am

The content of the article "Buying into Palestinian statehood" by a group of prominent Israelis represents a new, mature and responsible level of debate between Israelis and Palestinians--even when compared to official exchanges between the two sides.

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A Palestinian View: September needs Israel's awakening and not politicians' bluffs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Mahdi Abdul Hadi - (Opinion) July 11, 2011 - 12:00am

The proposal made by Yossi Alpher and several other Israelis of "Buying into Palestinian Statehood" (New York Times, June 24, 2011) is based on several wishful assumptions for the "day after".

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A Palestinian architect designs the foundation for a state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Ruth Eglash, Tovah Lazaroff - July 8, 2011 - 12:00am

Khaldun Bshara’s eyes light up as he points out some of the intricate designs and structural elements of the ornate Arabesque building that houses the RIWAQ Center for Architectural Conservation. “It was built in 1932, but the person who designed it only slept here for one night,” says Bshara, who officially became the organization’s director last January. “It’s a hybrid between modern and traditional architecture, but has a clear Ottoman style.”

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Palestinian official: UN vote on statehood won't contradict peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - July 7, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat attended a meeting with U.S. officials at the U.S. State Department Wednesday, at which U.S. officials were expected to push the PA negotiator to accept American terms for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Acting Middle East Envoy David Hale and diplomat Dennis Ross both attended the meeting with Erekat. Following their meeting, Erekat said in a brief press conference that he does not expect the Quartet’s meeting scheduled for July 11 to “invent the wheel.”

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PM fails to win Bulgarian commitment to oppose PA state bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
July 7, 2011 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was not able to convince his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borisov to make a commitment to vote against the Palestinian bid for UN recognition of a state during his visit to Sofia on Thursday. Israel Radio quoted Borisov as saying that Bulgaria is currently conferring with European Union nations on forming a united position on the Palestinian statehood plan. Borisov added that the Palestinians had not yet officially presented an initiative and when they do, Sofia will inform Israel of its position.

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Who is 'delegitimizing' whom?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Henry Siegman - (Opinion) July 7, 2011 - 12:00am

Shlomo Avineri, a leading Israeli intellectual and politically very much a centrist, is to be commended for dismissing Israeli fears that outside criticism of their country's occupation policies is an effort to challenge Israel's very right to exist. Writing in Ha'aretz, Avineri notes there is not a single country in the world that maintains diplomatic ties with Israel that has ever questioned the legitimacy of Israel's existence.

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