Israel's Best Hope to Thwart Palestinian U.N. Plan May Be Palestinians' Own Strategic Doubts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Tony Karon - (Blog) June 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel's government currently lacks a credible plan for getting it out of a diplomatic tight spot if the Palestinians go ahead with a plan to seek U.N. recognition of a state in September. But don't bet against the Palestinian leadership letting the Israelis off the hook as a result of their own divisions over whether to go the U.N. route.

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Berlusconi receives Netanyahu, rejects unilateral solutions in Middle East peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
June 12, 2011 - 12:00am

ROME — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said Monday that Middle East peace can only be reached through negotiations, keeping to Italy’s position rejecting any unilateral actions such as recognition of a Palestinian state by the U.N. General Assembly. Berlusconi spoke at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in Italy to rally opposition to Palestinian plans to have the General Assembly recognize a Palestinian state in September.

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Palestinian statehood: What is the U.N.'s role?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
(Editorial) June 12, 2011 - 12:00am

Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook insists that a vote this fall in the General Assembly cannot be stopped. The Israeli prime minister's recent trip to the United States was a blatant effort to stop the march of history.

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Feeling winds of Arab Spring, Israel douses sparks of Palestinian uprising
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - June 10, 2011 - 12:00am

As a Palestinian statehood push gains traction across the globe, Israel is facing the prospect of a broader Palestinian civil disobedience movement that could put the Jewish state on the defensive. Until now, homegrown demonstrations in the West Bank have gained little traction. A weekly protest in the village of Nabi Saleh today, for example, drew only a few dozen protesters and was quickly shut down by soldiers firing tear-gas canisters.

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Moussa 'committed' to Palestinian statehood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 10, 2011 - 12:00am

The Arab League's outgoing chief and Egyptian presidential candidate Amr Moussa told French television on Thursday that he wants to work for peace between Israel and Palestinians but not at any price. "Egypt's position will have to get back to a position of influence in the region and to follow the right policy, which is to establish peace, not at any price," he told France 24 during a visit to Paris. "Not just to move around, joining meetings and so on, but to work diligently and seriously to establish peace. This is what I intend to do if I'm elected," he said.

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Israel's rightists are living in a colonial past
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Carlo Strenger - (Blog) June 10, 2011 - 12:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu has one great upside and one great downside: the upside is that he is predictable. The downside is that, when it comes to foreign policy, he is utterly one-sided, uncreative and devoid of initiative, as Meir Dagan has recently pointed out.

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Palestinian leadership divided over plan to seek UN recognition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - June 9, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian leadership is sharply divided over the unilateral move to seek recognition from the United Nations General Assembly in September. While Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is determined to go through with the move, a group of senior Palestinians have said in closed conversations that they oppose it because they believe seeking recognition from the United Nations could do more harm than good to their cause.

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Palestinians grapple with opposition to UN plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - June 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Faced with opposition from the United States, a number of top Palestinian officials are quietly advising President Mahmoud Abbas to drop plans to seek recognition for a state of Palestine at the United Nations this fall. Top officials say Abbas remains committed to his plan — a result of the widespread sense among Palestinians that two decades of on-and-off negotiations with Israel have run their course, and that the current Israeli leadership is not a partner for peace.

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Preventing Israel’s final solution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Osama Al-Sharif - (Opinion) June 7, 2011 - 12:00am

This year’s marking of the anniversaries of Al-Nakba, the birth of Israel on usurped Palestinian land, and Al-Naksa, the Six-Day War which resulted in the occupation of the remainder of historical Palestine by Israel, have underlined one clear fact; that 63 years since the creation of Israel and 44 years after the fall of Jerusalem and other territories, the Palestinians have not given up on their rights. It’s an important element in the ever-evolving conflict which remains unresolved to this day.

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Ahead of Palestinian U.N. gambit, Europe is in play
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Leslie Susser - June 7, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM (JTA) – It was a sign that ties between the Obama and Netanyahu administrations remain strong despite the apparent tensions two weeks ago when the two leaders met at the White House. On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton shot down a French proposal for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that had put the Israeli leader in a quandary.

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