Date
Type

August 5th

Olmert, Abbas To Meet Wednesday In Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Steve Weizman - August 5, 2008 - 3:01pm

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet Wednesday in Jerusalem, officials with the two leaders said Tuesday. The meeting will be their first since Olmert, under a cloud of corruption charges, announced he would step down after his Kadima Party selects a new leader in September. The fight among Olmert's rivals to replace him and the possibility of national elections in Israel is likely to complicate the attempt to strike a deal between the sides.

»

Olmert And Abbas To Meet In Jerusalem On Wednesday
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Adam Entous - August 5, 2008 - 3:00pm

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet in Jerusalem on Wednesday, a week after Olmert threw U.S.-sponsored peace talks into limbo by announcing that he would step down. Aides said Olmert favored freeing some Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails as a goodwill gesture to Abbas, but they gave no timeline. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas would "raise a number of issues, such as the permanent-status issues, checkpoints and prisoners."  

»

Hamas Says Last Gaza Foes 'uprooted'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Diaa Hadid, Karin Laub - August 5, 2008 - 2:57pm

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hamas said yesterday it had "uprooted" the last major pocket of armed resistance to its 14-month rule in the Gaza Strip, saying it seized mortars, grenade launchers and other weapons from a once-powerful clan allied with the rival Fatah movement. Dozens of members of the Hilles clan were being held by Hamas, while dozens more who fled to Israel to avoid capture during weekend fighting were given asylum yesterday in the Fatah-ruled West Bank.

»

3 Fulbright Winners In Gaza Again Told They Can’t Travel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - August 5, 2008 - 2:56pm

JERUSALEM — The State Department has, for a second time in two months, reneged on its offer to three Palestinians in Gaza to study in the United States on Fulbright grants, this time citing unspecified security concerns. The three were part of a group of seven Fulbright winners whose grants were first withdrawn at the end of May when the State Department feared it would be unable to get them out of Gaza because of Israel’s closing of the coastal strip, which the Israelis say is aimed at isolating the Hamas leadership there.

»

Gazans\' Access To Care Faulted
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Linda Gradstein - August 5, 2008 - 2:55pm

JERUSALEM, Aug. 4 -- Israel\'s domestic security service requires Gazans who wish to enter Israel for medical treatment to submit to detailed interviews about their knowledge of political and militant groups, according to Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, a nonprofit group based in Tel Aviv.

»

In Gaza, A Blurry Line Between Enemies And Friends
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - August 5, 2008 - 2:51pm

JERUSALEM — The events of the past few days in and around Gaza — mortar and grenade battles, negotiations drawing in Israel and Egypt, and the bizarre denouement in which Israel both saved and interrogated scores of Palestinian fighters — offer a glimpse of the byzantine nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

»

U.s. Government, Private Groups Funnel Donations To Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Department Of State
by Philip Kurata - August 5, 2008 - 2:50pm

Washington -- The U.S. government and a humanitarian organization devoted to helping the Palestinian people have established a mechanism to channel private American donations into programs that benefit the Palestinians. A memorandum of understanding was signed August 1 in Washington by the administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Henrietta Fore, and Ziad Asali, the founder and chairman of the American Charities for Palestine.

»

August 4th

USAID and American Charities for Palestine (ACP) partner to offer a historic opportunity for channeling American donations to help meet Palestinian humanitarian needs (1). In the New York Times Ethan Bronner examines the recent tumultuous events in Gaza (2). The ongoing effort to allow three of the Gazan Fulbright scholars to study in the United States is again blocked (4). Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas are scheduled to meet in Jerusalem on Wednesday, their first official meeting since Olmert's recent resignation announcement (6) (7).

U.s. Urges Donors To Pay P.a. Pledges
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
August 4, 2008 - 5:19pm

The Bush administration urged donor nations to make good on pledged contributions to the Palestinian Authority. "It has been clear for some time that the Palestinian Authority faced a serious and imminent budget crisis," said a U.S. State Department statement released July 29. "This is why we have been working urgently with the Palestinian Authority and our partners in the international community, in particular with regional partners committed to peace, to do everything possible to support the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people."

»

August 1st

Great Day For The Irish!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by M.J. Rosenberg - August 1, 2008 - 3:25pm

There is a story that is told in journalism school. Back in the 1890s, the publisher William Randolph Hearst moved to New York from San Francisco and purchased the New York Journal. He did not know much about New York, but he did know that a large percentage of the city’s population was Irish and that he needed them as readers.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017