October 28th

'Plan to end Hamas-Fatah rift reached'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - October 26, 2008 - 8:00pm

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced Monday that he has reached an agreement with Egypt on ways of ending the Hamas-Fatah power struggle and achieving reconciliation among all Palestinian factions. However, Abbas did not give details about the agreement. He is scheduled to fly to Saudi Arabia to brief the Saudi leaders on the latest developments surrounding the crisis with Hamas and the political turmoil in Israel following Tzipi Livni's decision to call early elections.

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MKs agree: Elections to be held on Feb. 10
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Amnon Meranda - October 27, 2008 - 8:00pm

Kadima faction chairman, Knesset Member Yoel Hasson, announced Tuesday that his party would push to hold elections within 111 days from Monday, the day President Shimon Peres informed Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik of his decision to call general elections. According to this announcement, and as per Israeli law, elections are set to fall on February 10.

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Palestinian Electricity Pact to 'Reduce Dependence on Israel'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
October 27, 2008 - 8:00pm

The Palestinian Authority has joined a seven-fold electric power grid, which would allow it to become less dependent on Israeli supply of electricity within four years. The announcement was made during a meeting of ministers of electricity and energy in the network member countries. An interconnected electricity network, which includes Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Libya and Lebanon, decided earlier this week to incorporate the Palestinian electricity system.

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Britain urges Israel to halt settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
October 27, 2008 - 8:00pm

Britain urged Israel on Tuesday to freeze settlement activities in the occupied territories, warning that they threaten the creation of an independent Palestinian state. "Continued settlement construction threatens the goal of a two-state solution to which the Israeli government itself is committed," British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Bill Rammell told reporters in Amman.

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Palestinian forces conduct first raid in Hebron
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
October 27, 2008 - 8:00pm

Newly deployed Palestinian security forces smashed down doors, raided homes and rounded up wanted fugitives early Monday, carrying out their first crackdown since taking up positions around this volatile city over the weekend. Hundreds of men belonging to different Palestinian security forces divided into groups throughout the nearby village of Samoua, holding lists of suspected criminals and loyalists of Hamas. Dressed in civilian clothing or clad in blue, black, green and khaki uniforms, they barged through the doors of the wanted Palestinians and searched their homes.

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No peace deal with Israel this year - Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
October 26, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel and the Palestinians will not be able to reach a peace agreement this year, the Palestinian chief negotiator in U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Jewish state said on Monday. "I don't think that we will be able to reach an agreement this year," Ahmed Qurie told a group of former Israeli security officials at a conference near Tel Aviv on Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.

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Palestinian Forces in the Hebron Minefield
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Tim McGirk - October 27, 2008 - 8:00pm

When Palestinian security forces moved into the lawless West Bank towns of Jenin and Nablus, all they had to worry about were the armed criminal gangs who had been shaking down shopkeepers and stealing cars — it didn't take long to wrest control from the thugs. But Hebron, where 600 Palestinian forces rolled up over the weekend in shiny new white pick-up trucks, is far more dangerous, because it is a stronghold of Hamas and also the base of an extremist Jewish settler community.

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October 27th

U.S. General Keith Dayton, security coordinator in Palestine, is interviewed by Al-Ayyam (1). Tzipi Livni abandons efforts to form a coalition government in the face of noncooperation from the Shas party (2). However an Israeli national poll reports that she is maintaining her edge over rival Benjamin Netanyahu (4). The Independent’s Donald Macintyre examines the world of Gaza’s underground smuggling tunnels (3). Palestine hosts its first international soccer game (5). Violence continues to mar the olive harvest in the West Bank (6).

The amusing term ‘coexistence’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Hisham Nafa' - October 25, 2008 - 8:00pm

Many people have expressed surprise at the recent violence in Acre. Particularly amusing was the mantra that rolled off the tongues of government officials, their eyes wide open: "How could such a thing happen in a city of coexistence?"

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A-G orders probe into settlers' threats
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Dan Izenberg, Tovah Lazaroff - October 26, 2008 - 8:00pm

A settler who apparently made comments calling to kill soldiers distributed an apology letter Monday, saying he was "in a stormy mood" when he made the comments on Sunday. "I didn't speak generally against IDF soldiers," said Kiryat Arba resident Shmuel Ben Yishai in the letter, having been quoted in the media as saying, "God damn the IDF forces. We wish they would be destroyed by their enemies, that all of them would be Gilad Schalit, that they would all be killed and slaughtered, because that's what they deserve."

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