October 1st

Bahrain moots reconciliation body
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
September 30, 2008 - 8:00pm

Sheikh Khaled al-Khalifa's comments in a newspaper interview clarified his speech to the UN this week calling for a Mid-East body "without exception". Bahrain has no formal ties with Israel, but the sheikh said it did not matter. "Let them all sit together in one group... This is the only path to solve our problems," Sheikh Khaled said. "Why don't we all sit together even if we have differences and even if we don't recognise each other?" he was quoted saying by al-Hayat newspaper. Correspondents say few Arab governments are likely to accept a permanent regional forum with Israel.

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Israeli Rights Watchdog Sets Up Shop in Washington
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - September 28, 2008 - 8:00pm

A new and unusual player is joining the Israel advocacy scene in the nation?s capital. B?Tselem, Israel?s leading human rights watchdog organization, launched its Washington operation September 24, aiming to spread information regarding Israeli human rights abuses against Palestinians to the crowd of Capitol Hill policymakers and Middle East think tanks, and to the American Jewish community.

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Why Israeli settlers are lashing out
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - September 29, 2008 - 8:00pm

When Yaron Ezrahi was a young political science professor in 1983, his star student was Emil Grunzweig, who had just completed his thesis on free speech. Two days later, Mr. Grunzweig was killed at a peace rally here, when a right-wing activist threw a hand grenade into a crowd of people demonstrating against Israel's involvement in the war in Lebanon.

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Failure Written in West Bank Stone
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Gershom Gorenberg - September 29, 2008 - 8:00pm

The latest phone call came from a journalist in Denmark. Why, he asked, has Israeli settlement in the West Bank continued despite peace negotiations with the Palestinians?

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Olmert's Lame-Duck Epiphany About Palestinian Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Scott MacLeod - September 29, 2008 - 8:00pm

He is a former leader in the rightist Likud Party who for decades staunchly believed that the West Bank and Gaza Strip belonged to the Jewish people and that the territories, along with the Golan Heights, should remain part of Greater Israel forever. Along with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert gradually came to understand that this was a fantasy. They broke away from Likud and created the centrist Kadima ("Onward") Party three years ago.

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September 30th

The Independent offers continued coverage of outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert?s recent public acknowledgement that Israel will have to return to the 1967 borders in order to reach a peace deal (1). An autopsy of the Palestinian shepherd who was found dead near Nablus reveals that he was killed by shrapnel from a grenade (2). As the holy month of Ramadan draws to a close, Hamas and Fatah pledge to seek unity at upcoming meetings in Cairo (3), however Hamas has allegedly planned to name one if its own high officials as interim president when Mahmoud Abbas? term expires in January (7).

The Etzion illusion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gershom Gorenberg - September 28, 2008 - 8:00pm

History - the history everyone thinks they know - misleads us. Take the story of Kfar Etzion, the first Israeli settlement in the West Bank, established 41 years ago this week. In the Israeli consciousness, Kfar Etzion has played a double role. On one hand, it has been the ultimate "consensus settlement." After all, the settlers returned to the site of a kibbutz that was overrun, along with the rest of the Etzion Bloc, on the eve of Israel's independence. Even veteran opponents of settling in occupied territory shrug, smile and say "that's different" when the Etzion Bloc is mentioned.

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Israeli Rights Watchdog Sets Up Shop in Washington
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - September 28, 2008 - 8:00pm

A new and unusual player is joining the Israel advocacy scene in the nation?s capital. B?Tselem, Israel?s leading human rights watchdog organization, launched its Washington operation September 24, aiming to spread information regarding Israeli human rights abuses against Palestinians to the crowd of Capitol Hill policymakers and Middle East think tanks, and to the American Jewish community.

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Hamas challenges Abbas term extension
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - December 31, 1969 - 8:00pm

Hamas is planning to declare one of its top officials as interim president of the Palestinian Authority after Mahmoud Abbas's term in office expires in January 2009, Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip said Sunday. The officials told The Jerusalem Post that Hamas would not recognize Abbas as president of the PA after that date. "We will remove his pictures from all the public institutions," said one official. "Until now, our policy has been not to challenge Abbas's legitimacy as the elected leader of the Palestinian Authority."

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Palestinian?s Planned Cities Planner
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Felice Friedson - (Interview) September 27, 2008 - 8:00pm

Bashar Masri is chairman of the board of Massar International, a private development company with offices across the Middle East and Asia. Bashar is also the creator of the first planned Palestinian city, Rawabi. He spoke with The Media Line's Felice Friedson. TML: When you drive through Ramallah you see lots of construction going on, and business seems to be booming. Are foreign businesses investing in Palestinian areas?

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