Israeli police began arresting settlers resisting the building moratorium, and their leaders reject PM Netanyahu's plea to respect the order. Defense Minister Barak says settlers can continue to authorize minor construction projects. Middle East Progress interviews Special Envoy George Mitchell. The world financial crisis is spurring new Jewish immigration to Israel. The EU is likely reject a Swedish proposal to recognize occupied East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. A Kuwaiti newspaper says captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has been moved to a secret location in Cairo in preparation for prisoner swap. Israeli occupation forces raid the West Bank village of Jenin. YNet argues that Netanyahu cannot reverse course on the settlement moratorium. The Jerusalem Post looks at international moves to boycott Israel and Israeli military efforts to use new social media for propaganda purposes. A commentary in the Guardian says Israel's abuse of Bedouins in the Negev desert shatters the myth that Israeli democracy. Michael Young argues that critics of Pres. Abbas make little sense. The Jordan Times calls Israel's stripping of Jerusalem residency from Palestinians ethnic cleansing, and Daoud Kuttab says the future of peace talks will be determined in the next few weeks.

Settlers reject Netanyahu plea to respect settlement freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson, Barak Ravid - December 3, 2009 - 1:00am


Defiant West Bank settler leaders rejected on Thursday a personal plea from the prime minister to respect a construction freeze in the territories, vowing to keep confronting security forces sent to enforce the edict. In the West Bank, settlers blocked inspectors from entering a settlement to search for unauthorized construction, the third straight day of such confrontations. There has been no violence, but authorities have made at least six arrests.


Jenin: Israeli forces herd men into town square
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 3, 2009 - 1:00am


Jenin – Ma’an – Israeli forces carried out a wide-scale detention campaign east of Jenin overnight Wednesday, targeting young men in the village of Deir Abu Daif. Israel's military said 15 were detained from across the West Bank, but local sources said troops seized 20 men during the raid. Thirteen were released by Thursday morning, according to locals.


Breakthrough or more of the same?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) December 3, 2009 - 1:00am


Ever since the announcement by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that he will not run in the next Palestinian presidential elections, political circles in Palestine have been witnessing a sort of paralysis. Gone are the daily meetings in Ramallah’s muqatta with foreign leaders, and gone are the almost daily statements by US, Israeli and Palestinian officials. Naturally, with the presidency in deep freeze, the Palestinian issue has been dropped from the headlines. Except for a brief moment when a prisoner exchange appeared to be happening, Palestine has become a nonstory.


Abu Mujahid: No Shalit deal yet
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 3, 2009 - 1:00am


Gaza – Ma’an – A spokesman for the captors of Gilad Shalit in Gaza denied on Thursday a report that the Israeli soldier was transferred to Egypt as a step toward a prisoner exchange. Popular Resistance Committees spokesman Abu Mujahid said in a statement that Israel is propagating false information about Shalit in order to force the hand of the Palestinian negotiators. "The ball is in Israel's court," he said, noting that a "deal is not over yet."


Ethnic cleansing, pure and simple
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) December 3, 2009 - 1:00am


Israel stripped over 4,500 Jerusalemite Palestinians of their “residency rights” in 2008. This marks a huge acceleration of a policy that has been in force since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967. In these 41 years, Israel has now stripped over 12,000 Palestinians of their “permits” to live in Jerusalem, 35 per cent or so of those in 2008 alone. It also maps out exactly where the current right-wing Israeli government, which has made no secret of its wish to Judaise Jerusalem, a travesty of history if ever there was one, is heading.


EU likely to reject Swedish East Jerusalem capital call
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by David Harris - December 3, 2009 - 1:00am


When European Union (EU) foreign ministers meet on Monday and Tuesday next week, they are scheduled to discuss a Swedish proposal to recognize East Jerusalem as capital of a future Palestinian state. The Swedes have also called for reopening Palestinian governmental institutions in the Israeli-controlled eastern section of the city, according to a draft of the proposal that was leaked to Israeli daily Ha'aretz.


Critics of Mr Abbas are rarely a logical or loyal opposition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Michael Young - (Opinion) December 3, 2009 - 1:00am


It isn’t difficult to grasp why the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, elicits such tepidness. Judged by the dual benchmarks of charisma and political success, he fails on both counts. To many people he seems a man out of touch with his people’s revolutionary situation.


Turkey, the Kurds and Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Patrick Seale - (Opinion) November 28, 2009 - 1:00am


In launching his ‘Democratic Opening’ towards Turkey’s 15 million Kurds earlier this month, Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan has embarked on possibly the most perilous phase of his political career. His Kurdish initiative could lose him precious votes at the next election. If it misfires, it could even bring an end to the AKP’s domination of the Turkish political landscape, which began with its first electoral victory in 2002. The initiative has already aroused the fierce hostility of diehard Turkish nationalists, who condemn it as a treasonous plot to dismember the country.


Shattering Israel's image of 'democracy'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ben White - (Opinion) December 3, 2009 - 1:00am


A struggle over land, home demolitions, and an Israeli government working with Jewish agencies to "develop" the land for the benefit of one group at the expense of another. It could be a picture of the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, but in fact, it's inside Israel – in the Negev. The Negev, or al-Naqab in Arabic, is an area that since the inception of the state has been targeted by Israeli governments, along with agencies like the Jewish National Fund (JNF), for so-called "development".



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