July 23rd

Report says Israel is subsidising settlements ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Vita Bekker - July 22, 2009 - 12:00am In another sign of Israel’s continuous support for Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, a new report yesterday showed that the settlements obtain a significantly higher share of government funds than municipalities in Israel overall. » Read more

Paralysed girl's story reflects Gaza's plight ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News July 23, 2009 - 12:00am Four-year-old Samar Abed Rabbu lost her two sisters during Israel's offensive in Gaza last December and January. The BBC's Christian Fraser has been following the plight of Samar and her family - now divided across two continents, as Samar receives treatment in Belgium with her mother. Throughout these months of gruelling therapy Belgian doctors say Samar Abed Rabbu has demonstrated remarkable courage. She is desperate to walk again - she even simulates it on the bed with her fingers - but there is nothing the Belgian doctors can do to repair Samar's broken back. » Read more

Hundreds planning Temple Mount ascent ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jonny Hadi - July 23, 2009 - 12:00am Hundreds of right-wing activists are intending to attempt to march up to the Temple Mount next Thursday morning, Tisha Be'Av, in protest of the US demand to cease construction in east Jerusalem. » Read more

Washington Watch: Barack Obama, gird thy loins ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Douglas Bloomfield - July 22, 2009 - 12:00am Just when it looked like a serious Washington-Jerusalem rift might be avoided - thanks in large part to the Saudis and their mishpucha - Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened it wider with a burst of provocative demagoguery. A meeting last week between the new Israeli ambassador and a State Department official was inexplicably blown up into a crisis. Initial news leaks out of the Prime Minister's Office said Michael Oren had been "summoned" to Foggy Bottom and presented a "demand" that an east Jerusalem apartment project be halted. » Read more

Blind to reality ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Eitan Haber - (Opinion) July 22, 2009 - 12:00am Recently, we have been seeing more and more reports in respect to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration that he supports the “two states for two peoples” vision. Almost all of these reports carry the same message: PM Netanyahu merely uttered the words, yet the prime minister does not intend to implement what he said; in fact, we are being told that Netanyahu presented the kind of conditions that have no chance of being accepted by the Palestinians. » Read more

UN Secretary General: Israel must halt settlement building ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) July 22, 2009 - 12:00am UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon joined international pressures on Israel to freeze building in West Bank settlements. He said that he calls upon the government of Israel to fulfill its obligations to place a moratorium on the building, according to a letter read in his name at the UN session on Palestinians in Geneva. In his letter, Ban added that Israel must desist from unilateral moves in Jerusalem, such as destroying houses.

PM delays discussion on Temple Mount project ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Roni Sofer - July 23, 2009 - 12:00am On the backdrop of protests from Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and the Muslim Waqf, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently postponed a decisive discussion aimed at setting a date for beginning the construction of the new Mugrabi Gate on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Ynet has learned. » Read more

Fatah reascendant? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Wafa Amr - July 23, 2009 - 12:00am Ten days before the Nov. 27, 2007 Annapolis peace conference, the Palestinians sent a letter to the Bush administration insisting they would accept no less than a total freeze on settlement building in the West Bank. Arab countries were also pushing for a settlement freeze to agree to attend the conference. But the Palestinians and many Arab officials attended without their precondition being fulfilled. In fact, negotiations were carried out at a slower pace than the construction of homes in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem. » Read more

Israel envoy: No crisis with U.S. over settlements ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz July 23, 2009 - 12:00am There is no crisis in relations between Israel and the United States, despite a lingering dispute - which will be settled "soon" - over settlement construction in the West Bank, Israel's new ambassador to Washington said Wednesday. But a highly respected Tel Aviv think tank said the two countries could be on a "collision course" unless Israel undertook practical measures to back up its statements that it wanted peace with the Palestinians. » Read more

Israel circulates photo of Hitler greeting late Palestinian mufti ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters July 23, 2009 - 12:00am Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has ordered diplomats to use an old photograph of a former Palestinian religious leader meeting Adolf Hitler to counter world criticism of a Jewish building plan for East Jerusalem. Israeli officials said on Wednesday that Lieberman told Israeli ambassadors to circulate the 1941 shot in Berlin of the Nazi leader seated next to Haj Amin al-Husseini, the late mufti or top Muslim religious leader in Jerusalem. » Read more