July 30th

Hamas arrests 45 Fatah men in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Mohammed Mar’i - July 30, 2009 - 12:00am Fatah said that its rival Hamas movement arrested 45 of its movement in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. The movement said in a press statement that Abdulrahman Hamad, a former minister and a member of Fatah Revolutionary Council, was one of the 45 detainees who were summoned to a Hamas police post. According to Fatah, most of the arrests took place in southern Gaza Strip towns of Rafah and Khan Younis. » Read more

Contradictory Messages ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Michael Jansen - (Opinion) July 30, 2009 - 12:00am The array of envoys dispatched by the US this week to launch a regional peace process reveals that the Obama administration has not learnt the lesson of past failures. The envoys’ personalities and public stands sent contradictory messages to both Arabs and Israelis. From the Arab point of view three of the envoys projected a positive image of the administration and its plans while the Arabs were discouraged and Israel was heartened by the presence of two particular envoys. » Read more

Survey: 64% want Temple rebuilt ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews July 30, 2009 - 12:00am About two thirds of the public want the Temple rebuilt, including about half of secular Israelis, a new survey conducted for Ynet and the Gesher organization revealed. The survey was held by the Panels Institute among 516 respondents that are a representative sample of the adult Jewish population. The margin of error was 4.3%. Initially, the respondents were asked what happened on Tisha B'Av (Ninth of Av), and showed impressive knowledge. Ninety-seven percent responded that the Temple was destroyed, while only 2% said they did not know. » Read more

No peace without support from all parties ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) July 29, 2009 - 12:00am It has emerged that the US president Barack Obama delivered letters to the leaders of several Arab nations in June, including the UAE, requesting their support in a renewed peace process. While some have responded positively to the request, and some tentatively, others have criticised the effort so long as Israel refuses to budge on the settlements, Gaza remains under crippling blockade, and Israel continues to promote policies aimed at making the country exclusively Jewish in nature. » Read more

Palestinian finance minister: Economic peace failed ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Tani Goldstein - July 30, 2009 - 12:00am Palestinian Minister for National Economy Bassem Khoury, speaking Wednesday at a conference at the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv on economic peace, a concept being promoted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, explained why the Palestinians are not jumping at the opportunity of economic peace. » Read more

Isolation and division take their toll in Gaza Strip ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Omar Karmi - July 30, 2009 - 12:00am Just across the street from the rubble of the Palestinian parliament building, which was bombed on the first day of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip in late Dec ember 2008, and a few houses down from the crater that marks the site where a Palestinian police station was destroyed on the same day, a cheery little shop nestles among the grey concrete. » Read more

Ramallah: Warm welcome for 'Abbas' heir' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ali Waked - July 30, 2009 - 12:00am Dozens of senior Palestinian Authority officials, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, welcomed senior Fatah official Abu Maher Ghneim to the West Bank city of Ramallah Wednesday, after 40 years in exile in Tunisia. Other senior movement officials, as well as Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, attended the event. Ghneim retuned to Ramallah ahead of the Fatah convention scheduled to take place in Bethlehem on August 4. Abbas called Ghneim's return "another landmark in the Palestinians' fight for liberation and the modernization of the Fatah movement." » Read more

Saudi Rejects Israel Recognition without Withdrawal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) July 30, 2009 - 12:00am Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia on Wednesday rebuffed US calls for diplomatic overtures toward Israel and said the Jewish state's settlement expansion is jeopardizing efforts to revive peace talks. "It is Israel that has to move seriously towards the peace process," Saudi foreign ministry spokesman Osama Nugali said. "As we all know, Israel is continuing to take unilateral measures by changing the geographic and demographic facts on the ground, by building settlements and expanding the existing ones," he told AFP. » Read more

Gaza's smuggling tunnels feel impact of Israel-Egypt crackdown ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - July 30, 2009 - 12:00am The smuggling industry into the Gaza Strip is like a long funnel, at one end of which are the tunnels in the Strip and the other is the Sinai Peninsula as far as the Red Sea coast, Israeli intelligence officials say. In recent months Israeli actions against smugglers - according to foreign sources - combined with Egypt's increased willingness to deal with the problem, have begun to produce results. While weapons smuggling has declined, however, the flow of goods in general has turned the tunnels into Gaza's growth industry. » Read more

Denying the Nakba ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Ahmad Tibi - (Opinion) July 29, 2009 - 12:00am The battle is not over some road signs or over the status of the Arabic language or over the school curricula for grade three or four; it is a battle over raising awareness and historical accounts. » Read more