September 30th

Former Arafat aide: Third Intifada on its way
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Bassam Abu Sharif, a former senior advisor to late President Yasser Arafat, added his voice to a chorus of those raising the possibility of a third Intifada, or uprising against Israel.

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Has Obama Dashed Arab Hopes?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - (Opinion) September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

The question being asked today is; has Obama dashed the hopes of the Arabs regarding his seriousness towards seeking a solution to the Arab – Israeli conflict? The barometer [being used to answer this question] is the extent of the US President's ability to put a halt to the construction of Israeli settlements.

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Two die in smuggling tunnels after airstrike
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Two Palestinians died as a result of a gas leak inside a smuggling tunnel along Gaza’s border with Egypt in the city of Rafah, medics said on Wednesday. Medicals at Abu Yousef An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah said Muhammad Jalal Abu Sef, 45, and Riziq Al-Masri, 28, were dead when they arrived. Thirteen others were injured as a result of the gas leak, which occurred after Israeli warplanes bombed the tunnels. It was not immediately clear if the gas leak was a direct result of the airstrikes.

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New negotiations will test Netanyahu’s commitment
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Yasser Arafat was enticed to attend a meeting with Ehud Barak at Camp David during the summer of 2000 with the promise that he would not be blamed if it turned out to be a failure. It did, and he was. Last week the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was invited to attend a meeting with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York without any such promise. He was not blamed and the meeting was not a failure.

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Israel, Hamas in mutual gestures on prisoners
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel will free 20 Palestinian women from jail as early as Friday in exchange for a videotape from Hamas proving an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip since 2006 is alive, officials on both sides said on Wednesday. Egyptian and German mediators are continuing to work on a final deal to swap the soldier, Gilad Shalit, for hundreds of Hamas prisoners. The negotiations are part of international efforts to ease Israel's blockade of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

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A hostile takeover of Zionism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Globe and Mail
by Patrick Martin - (Analysis) September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has come a long way. No longer are they the inward-looking anti-Zionists who only cared that the government provide them with money for their separate schools, welfare and exemptions from military service. These days, many of the Haredim – the word means “those who tremble” in awe of God” – have joined with right-wing religious Zionists to become a powerful political force. They now are equipped to redefine the country's politics and to set a new agenda.

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U.N. Investigator Presents Report on Gaza War
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Nick Cumming-Bruce - September 29, 2009 - 12:00am

The lead investigator in a recent United Nations inquiry into the Gaza conflict warned on Tuesday that the lack of accountability for war crimes in he Middle East has “reached a crisis point” and is undermining any hope of peace. The investigator, Richard Goldstone, made his comments here as he presented the Human Rights Council with his final report on violations of human rights and international law in the three-week war in Gaza last winter, which accuses both Israel and Palestinian groups of committing atrocities.

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Goldstone defends UN Gaza report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

As the UN human rights watchdog debated the report, which accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes, he rejected what he called a "barrage of criticism". A US official dubbed the report "deeply flawed". Israel dismissed it as biased. Separately, a UK court has rejected an attempt by a Palestinian group to have Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak arrested for alleged war crimes. Under the principle of universal jurisdiction, war crimes suspects can be tried in British courts. But the British court ruled that Mr Barak had diplomatic immunity.

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Do J'lem clashes, Gaza rockets portend worse violence?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Yaakov Katz, Abe Selig - September 30, 2009 - 12:00am

The Muslim Quarter was quiet on Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours after clashes between Jerusalem Arabs and border policemen - which began on the Temple Mount Sunday and spread to the surrounding neighborhoods, continuing through Monday night. The recent renewed rocket fire from the Gaza Strip has been rattling nerves in the South as well. But defense officials said that they did not fear a new wave of Palestinian violence on the level of the second intifada. The clashes in Jerusalem and the rocket attacks from Gaza were not connected, they said.

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September 29th

As Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, working with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, begin to outline the parameters for permanent status negotiations, reports suggest that the PLO may have dropped its insistence on a complete Israeli settlement freeze as a precondition. Fallout from the Goldstone Report into the Gaza war continues, with Israel reportedly threatening to block Palestinian cell phone development over calls for an IIC investigation. The Christian Science Monitor examines the role of the Golan Heights in Israel-Syria negotiations. Hamas leaders say Palestinian factions are close to agreeing to Egyptian proposals for reconciliation. Palestinian families in Britain seek the arrest of Israeli Defense Minister Barak on war crimes charges.

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