October 28th

US: Israel discriminates against non-Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel continues to discriminate against its religious minorities legally, financially and culturally, according to a US State Department review on worldwide religious freedom released on Monday. In its 2009 International Religious Freedom Report, the foreign service said that despite past documentation of prejudice against minorities, the status of respect for religious freedoms by Israel "was unchanged during the reporting period."

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Fatah leader: Abbas will not run in elections unless asked
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 28, 2009 - 12:00am

The Palestinian President will not run for office in the 24 January elections, a Fatah leader announced on Tuesday. Fatah leader Abdullah Abu Samhadaneh issued a statement saying Abbas “is eager to rest from this long and arduous trip, which began with the revolution and continues to this day,” as part of a paper urging Hamas to sign the Egyptian unity proposal so unified elections can go forward. He also noted, however, that if Abbas is "instructed by the command [Palestinian leaders] he will accept the commission."

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Hamas to block elections in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 28, 2009 - 12:00am

The Hamas-controlled Ministry of the Interior announced on Wednesday that it will not allow elections to go ahead in the Gaza Strip as decreed by President Mahmoud Abbas. The call for elections "came from someone who does not have the right to declare it," a ministry statement said in reference to Abbas. The ministry reiterated Hamas’ objection that the elections were called without a national unity agreement in place. The statement said furthermore that the ministry will "bring to account anyone who deals with these elections."

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Does J Street arrival signal a split in America's Israel lobby?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - October 27, 2009 - 12:00am

Since the 1950s the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has been the mainstream voice of the Jewish-American community and its efforts to strengthen support for Israel in Washington. Along comes J Street, a young upstart founded last year, in part as an answer to AIPAC – perceived by many progressive American Jews to have a clear right-wing tilt, and hardly representative of those want to see a much more aggressive push towards a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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Salafism: A New Threat to Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Dan Williams - October 27, 2009 - 12:00am

On the streets of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, clusters of men wear long tunics over baggy trousers, a costume common in Pakistan but virtually unknown among Palestinians — until recently. It is an emblem of Salafism, a branch of Islam that advocates restoring a Muslim empire across the Middle East and into Spain. Some Salafis preach violence, even killing Muslims deemed not pious enough. While historically a fringe group in the southeastern Mediterranean, Salafis have sought inroads in Lebanon and Jordan and are battling Hamas in Gaza.

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In Gaza, Hamas Finds Popularity Waning
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from National Public Radio (NPR)
by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro - October 27, 2009 - 12:00am

It has been more than two years since the militant Palestinian group Hamas took over the Gaza Strip after a short but bloody war with the rival Fatah movement, which rules the West Bank. Since then, Hamas has been consolidating its political power. But the recent conflict with Israel and Gaza's continuing isolation are taking a toll on the group's popularity on the streets.

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Hamas to ban holding of elections in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Google News
October 28, 2009 - 12:00am

The Hamas-run interior ministry in the Gaza Strip said on Wednesday that it would ban the holding of elections called for by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in the coastal territory. "The ministry will hold accountable anyone involved in the elections," the interior ministry said in a statement. The ministry added that it "rejects the holding of elections in the Gaza Strip because they were announced by someone who has no right to make such an announcement and because they came without national agreement."

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October 27th

President Abbas reportedly tells President Obama he may not run in scheduled Palestinian elections if Israel does not begin to cooperate on peace talks, and PLO officials complained that Israel is portraying the Palestinians as "untrustworthy bastards." The New York Times highlights isolation and despair among professionals in Gaza, while the PA tries to prevent Israel's closing of Gaza's main fuel terminal.Hamas reportedly eases strict enforcement of religious social conservatism. Two Israeli soldiers are injured in the process of demolishing a Palestinian home. Reuters' Alastair Macdonald explains the intense restriction of movement in the West Bank. Israeli settlers begin their annual attacks on the Palestinian olive harvest. Amnesty International accuses Israel of withholding water from Palestinians in the West Bank. An Israeli army judge claims that all Jews have a religious right to West Bank land and Palestinians have none. The Guardian profiles Palestinian American comedienne Maysoon Zaid who performed at the ATFP Gala earlier this month.

West Bank land belongs to Jews, says Israeli army judge
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Meron Rapoport - October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Major Adrian Agassi did not make the connection between the Bible, the land and the Jews when, fresh out of university, he left England for Israel in search of his roots. He was not even a practising Jew. But over the past quarter of a century, the Israeli army lawyer and then military judge at the forefront of arguably the most significant battle in the occupied West Bank – the confiscation of Palestinian land for the construction of Jewish settlements – has come to see himself as in service of a higher duty.

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Gridlock in the Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Alastair MacDonald - (Blog) October 26, 2009 - 12:00am

Want to know how it feels to be George Mitchell, President Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East? Try getting from Jerusalem to Ramallah on a typical weekday at the rush hour. And experience stalemate, frustration, competitive selfishness, blind fury and an absence of movement that even the most stubborn and blinkered of West Bank bus drivers might see as a metaphor for the peace process that is going nowhere fast right now.

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