Archive - Oct 25, 2010 | The American Task Force on Palestine

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October 25, 2010

The lull in Middle East peace talks may become permanent. Hamas says it will destroy “illegal” structures on public land. The PA says the new planned Palestinian city can absorb settlement workers. Saudi Arabia pledges $100 million in aid to the PA. Settlers confirm work has begun on up to 600 new housing units. Israel says talks are the only option. US midterm elections may affect policy and negotiations. Palestinians are angered by new incentives for settlers to move to Jerusalem. Akiva Eldar says the Oslo Accords have turned into a tool of the occupation. The Israeli military prepares for a possible PA ban on area A incursions. The Pope says peace is possible and urgently needed. Elyakim Haetzni condemns settler violence. Hamas is accused of turning a blind eye to extremist vandalism. Israel is investigating a Gaza war atrocity. Lawrence Wright has a one-man performance about the war. Abdullah Iskandar questions whether talks could lead to a Palestinian state. Gwynne Dyer says Israel's new loyalty oath is an effort to change the subject. The Arab News says only justice for the Palestinians can ensure Israeli security.

Wrong path
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Opinion) October 24, 2010 - 12:00am

It is high time Israel and Jews realized that the path they continue to tread is not calculated to achieve a Middle East settlement that is just and durable. Though the world community, the peace brokers and the parties involved have repeatedly called on Israel to be more flexible and settle for an acceptable and just peace in the region, the Jewish state’s intransigence and unbridled quest to change the demographics of the region with new settlements dashes all hopes for peace.

A 'Jewish and democratic' state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Gwynne Dyer - (Opinion) October 25, 2010 - 12:00am

"With this law Israel buys an exit ticket from the family of nations," wrote Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea last week in the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. “The proposed loyalty law... is really racist. It obliges non-Jews to declare that they would be loyal to the Jewish state but exempts Jews from this obligation.” But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed new law is not racist, just shortsighted and nasty.

The Negotiations and the Illusion of the Palestinian State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Abdullah Iskandar - (Opinion) October 24, 2010 - 12:00am

When former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip, he resorted when implementing the step in August 2005 to evacuating the settlements and the Jewish settlers by force. Sharon intentionally did not coordinate with the Palestinian Authority when taking this step, in spite of all of the US’s, and especially Egypt’s, attempts. This was in order to assert that dismantling these settlements had no connection whatsoever to the peace process or to negotiations with the PA, but rather was connected to Israeli interests alone.

Gaza, The Wright Way
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward
by Zohar Tirosh-Polk - October 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Lawrence Wright, the renowned author and longtime staff member of The New Yorker, seems surprisingly fragile standing alone onstage in New York City’s 3-Legged Dog Art & Technology Center. Considering he is about to take a long, hard look at the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially as it pertains to Gaza, one can forgive the jitters.

'Even if the Israelis confess, I don't expect any justice from them'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Said Ghazali, Donald MacIntyre - October 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Maysa Samouni, whose husband Tawfiq, 21, was killed and baby daughter Jumana, now two, was injured in the building struck by missiles on 5 January, 2009, was unmoved yesterday by the progress of the investigation into the attack. "The court wouldn't bring back my husband," she said. "Even if they [the Israelis] confessed that they shot at the warehouse crowded with the civilians, I didn't expect any justice from them."

It was the Gaza assault's worst atrocity. Now the truth may finally be told
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - October 23, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli military police are investigating whether an air strike which killed 21 members of the same family sheltering in a building during the Army's Gaza offensive in 2008-9 was authorised by a senior brigade commander who had been warned of the danger to civilians.

Israeli army officers investigated over Gaza air strike that killed 21
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - October 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Senior Israeli army officers are under investigation by military police over the authorisation of an air strike that killed at least 21 members of one family during the three-week Gaza war in 2008-9. The officers are reported to include the commander of the Givati Brigade, Colonel Ilan Malka. No decision has been made on whether they will be charged. The air strike took place on 5 January 2009, nine days after the war began. The extended Samouni family were ordered to gather in one house after a three-storey property belonging to them was taken over as a military position.

Gaza hardliners launch arson attack on family leisure park
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - October 24, 2010 - 12:00am

Crazy Water Park had already been closed down for two weeks by the Hamas government, over an "unlicensed water whirl", when 40 armed arsonists struck in the middle of the night last month. They set fire to the resort's two main buildings and a tented mosque, causing more than $300,000 (£191,000) worth of damage and leading the owners to wonder whether it was a doomed project.

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