Yearender: Mideast peace talks back in limbo despite Obama's push ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Ran Hacohen - December 2, 2010 - 1:00am Since his inauguration in Jan. 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama has been making strenuous efforts to bring the Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiating table. A glimpse of hope emerged when the two sides resumed direct talks in Washington in September. But the brief optimism was worn off quickly as negotiations relapsed in limbo over Jewish settlements, without any sign of breakthrough on the horizon. DISPUTE OVER SETTLEMENT » Read more

PLO official barred from leaving West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 3, 2010 - 1:00am Israeli authorities barred PLO official Ziyad Salous from leaving the West Bank Thursday, Palestinian sources said. Salous, the director of Public Relations for the organization, was detained at the Allenby Bridge border crossing for three hours before being denied entry to Jordan. Salous was en route to a conference on Palestinian prisoners in Algeria

Palestinian shot in An-Nabi Saleh ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 3, 2010 - 1:00am Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian in the leg during an incursion Thursday in the West Bank town of An-Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, local sources said. Palestinians in the village said Omer Saleh At-Tamimi was shot with live ammunition while demonstrators confronted the Israeli soldiers, throwing stones. Israeli military forces were said to have shut down all entrances to the village, stopping Palestinians from entering or leaving. Residents also said Israeli soldiers detained several people, including Helmi At-Tamimi. » Read more

Evening clashes in East Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 3, 2010 - 1:00am Clashes erupted in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Al-Isawiya on Thursday evening, between residents and Israeli forces conducting patrols on the area northeast of the Old City. Eight residents were treated for tear-gas inhalation, head of the Union of Arab Medics Mohammad Al-Gharabli told Ma’n. An Israeli police spokeswoman, Luba As-Semmari said clashes erupted when two Molotov cocktails were thrown on a police checkpoint at the entrance of the neighborhood, and said no injuries were reported. » Read more

Journal of an Ordinary Grief ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Rayyan Al-Shawaf - December 3, 2010 - 1:00am “What is homeland?” asks famed Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish in his Journal of an Ordinary Grief, an intriguing but uneven collection of ruminations and autobiographical fragments that first appeared in Arabic in 1973 and is now being published posthumously in English. He has several answers. The most powerful? “To hold on to your memory – that is homeland.” » Read more

US mum on efforts for Israeli settlement freeze ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) December 3, 2010 - 1:00am The United States declined Thursday to say whether or not efforts by Washington to have Israel impose a new settlement freeze on Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories had failed. In Jerusalem, the US administration informed the Palestinian Authority "that the Israeli government did not agree to a new settlement freeze," a Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity. But State Department spokesman Philip Crowley declined to confirm the remarks. "As we've said many, many times, we're not going to give you a play-by-play," Crowley told reporters. » Read more

Mideast Conflict Plays Out In A House Divided ATFP World Press Roundup Article from National Public Radio (NPR) by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro - December 3, 2010 - 1:00am On the surface, Jerusalem's Old City seems like the ideal melting pot of cultures and religions. Muslims, Christians and Jews live in this ancient walled enclave of less than half a square mile. It is a place that seems so removed from the modern world that surrounds it, and yet is so intrinsically a part of it. But an undercover war is being waged here: The Old City is the beating heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and everyone wants a piece of it. 'Revival Of Jewish Life' » Read more