March 10th

Gazan hairdressers protest Hamas restrictions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
March 10, 2010 - 1:00am

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Gaza's male hairdressers have filed a complaint with a human rights group over a Hamas edict banning them from cutting women's hair. Gaza's Islamic militant rulers announced the ban last week. It affects only five coiffeurs but highlights Hamas' increasing attempts to impose a strict version of Islam in the already conservative Palestinian territory.

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U.S. supports Palestinian state-building efforts: Biden
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
(Editorial) March 10, 2010 - 1:00am

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden Wednesday said Washington supports Palestinians in building their institutions for a "viable" Palestinian state. The United States "strongly supports the Palestinian (National) Authority's efforts to build its institutions and the develop the economy of the state," Biden told a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, referring to Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's two-year state building plan.

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Arabs withdraw support to proximity talks: PLO official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
(Editorial) March 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Arab states have withdrawn their support to indirect proximity talks between the Palestinians and Israel after the latter approved plans to expand a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian official said Wednesday. "Some Arab countries told the U.S. administration that the Arab League (AL)'s decision regarding the indirect talks is no longer existed," Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the executive committee of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told Voice of Palestine radio.

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Israel policy allows settlers to rampage unchecked
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - March 10, 2010 - 1:00am

From a Palestinian perspective, it's hard to imagine better timing for U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Ramallah on Wednesday. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas won't have speak at great length nor lay on the charm to persuade Biden, White House staff or the U.S. Consulate in East Jerusalem that Netanyahu government is not serious when it says it wants peace. One must admit that the current diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians is not about reaching a peace deal - each side is convinced that the other is either not serious or incapable.

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When Israelis degrade Israel by humiliating Joe Biden
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) March 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Why would Israeli officials degrade Israel by humiliating the vice-president of the United States? What conceivable advantage is there in the Interior Ministry choosing the occasion of a high-profile visit by Joseph R. Biden, Jr., a mission aimed at soothing strained relations between Israel and the Obama administration, to announce the approval of 1,600 new homes for Israelis in East Jerusalem? Or to add, in insult to injury, that construction on the new homes could begin as soon as early May.

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Yishai: Sorry for distress over East Jerusalem Plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nir Hasson, Avi Issacharoff, Anshel Pfeffer, Barak Ravid - March 10, 2010 - 1:00am

Interior Minister Eli Yishai apologized on Wednesday for causing domestic and international distress as a result of Israel's recent decision to approve 1,600 more homes in East Jerusalem. Yishai was responding to the recent wave of condemnations, particularly on the part of the United States and visiting Vice President Joe Biden, surrounding the recent plan to build 1,600 more housing units in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

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Bibi's snub to Biden may backfire
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Simon Tisdall - March 10, 2010 - 1:00am

It's not the first time that Israel has stiffed Barack Obama over his attempts to kick-start Middle East peace negotiations. But the sudden, highly inflammatory announcement of plans to build an additional 1,600 homes in occupied East Jerusalem, in the midst of a visit to Israel of US vice-president Joe Biden, was certainly the most brutally contemptuous rebuff so far to American peacemaking.

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The People of Gaza and a Reporter: Victims of the NY Times' Subbornness
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) March 8, 2010 - 1:00am

The people of Gaza appear to have been the recent victims of the arrogance (or what some believe to be the bias) of the NY Times. The stubbornness of Bill Keller, the executive editor of the NY Times, in refusing to relocate his Jerusalem reporter has caused a considerable drop in the paper's coverage of Gaza. The Times has refused to relocate their reporter covering Israel and Palestine after the appearance of a conflict of interest surfaced. The Electronic Intifada and the US media watchdog FAIR first reported the conflict of interest case in January 25th and 27th respectively.

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ATFP Senior Fellow joins Boston College panel on US-Israel Relations
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - March 11, 2010 - 1:00am

An audience of more than a hundred students, faculty, and staff gathered in the Corcoran Commons Heights Room at Boston College on February 22, 2010 to hear a panel discussion on relations between Israel and the United States. Speaking were ATFP senior fellow Hussein Ibish; Shai Feldman, director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University; and Aaron David Miller, a former state department analyst and negotiator, now a public policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.


March 9th

The decision by the Israeli Ministry of Interior to approve 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem drew sharp reactions, including a strongly-worded condemnation by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is currently visiting Israel. ATFP believes that “advocates of violence, confrontation and escalation of conflict can only be gratified at this announcement.” Following is a special ATFP news roundup about this development.

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