April 6th

Saudi Arabia: Prominent Cleric Plans Jerusalem Visit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
April 5, 2010 - 12:00am

A Saudi cleric announced Monday on his television show that he would visit Jerusalem next week to bolster Muslim claims to the city. If the cleric, Sheik Mohammed al-Areefi, goes ahead with his plan, it would be an unprecedented trip for a prominent Saudi. Jerusalem is the third-holiest site in Islam, but most Muslim countries — including Saudi Arabia — observe a strict boycott of Israel and ban travel there.


Israeli Rights Groups View Themselves as Under Siege
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - April 5, 2010 - 12:00am

Leaders of some of Israel’s most prominent human rights organizations say they are working in an increasingly hostile environment and coming under attack for actions that their critics say endanger the country. The pressure on these groups has tightened as the country’s leaders have battled to defend Israel against accusations of war crimes, the rights advocates say, raising questions about the limits of free speech and dissent in Israel’s much vaunted democracy.

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April 5th

A Palestinian boy reportedly killed by Israeli soldiers emerges unharmed. Aaron Miller says successful US diplomacy requires fighting with Israel. The Buffalo News says two states are the only solution. PLO officials say Special Envoy Mitchell is avoiding the region due to US-Israel tensions, but that they are in daily contact with US officials. Islamic Jihad reverses a statement promising not to fire projectiles towards Israel. Tourism is up 50% in the West Bank. Tensions run high in Gaza in spite of a Hamas call for, and Egyptian efforts towards, calm. Hamas says it wants to try PM Fayyad in court for an interview with Ha'aretz. Zvi Bar'el says only another intifada can save Israel's international image. Gideon Levy says everyone knows what Palestinians want, but no one knows what Israeli aims are. A sickly Palestinian man dies after a long delay at an Israeli checkpoint. Giora Eiland says US-Israel tensions arise from American commitment to a two state solution. A senior White House official reaches out to Jewish American leaders. Adel Safty says Arab states should support the Quartet.

Palestinian aspirations are clear, but what does Israel want?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) April 4, 2010 - 12:00am

Does anybody know what Benjamin Netanyahu wants? Has anybody ever understood what his predecessors wanted? Where are they headed? And where are they leading us? One after another, Israeli politicians have been asked these questions, only to reply with the standard rejoinders: "You don't expect me to answer this question" or "Let's leave this for the negotiations." Vague answers, obfuscations, evasive and noncommittal cliches - promises, promises. There was one clear, unequivocal answer - none.

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In search of a viable peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adel Safty - (Opinion) April 5, 2010 - 12:00am

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mousa told Arab leaders recently gathered at the Arab League summit in Libya that Arab states should prepare for the possibility that the Palestinian-Israeli peace process may be a total failure. He urged them to prepare alternatives. One such alternative, observers speculated, is the 2002 Arab peace plan under which the Arab states offered Israel peace and full diplomatic relations in return for Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories conquered by Israel in the June 1967 war.

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White House reaches out to U.S. Jewish leaders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
April 4, 2010 - 12:00am

A senior White House official tried to reassure United States Jewish community leaders in the wake of tension between the Obama administration and Israel. In an off-the-record conference call, National Security Council Middle East Senior Director Dan Shapiro on Friday reportedly said that reports of tension between the two allies were being blown out of proportion by the media, according to weekend reports in several Israeli newspapers. The call was first reported Friday on the Politico Web site.

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Clinton’s plan is back
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Giora Eiland - (Opinion) April 5, 2010 - 12:00am

The crisis with the United States shows us for the umpteenth time that ambiguity is indeed a positive thing, as long as both sides enjoy it. When one of the sides, and especially if it’s a superpower, decides to call a spade a spade, a new reality emerges. The modified reality or a change in the rules of the game is tolerable as long as it is coordinated in advance. Yet such change causes grave damage once it’s being undertaken without advance notice by the strong side (the US), and this is precisely what happened during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent visit in Washington.

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Palestinian dies after being delayed at IDF checkpoint
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - April 4, 2010 - 12:00am

A 63-year-old Palestinian man died Saturday night of dehydration and cardiac arrest after being delayed for several hours at an IDF checkpoint in the northern West Bank. The army said it will investigate the incident.

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A third intifada would work wonders for Israel's battered image
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) April 5, 2010 - 12:00am

"Civil uprising? That's not a civil uprising, just local riots," defense minister Yitzhak Rabin told journalists back in 1987 when they asked why he was going to Washington just as the territories were flaring up. Rabin waved his hand dismissively, and his aide, Danny Yatom, reprimanded the interviewers: "You don't know what you're talking about." True, journalists also didn't quite grasp the full scale of the upcoming intifada. At first the events were called protests, then disturbances, and finally riots. It took a while for the word "intifada" to enter the Israeli vocabulary.

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Hamas wants to try Fayyad over Haaretz interview
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
April 5, 2010 - 12:00am

Hamas on Saturday called for Palestinian Authority President Salam Fayyad to be put on trial for comments he made in an interview with Haaretz published one day earlier, Army Radio reported. Fayyad said that he expects a Palestinian state to be established in 2011 and that Palestinian refugees would be absorbed by the new state. Hamas officials accuse Fayyad of giving up the right of return within the 1948 borders for Palestinian refugees.

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