August 4th

Speculation about a wider conflict grows in the aftermath of the clash at the Israel-Lebanon border. Andrin Hauri says the international community must do more to support Palestinian state and institution building. An Israeli airstrike kills a Palestinian in Gaza. Israeli police again raze a rebuilt Bedouin village that was recently destroyed. Egypt says Palestinian factions in Gaza were responsible for recent rocket attacks. Palestinians say there are now more than half a million Israeli settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories. Gaza girls take up fishing to feed their families. Shlomo Avineri says support for a “one-state” arrangement from the Israeli right is rooted in opposition to ending the occupation. Menachem Klein questions the effectiveness of Palestinian state building but concludes Israel's system of control in the West Bank is nonetheless doomed. Eytan Gilboa warns Israelis not to conclude that Pres. Obama will not again pressure them on peace. Hezbollah leader Nasrallah accuses Israel of being responsible for the assassination of former Lebanese PM Hariri and vows to produce evidence. IT technology allows Israeli and Palestinian teenagers to build friendships.

The West Bank illusion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Menachem Klein - August 4, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are darlings of Israel and the international community. For a long time now, they have been seen as brand names, not as officeholders dependent on circumstances of time and place. Abbas represents building the state in stages from the top down by negotiations. Fayyad represents building the state in stages from the bottom up. To Israel and the international community, they seem eternal.

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Obama’s carrots and sticks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Eytan Gilboa - August 4, 2010 - 12:00am

With his policy on the Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process currently focusing on exerting massive pressure in a bid to launch direct talks, US President Barack Obama aims to rectify the grave mistakes he made thus far. However, there is no certainty that he drew all the lessons from his failures and from the experience of his predecessors. Obama is determined to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and through this secure a comprehensive solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict. He earmarked this objective as one of the most important ones among his foreign policy’s priorities.

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Nasrallah accuses Israel over Hariri murder
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
August 4, 2010 - 12:00am

In a fiery speech, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said he would prove the claim at a press conference next week. The BBC's Jon Leyne says Mr Nasrallah is trying to pre-empt a UN report due to implicate Hezbollah in the killing. Mr Nasrallah was speaking hours after a firefight on the Lebanon-Israeli border left five people dead. Referring to the rare exchange of fire, he said his forces were ready to join the fighting. Mr Hariri and 22 other people were killed in Beirut in a car bomb in 2005.

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Gaza girls turn to fishing to feed family
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Google News
by Adel Zaanoun - August 4, 2010 - 12:00am

Every morning the two girls wake up before dawn, row their wooden skiff out into Gaza's heavily-patrolled waters, and try to catch enough fish to feed their family. They are perhaps the only women in the territory of 1.5 million people who make a living from fishing, and are a rare sight in Gaza's conservative society where women rarely venture into the sea even to swim. But Madeleine Kulab, 16, and her sister Reem, 13, have had few other options since their father was struck with palsy 10 years ago, and like many women in Gaza have had to work for wages once earned by men.

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Israeli and Palestinian Teens Mix at MEET
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Felice Friedson, Arieh O'Sullivan - August 4, 2010 - 12:00am

Most people don’t believe Israeli and Palestinian high school students can get together and get along. But a summer program in Jerusalem proves they can. For four weeks this summer, 100 Palestinian and Israeli students cross paths as they learn not only basic science and business skills, but also how to communicate with the other in a unique program aptly called MEET – Middle East Education through Technology. “It was a great opportunity in MEET to meet Israelis and see their point of view,” said

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Egypt: Palestinian factions behind rocket launch on Aqaba, Eilat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 4, 2010 - 12:00am

Egypt accused on Wednesday the Palestinian factions in Gaza, of firing the rockets which hit Aqaba and Eilat, killing a Jordanian. "Palestinian factions from the Gaza Strip were behind the launch of five rockets on Aqaba and Eilat on Monday," state-run MENA news agency quoted an official Egyptian source as saying. Preliminary investigations carried out by Egyptian security authorities showed that Palestinian factions from the Gaza Strip stood behind the operation, the source said Wednesday.

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Israeli police raze rebuilt Bedouin village
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 4, 2010 - 12:00am

Hundreds of Israeli police stormed an unrecognized Bedouin village Wednesday, less than one week after it was razed to make way for Jewish National Fund forest, witnesses said. Residents, who remained in the Negev-area village to rebuild, said clashes erupted with police, sent to clear the Bedouin who had not left the area. The dwellings were rebuilt following a decision by the Higher Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel, the online news site Arab48 reported. The decision was made following the demolition of the buildings on 27 July.

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Medics: Airstrike kills 1 in south Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 4, 2010 - 12:00am

An Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian operative in the southern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, medical officials said. Sharif Abdel Hadi Abbey, 22, died and two others were lightly to moderately injured by the strike on Khuza'a, east of Khan Younis, Palestinian medical and security sources said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the army had no immediate comment.

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Israel-Lebanon clash: Could it spark another war?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Nicholas Blanford - August 4, 2010 - 12:00am

Lebanon's volatile border witnessed the most serious bout of violence in four years Tuesday when clashes between Lebanese and Israeli soldiers left at least four people dead. While tensions have been running high between Lebanon and Israel amid feverish speculation of another war between Israel and Lebanon's militant Shiite Hezbollah, analysts and security sources say that the cross-border clash is probably an isolated incident.

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