November 11th

Clashes in Bethlehem village ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 11, 2010 - 1:00am Clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the southern West Bank early Thursday. The incident came after an Israeli settler attacked three members of a family, injuring two children and an elderly woman near Bethlehem. The woman and two children, age 10 and 11, were pelted with stones on their way to school in the Tuqu village, our correspondent said. Israeli forces raided the village firing tear gas and rubber-coated bullets, witnesses said. » Read more

Kerry: Israel may extend settlement freeze ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 11, 2010 - 1:00am Senior Democratic US Senator John Kerry, fresh from meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, said Wednesday that Israel could decide to extend a freeze on settlement construction. Kerry, who chairs the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters on a conference call from Israel that he had urged both sides to keep their "eye on the prize" and not let Middle East peace slip through their grasp. » Read more

Rattling The Cage: UNESCO is right, Israel is wrong ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) November 10, 2010 - 1:00am The word is that UNESCO is on an anti-Semitic tear, trying to “de-Judaize” and “Islamicize” two of the most holy Jewish sites in this country – the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem. “Talk about distortions,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told thousands of American Jews in New Orleans this week. “Can you imagine that UNESCO tried to deny the Jewish connection to Rachel’s Tomb next to Jerusalem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron? The absurdity to try to erase our past...” » Read more

Police: Machine gun fire from Gaza hits Israeli kibbutz ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 11, 2010 - 1:00am Two bullets fired from the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday slammed into an Israeli kibbutz causing damage but not injuries, a police spokesman said. "The shots were fired from the Gaza Strip and hit a building and a vehicle in Kibbutz Zikkim," Micky Rosenfeld told Agence France-Presse, referring to a collective village located several hundred meters from the northernmost part of the border between Israel and Gaza. » Read more

Behind an Israeli Strike in Gaza, Help from Egypt ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time by Karl Vick - November 10, 2010 - 1:00am The Nov. 3 assassination of Mohammad Namnam looked pretty much exactly like the fiery deaths of a lot of other Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip over the years. He was making his way in broad daylight through the tattered streets of Gaza City when his sedan turned into a fireball. The missile arrived from an Israeli helicopter hovering so far away that onlookers at first thought the explosion was a car bomb. » Read more

UN: No change in Gaza despite easing of Israel blockade ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Jon Donnison - November 10, 2010 - 1:00am In June Israel said it would lift some of its restrictions on Gaza to allow in more food and consumer goods. The move followed international pressure after the deaths of nine Turkish activists aboard a flotilla of ships trying to break the blockade. The head of UN operations in Gaza said few people had noticed any difference. "There's been no material change for the people on the ground here in terms of their status, the aid dependency, the absence of any recovery or reconstruction, no economy," the UN's John Ging told the BBC. » Read more

New US aid for Palestinians as peace talks stall ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Kim Ghattas - November 10, 2010 - 1:00am US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced new aid of $150m (£93m) for the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday - part sweetener, part vital support for Palestinian institution-building, a track running parallel to the negotiations. "We have to move forward together, simultaneously and mutually reinforcing on two tracks, the hard work of negotiations and the hard work of building institutions and capacities," said Mrs Clinton, speaking at the state department. » Read more

Why Netanyahu is engaging Obama in a spat over E. Jerusalem 'settlements' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - November 10, 2010 - 1:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is engaging the US administration in a high-profile debate over settlement building two days before he meets Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to address the impasse in negotiations. For Mr. Netanyahu, the very public spat – the first in months – may be a way of girding himself before agreeing to a new freeze of settlements in the West Bank, a move that would infuriate his hard-line critics. » Read more

Settlement fatigue ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times (Editorial) November 11, 2010 - 1:00am Why, after all these years, are we still writing about settlements? » Read more

WEST BANK: U.S. comes to the rescue ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) November 10, 2010 - 1:00am The United States on Wednesday proved once again that it is a friend the Palestinian Authority can rely on in times of difficulty, at least economically. Politically, the Palestinians are not so sure. After a brief signing ceremony at Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s office in Ramallah, the U.S. forwarded to the Palestinian Authority $150 million for budget support. Even though the amount is only a fraction of what Israel gets every year from the U.S., which amounts to billions of dollars, Fayyad nevertheless warmly welcomed the support, considering it a lifesaver. » Read more