November 8th

The Undertaker ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Tishreen by Ali Jamalo - (Opinion) November 7, 2010 - 12:00am Jeffery Feltman deserves to be called an undertaker. He has excelled in this profession ever since he was a US Ambassador in Lebanon and he has gotten better at it since he became an Assistant to Secretary Hilary Clinton. ‘Undertaker’ in this sense doesn’t refer to a humanitarian mission to bury dead people, but rather a dirty profession of killing innocent people and burying them alive. In politics an undertaker is a man who imitates the spider in setting traps for its victim. As many people know, Lebanon makes an ideal environment for spiders. » Read more

Bibi, Tom Friedman, and U.S. Jews divesting from Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Bradley Burston - November 8, 2010 - 1:00am [First in a series. In part, a journal of a speaking tour hosted by J Street on the West Coast, and in part, reasons why I threw out my prepared remarks before I even got there.] Ahead of a New Orleans address to the General Assembly [GA] of the Jewish Federations of North America, sources quoted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as having said that there is fundamental support for Israel within the United States. "We may have lost Thomas Friedman, but I don't think we lost America," Netanyahu was quoted as saying. » Read more

Biden: US opposes unilateral moves ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yitzhak Benhorin - November 8, 2010 - 1:00am US Vice President Joe Biden backed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday night, shortly after meeting with him in New Orleans, Louisiana, but reminded him of the need to advance the peace process with the Palestinians. Addressing an audience of thousands of Jews, Biden called on Israel and the Palestinians to avoid any unilateral moves, and stressed that although the United States was committed to Israel's security and would do all it could to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon – peace between Israel and its neighbors must be guaranteed in the long run. » Read more

Nazareth imam charged with incitement to terrorism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Sharon Roffe-ofir - November 7, 2010 - 12:00am Cleared for publication: An indictment has been filed with the Nazareth Magistrate's Court against Nazem Mahmoud Salim Sahfe, 45, Imam of the Shihab Al-Din Mosque in Nazareth, who allegedly used his sermons to promote radical global jihad messages and to call upon his deciples to hurt non-Muslims. The imam was arrested after one of the murderers of cab driver Yefim Weinstein, who was murdered in 2009, said he was motivated to commit the crime by Sahfe's sermons. Sahfe is being charged with incitement to violence and support of a terrorist organization. » Read more

Erekat: PA will ask US to recognize state if talks fail ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post November 8, 2010 - 1:00am The Palestinian Authority plans to ask the US to recognize a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders in the event that "Netanyahu and the Israelis decide to choose settlements over peace," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said in an interview with Army Radio aired on Monday. "If the Americans can't do that," added Erekat, "we may turn to the UN Security Council." Erekat stated that while the Security Council cannot legally declare a Palestinian state, its permanent members can call on other nations to individually recognize a Palestinian state. » Read more

West Bank most-wanted terrorist list has dwindled to almost nil ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - November 8, 2010 - 1:00am There is not a single security suspect being sought by Israel in the northern West Bank for the first time since the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000. In the southern West Bank, there are only a few names on the security establishment's wanted list. The situation is a reflection of both the improved security situation in the West Bank and the increasing cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian Authority security forces. » Read more

Anger at Israel flares in Jordan election campaign ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Jamal Halaby - November 7, 2010 - 12:00am Frustration with the interminable deadlock in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is bleeding over into Jordan, where bitterness at Israel is flowing more freely than ever during campaigning for this week's parliamentary elections. Behind the anger expressed by candidates and voters lies U.S. ally Jordan's greatest fear: that if peacemaking collapses, Israel will try to force it to take in the residents of the West Bank and stand as the Palestinian state. Recent talk by right-wing Israelis about the "Jordanian option" has only fueled the belief here that this is Israel's ultimate plan. » Read more

My family, the enemy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Jonathan Freedland - (Film Review) November 8, 2010 - 1:00am Back when peace did not seem such an impossibility, it was fashionable to cast the Middle East conflict as a family feud. Jews and Arabs were held to be if not brothers then long-lost cousins – the descendants, of Isaac and Ishmael, perhaps, or of Jacob and Esau – who would one day end their estrangement in an embrace. After the collapse of the Oslo peace process, a second intifada and a lethal military offensive in Gaza, you don't hear that kind of talk so much these days. » Read more

PLO official: Egypt, Palestinians stress to halt Jewish settlement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua November 8, 2010 - 1:00am RAMALLAH, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian leadership and Egypt have agreed that any initiative to push forward peace talks between Palestinians and Israel should base on halting Jewish settlement in the occupied lands, a Palestinian official said Monday. Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO) official, denied reports that Egypt's recent efforts could ignore the Palestinian demand on settlement freeze in the West Bank. Egypt "wants a solution to all final-status issues, and not to seek a partial one," Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine Radio. » Read more

Dispatches From New Orleans on the JFNA General Assembly ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Josh Nathan-Kazis - November 5, 2010 - 12:00am Vice President Joe Biden reaffirmed the Obama administration’s support for Israel in an address to the opening plenary of the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. At a convention marked by its focus on defending Israel, Biden spoke at length about his personal ties to the Jewish state and its leaders, and emphasized the administration’s support for JFNA’s newly announced efforts to combat what it calls the delegitimization of Israel. » Read more