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UN envoy singles out Israel over talks deadlock
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) November 21, 2011 - 1:00am The UN Middle East peace envoy on Monday singled out Israel's settlement building for criticism as he highlighted deadlocked efforts to bring Israelis and Palestinians into direct talks. "Provocations continue to damage confidence," special envoy Robert Serry told a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East. "In particular, Israel continues to engage in settlement activity, including in highly sensitive areas, and demolitions of Palestinian structures are ongoing." |
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'Price Tag' Attacks Pose Test for Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) November 21, 2011 - 1:00am Israeli society has been confronted recently by a troubling new trend: vigilante attacks by some settlers and their supporters against Palestinians in the occupied territories, Arab citizens of Israel and, increasingly, Israeli peace groups. These began as the settlers’ own form of retaliation — exacting a “price” for any Palestinian violence — but have devolved into a campaign of terror. Marauding bands of armed settlers have uprooted olive trees, burned mosques and schools, shot at cars, run over children. |
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The problem is not reconciliation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) November 21, 2011 - 1:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced last week that he plans to meet the head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, on November 25 to discuss two issues. First, the leaders will discuss the future and challenges facing the Palestinian cause, and second, they will explore the prospects for reconciling the two factions they head and implementing a reconciliation agreement signed in May. |
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The regional Islamist circumstances are changing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) November 21, 2011 - 1:00am The notion of integrating Hamas, and with it the Gaza Strip, into a Palestinian unity government reflects the primary trend that has thus far defined the Arab revolutionary wave: Arab Islamist movements are entering government. In this sense, Hamas' victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections was very much a harbinger of things to come elsewhere in the Arab world. |
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Advocating the two state solution: the best bet?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Open Democracy by Brigitte Herremans - (Opinion) November 21, 2011 - 1:00am Nowadays, it is not an easy task to be a staunch advocate of the two state solution. True, there is a near-universal consensus at the international level that a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies in a viable and independent State of Palestine living in peace and security alongside the State of Israel.[i] However, far from the ideal solution, it is an imperfect compromise. |
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Towards more trade with Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Fahed Fanek - (Opinion) November 21, 2011 - 1:00am Supporting the steadfastness of the Palestinians on their soil is supposed to be a firm and repeatedly confirmed Jordanian policy. Such policy is not subject to reservations or reconsideration at any time. However, the details of the current trade between Jordan and Palestine, as revealed by the Department of Statistics, do not support this claim. Trade with Palestine is running at a very low level. The trend deserves to be corrected, sooner rather than later, if we really want Palestinians to stay in Palestine. |
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A consensus that further isolates a repressive Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) November 21, 2011 - 1:00am The latest international condemnation of Israel will receive the usual denunciation, but it is becoming harder to deny. There is a growing international consensus that Israel is constructing a repressive system governing Palestinians that can be compared to apartheid South Africa. It is a mark of shame, and one that Israel has tried to reject. |
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Bibi Is a Liar, So What's the Fuss?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) November 20, 2011 - 1:00am Few stories that start out as potential bombshells end up as utterly duddish (from “dud”) as the “hot mic” exchange between Presidents Sarkozy and Obama. Duddish, that is, here in Israel, where I am for a couple of weeks; not so back home, in the States, as we shall see. If I were a rich man, I’d immediately do a survey of Israeli public opinion, a survey with just two questions: (1) Do you believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu is a liar? (2) Do you hope that Prime Minister Netanyahu will stay in power for another term after the next elections? |
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An open letter to Christian leaders in Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by David Michaels - (Opinion) November 19, 2011 - 1:00am I write with a request: for your forgiveness. As a representative of the oldest Jewish communal organization – B’nai B’rith International, which includes members of many backgrounds in over 50 countries, including Israel, where we have been present in Jerusalem since 1888 – I feel obliged to express my revulsion over new reported incidents of spitting at Christian clergy in certain areas of the Holy City. I feel especially obliged to do so as an Orthodox Jew. |