January 3rd

Abbas: Israeli-Palestinian peace could be reached in two months ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz January 2, 2011 - 1:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday that he believed Israel and the Palestinians could reach a deal within two months, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was willing to take a new approach in the peace process. The Palestinian president reiterated that the time had come for decisions, rather than talks, and said that Jerusalem must be the non-negotiable capital of the Palestinian state. Abbas did add, however, that the Palestinians would not make a unilateral declaration of statehood. » Read more

Protester death shows IDF may be using most dangerous type of tear gas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff, Anshel Pfeffer - January 3, 2011 - 1:00am Questions are surfacing about Israel's use of tear-gas grenades, as security officials investigate the recent death of a protester at the weekly demonstration near the separation fence at the West Bank village of Bil'in. A 36-year-old woman, Jawaher Abu Rahmah, died on Saturday morning. Protester Bil'in The medical report filed in the Ramallah hospital where Abu Rahmah was taken shows that her death was caused by respiratory failure resulting from the inhalation of tear gas. Haaretz obtained the medical report on Sunday from Jawaher's brother, Ahmed Abu Rahmah. » Read more

Netanyahu: Israel agreed to new settlement freeze, but U.S. retracted offer ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Jonathan Lis - January 3, 2011 - 1:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he had agreed to the U.S. suggestion of a three-month extension to the West Bank settlement freeze, but the Americans were the ones who retracted the offer. "The United States asked us to consider extending the freeze by three months, and the truth is that we were prepared to do so," Netanyahu said while speaking before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. » Read more

Hundreds in Tel Aviv protest death of Palestinian woman by tear gas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua January 2, 2011 - 1:00am Hundreds gathered in front of the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to protest the death of a Palestinian woman who died the day before during a demonstration against a security barrier in the West Bank village of Bil'in. Several protesters in Tel Aviv were detained by police, among them a former Israeli lawmaker, when the rally got out of hand. The Israeli police claimed that Moussy Raz, a former member of the left-wing Meretz party, was arrested after striking a police officer, the local media reported. » Read more

Hamas stages Israeli attack to recall Gaza war ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press December 30, 2010 - 1:00am Hamas rulers have staged a mock attack by Israel to commemorate Israel's 2008 Gaza offensive. The re-enactment included loud booms, clouds of smoke, fake blood and rubble. Only the rubble was real. About 40 actors put on the show Thursday at an apartment tower heavily damaged in the war. Booms inside the building were followed by plumes of smoke and children's screams. Medics rushed to evacuate children covered in red paint. A car burned nearby. About 200 people watched. » Read more

Israeli minister: Labor could bolt government ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Matti Friedman - January 3, 2011 - 1:00am Israel's Labor Party will pull out of the government within two months if there is no progress in peace talks, a senior member of the party said Monday, in a potential threat to the stability of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition. » Read more

Palestinian woman dies after protest ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters January 1, 2011 - 1:00am A senior Palestinian medical official said a woman died on Saturday after being treated for inhaling gas fired by Israeli forces quelling a protest a day earlier in the occupied West Bank. Jawaher Abu Rahme, 35, was the second member of her family said to have died in one of the weekly protests held in the village of Bilin against an Israeli barrier built across the West Bank. A brother, in his 20s, was killed in 2009 after a tear gas cannister struck him in the chest. The precise reason for Abu Rahme's death was unclear, including what type of gas she may have inhaled. » Read more

Hamas: PA detained 3,000 members in 2010 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency January 3, 2011 - 1:00am Palestinian Authority security forces detained 3,000 Hamas affiliates in the West Bank in 2010, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Sunday. At a press conference in Gaza City, Barhoum said 1,404 of those detained by PA forces had served time in Israeli jails, 49 were prominent Hamas leaders, 49 Imams of mosques, 405 university students and 24 professors. Those imprisoned also included 36 journalists, 12 businessmen, five pharmacists, seven women and 12 school children, he added. » Read more

Abbas: I’m not afraid of Wikileaks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency January 3, 2011 - 1:00am President Mahmoud Abbas said he was not concerned over any material that could be released about him or his government by the whistleblower site Wikileaks, saying follow-up with the site was not on his agenda. "I hear talk about it," Abbas told Ma'an, but said he had no personal interactions with the site, adding that the PA was "not afraid of any leaked document," because officials "say things in public and not in secret. If there’s anyone afraid of these documents, it would be the ones who say something in public while they have another position in secret.” » Read more

For statehood, Abbas to focus on Israelis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency January 3, 2011 - 1:00am During his flight from Senegal to Tunis, President Mahmoud Abbas told journalists he would spend the coming weeks holding meetings with representatives of Israeli civil society organizations in an effort to side-step the Israeli government in the search for a peace deal. "I'm sure the majority of Israelis want peace," Abbas said, adding that it was unfortunate that the current coalition led by right-wing Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu had "thwarted US efforts to broker a peace agreement." » Read more