December 20th

Salem Jubran, Israeli Arab poet and journalist, dies at 71 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Ido Blass - December 20, 2011 - 1:00am Israeli Arab poet and journalist Salem Jubran died Sunday at his home in Nazareth at the age of 71. He was laid to rest in his hometown yesterday. Born in 1941 in the Galilee village of Peki'in, Jubran published three books of poetry, the last of which appeared about 30 years ago. Poet Marwan Makhoul said Jubran's poetry was the most important ever published by an Israeli Arab author. » Read more

Egypt's radical Islamist party vows to respect peace treaty with Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - December 20, 2011 - 1:00am Egypt's radical Salafi movement has announced for the first time that it intends to respect all treaties that Egypt has signed, including the peace deal with Israel. The Salafi Al-Nour party, which won 25-30 percent of the votes in the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections, said that they are also in favor of negotiating with Israel. » Read more

PA: Israeli forces demolish main road near Nablus ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 20, 2011 - 1:00am NABLUS (Ma’an) -- Israeli forces on Tuesday bulldozed a main road serving several villages in southern Nablus, a Palestinian Authority official said. Ghassan Daghlas, the PA official for monitoring settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that over 30 military vehicles entered the Nablus village of Beita before bulldozers demolished a road in-between the villages of Beita, Osarin and Aqraba. The Mayor of Huwwara, Moeen Damidi, told the official news agency Wafa that the 4km road was demolished without any warning. It had cost $400,000 to build, he added. » Read more

'Price tag' slogans painted on Hebron mosque ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 20, 2011 - 1:00am HEBRON (Ma'an) -- A Hebron village mosque was spray-painted with racist slogans on Monday, locals said, in the fourth such attack in two weeks. Suspected extremist settlers daubed "price tag" and "Yitzhar" on the walls of the mosque in Bani Naim, which lies opposite the Kiryat Arba settlement. Yitzhar settlement in the northern West Bank is notorious for so-called price tag incidents, in which settlers exact revenge on Palestinians and their property for Israeli government policies towards unauthorized settler outposts. » Read more

Poll: Palestinians have doubts about outcome of reconciliation talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) December 19, 2011 - 1:00am REPORTING FROM RAMALLAH, WEST BANK -– As new reconciliation talks between Palestinian factions get underway in Cairo, including a meeting set for Wednesday between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, a poll suggests there are serious doubts among the Palestinian people about whether the negotiations will succeed. A public opinion poll by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research published Monday found that, regarding the reconciliation efforts, Palestinians are equally divided between believers and skeptics. » Read more

This Holy Land battle focuses on tourists' wallets ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - December 20, 2011 - 1:00am Reporting from Bethlehem, West Bank— A 45-foot-high artificial Christmas tree towers over Manger Square, and downtown Bethlehem is festooned with sparkling decorations. There's even a picture of a saxophone-playing Santa Claus. But Nabil Giacaman, co-owner of a souvenir shop called Christmas House, isn't feeling the holiday spirit. The third-generation woodcarver, who sells handmade likenesses of baby Jesus and the Virgin Mary, sees as many as 200 tour buses arrive every day from Israel to visit the Church of the Nativity, just a few steps from his store. » Read more

Finding Fault in the Palestinian Messages That Aren’t So Public ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - December 20, 2011 - 1:00am JERUSALEM — A new book by an Israeli watchdog group catalogs dozens of examples of messages broadcast by the Palestinian Authority for its domestic audience that would seem at odds with the pursuit of peace and a two-state solution. Instead, the authors say, their findings show a pattern of non-recognition of Israel’s right to exist, demonization of Israel and promotion of violence. » Read more

December 19th

Palestinian textbooks debate reaches US campaign ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Mohammed Daraghmeh, Karin Laub - December 17, 2011 - 1:00am Do Palestinian school textbooks "teach terrorism," as Newt Gingrich claimed in a recent debate among U.S. Republican presidential hopefuls? His example - that Palestinians "have text books that say, `If there are 13 Jews and nine Jews are killed, how many Jews are left?'" - is not in any of the texts, researchers say. As for Gingrich's broader claim, the textbooks don't directly encourage anti-Israeli violence, but they also don't really teach peace, studies say. » Read more

Fatah and Hamas resume talks on Palestinian reconciliation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - December 19, 2011 - 1:00am Hamas and Fatah officials met in Cairo on Sunday in order to renew talks on Palestinian reconciliation. The two sides are due to meet on Tuesday to sign a reconciliation agreement, although its implementation is expected to be postponed since the parties decided to delay the discussion on the formation of a Fatah-Hamas unity government until after January 26. Until now, the two sides have only been discussing the makeup of the Palestinian election committee. » Read more

Hamas moves away from violence in deal with Palestinian Authority ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Phoebe Greenwood - December 18, 2011 - 1:00am Hamas has confirmed that it will shift tactics away from violent attacks on Israel as part of a rapprochement with the Palestinian Authority. A spokesman for the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, told the Guardian that the Islamic party, which has controlled Gaza for the past five years, was shifting its emphasis from armed struggle to non-violent resistance. » Read more