October 11th

Palestinians foresee no change after Israeli elections
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Elior Levy - October 11, 2012 - 12:00am

The decision to move up the Knesset elections will affect not only Israel's citizens but the Palestinian Authority as well.  Since Benjamin Netanyahu's early elections announcement Tuesday, Palestinian analysts have been trying to explain the move and its consequences. All reached the same conclusion – nothing will change.

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Haaretz poll: Netanyahu beats election rivals, right-wing bloc grows stronger
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yossi Verter - October 11, 2012 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has no serious challenger in the next election, political experts said after he launched the campaign for the 19th Knesset on Tuesday. A poll carried out for Haaretz on Wednesday appears to confirm this. The poll, conducted by Dialog under the supervision of Professor Camil Fuchs of Tel Aviv University, shows that Netanyahu easily defeats all his possible rivals from the center-left bloc. As far as the public is concerned, Netanyahu is deemed much more suitable for post of prime minister than any of his potential rivals.

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Palestinian 'stabs settler' in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 11, 2012 - 12:00am

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- An Israeli man suffered moderate injuries Wednesday after a Palestinian stabbed him near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, officials said. Israeli and Palestinian officials identified the attacker as a young Palestinian man, but they gave conflicting accounts of the events surrounding the incident. An Israeli police official said authorities were treating the stabbing as "a terrorist incident," while a Palestinian medic said the suspect himself had been attacked.

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Anti-corruption commission pursues PLO land theft
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 11, 2012 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority's anti-corruption commission is working to retrieve PLO-owned land registered to individual PLO leaders, commission chief Rafiq Natsha said Wednesday. So far in 2012, the commission has recovered around 400 dunums of PLO -owned land, Natsha told Ma'an. In the past, the PLO's land was registered as the private property of PLO leaders, some of whom have voluntarily approached the commission to return it, Natsha told Ma'an.

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Israel targets militant site in north Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 11, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Israel launched an airstrike on Thursday morning at a site belonging to resistance factions in the northern Gaza Strip, a Ma'an correspondent said. An Israeli aircraft launched one missile toward the site in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood north of the Gaza strip, with no injuries reported. The airstrikes caused material damages. The Israeli army said the attack came as a response for a rocket that was fired overnight toward Netivot in the western Negev that caused material damage.

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Palestinian voters skeptical about value of elections
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - October 10, 2012 - 12:00am

HEBRON, West Bank — Stumping for votes in the first Palestinian election since 2006, Hebron City Council aspirant Maysoun Qawasmi strides into a plastics factory to promote the West Bank's first all-female political party. The 43-year-old candidate begins wooing executives, listening to workers' concerns and promising reform. She predicts that her list of candidates will shake up the conservative Islamist-leaning city, where women rarely take center stage.

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U.S., Israel to launch massive air defense drill
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
October 11, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. and Israeli militaries are engaged in final preparations for the largest-ever joint missile defense drill in the allies' history. The three-week exercise, dubbed Austere Challenge 12 (AC12), will start on Oct. 21, The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday, citing an army source.

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October 10th

NEWS: Pres. Abbas will reportedly call for renewed negotiations with Israel without preconditions following a UN vote in November. PM Netanyahu announces new Israeli elections for early 2013. Former Israeli PM Olmert may be considering a comeback. More rockets are fired at southern Israel from Gaza following renewed Israeli airstrikes. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has softened his stance towards the Palestinians. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon face growing health concerns. Hamas says it will investigate reports that its forces abused journalists. The Israeli military says it may reinstitute Arabic translations during military tribunals in the occupied West Bank. The unemployment rate among Palestinian citizens of Israel appears to be twice as high as previously thought. The PA reiterates that lack of interest from donors has intensified its cash crisis. The PA approves the first private-sector Palestinian minimum wage. COMMENTARY: Hussein Ibish says settler violence is inherent to the social dynamics and ideology of the occupation. Andrew Quinn says Romney's Middle East policy speech was short on details. Chris McGreal asks if there any real differences between Romney's policies and Pres. Obama's. Sefi Rachlevsky says it's possible for a coalition of non-right-wing political parties to prevail in the next election. Gershon Baskin says turning away from a two-state solution would be a disaster for both Israeli and Palestinian self-determination. Emad El Din Adeeb thinks the 1973 war was an Arab military victory. Reuven Pedatzur says Israel can deter Iran. A new film looks at sexual affairs between Jews and Arabs in Israel. Aaron David Miller says neither Obama nor Romney are as "good" or "bad" on Israel as Jewish Americans think. Abdullatif Al-Mulhim says the Arab world has wasted billions of dollars and tens of thousands of innocent lives quixotically fighting Israel.

Arab Spring and the Israeli enemy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Abdulateef Al-Mulhim - (Opinion) October 6, 2012 - 12:00am

Thirty-nine years ago, on Oct. 6, 1973, the third major war between the Arabs and Israel broke out. The war lasted only 20 days. The two sides were engaged in two other major wars, in 1948 and 1967.

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Enough Already
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) October 9, 2012 - 12:00am

Once every four years, rational, right-thinking Americans get crazy. Election ads clearly hype up an already polarized electorate. And right about now, on the hot-button issues of the day -- debt, deficit, who's leading from behind in foreign policy and who's not -- many Americans seem to lose the capacity to think for themselves.

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