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Hamas chief ends Gaza visit with Palestinian unity call
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal al-Mughrabi - December 10, 2012 - 1:00am GAZA, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal ended his first visit to the Gaza Strip on Monday with a pledge his Islamist movement would strive to heal political rifts with Palestinian rivals who hold sway in the occupied West Bank. His comments reinforced promises he and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the rival Fatah movement, made to each other in a telephone conversation a month ago, to forge ahead with a stalled unity deal opposed by Israel. |
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Netanyahu wards off criticism: Israeli settlement plans won't prevent Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by DPA - December 10, 2012 - 1:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday dismissed international criticism of Israel's recently announced plans to build in an area near Jerusalem, saying it's "simply not true" that the settlements are an obstacle to Palestinian statehood. "I don't understand how this will prevent territorially the establishment of a Palestinian state," Netanyahu said, referring to Israeli construction in the area east of Jerusalem and west of Ma'aleh Adumim - the so-called E-1 area. |
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Israel's Netanyahu: World has double standards
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Josef Federman - December 10, 2012 - 1:00am JERUSALEM —Israel's prime minister on Monday accused the international community of "deafening silence" in response to recent vows by the head of the Hamas militant group to fight on until the Jewish state is destroyed, and appeared unmoved by the gathering storm of global condemnation of his government's plans to continue settling the West Bank. |
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U.S. intel predicts: Palestinian state to exist by 2030, but not peace with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amir Oren - December 11, 2012 - 1:00am A U.S. intelligence report predicts growing conflicts between secular Israelis and the ultra-Orthodox and settlers, with the Palestinians getting a state based on the 1967 borders with land swaps by 2030. The state, however, won't necessarily be formally declared, and the issues of Jerusalem, refugees and the demilitarization of the West Bank might not be solved. The report predicts that with the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq and eventually Afghanistan, support for Israel will remain the last cause for Muslim anti-U.S. sentiments. |
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Hamas is failing its responsibility to Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) December 9, 2012 - 1:00am By the time Khaled Meshaal dropped to his knees and kissed the ground in Gaza on Friday morning, the damage had already been done. Declaring himself a martyr-in-waiting, Mr Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas, confirmed what many already knew: violence is the group's only vision for the future. |
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Why Obama Will Ignore Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Peter Beinart - (Opinion) December 10, 2012 - 1:00am The last week of November 2012 was a big one on the Israeli-Palestinian front. On the 65th anniversary of the partition resolution that created a Jewish state, the United Nations recognized a Palestinian one. Israel retaliated with the West Bank equivalent of sequestration: announcing it would move toward building settlements in an area east of Jerusalem called E1, which many observers believe would kill the two-state solution. |
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Meshal Goes Out of Bounds
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National Interest by Paul Pillar - (Opinion) December 9, 2012 - 1:00am What Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal said at a mass rally in Gaza City on Saturday was contemptible. Taken at face value, his words eradicated any distinction between Israeli and Palestinian territory, and any possibility of Israelis and Palestinians living in peace. “Palestine, from the river to the sea, from north to south, is our land,” he said. |
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Israel must not dismiss outrage over settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe by James Carroll - (Opinion) December 10, 2012 - 1:00am AFTER A STORM of criticism hit Israel for the plan it announced to expand settlements in the occupied territories, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back. “Israel will continue to stand for its essential interests,” he declared, “even in the face of international pressure, and there will be no change in the decision it has taken.” |
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Israel’s List of Friends Keeps Getting Shorter
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg by Jeffrey Goldberg - (Opinion) December 3, 2012 - 1:00am When I made an appointment to see Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week, I hoped we would spend most of our time discussing her new effort to better integrate her country into Asia. |