December 5th

Obama's 'Palestinian friend' laments catastrophic U.S. policy in Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - December 5, 2008 - 1:00am

No one stopped Rashid Khalidi, the Columbia University professor of Modern Arab Studies, at Ben-Gurion airport. Having just landed after the long flight from New York, the professor was anticipating the traditional reception from airport security personnel reserved for visitors with "suspicious" names. To his surprise, he entered the airport like anyone else, with no problems or delays. Perhaps word had gotten around at Ben-Gurion that he was the Palestinian friend of United States President-elect Barack Obama.

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High alert in W. Bank after evacuation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz, Tovah Lazaroff - December 4, 2008 - 1:00am

The United Nations Middle East envoy on Friday praised Israeli security forces for evacuating the Beit Hashalom house in Hebron, but condemned the violence which followed, and promised that the UN would "closely monitor" the developments.

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Is an Israeli-Palestinian Confederation Feasible?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times
by Rachelle Kliger - December 5, 2008 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM -- With time running out on the U.S. George W. Bush administration and without a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute having been reached, as was hoped, the idea of a Palestinian-Israeli confederation is gradually replacing that of a two-state solution. The notion has been floating around for several years now, in various forms. Josef Avesar, an Israeli-born attorney now based in California, is the founder of the Israeli Palestinian Confederation committee (IPC).

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Obama's New Foreign Policy Team Looks Toward Syria
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - December 4, 2008 - 1:00am

Breaking with the Bush administration, the incoming foreign policy team of President-elect Barack Obama is expected to embrace Israeli–Syrian peace talks and might actively take part in negotiations that until now the Americans have shunned. This assessment is shared by Middle East experts trying to gauge the foreign policy priorities of the incoming administration based on statements from the transition team. The negotiations on an accord between Israel and Syria would run parallel to efforts to secure a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.

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December 4th

New York Times columnist Helene Cooper examines the options for the location of President-elect Obama's planned speech in a major Muslim capital city (1). Jewish settlers fear a future Israeli withdrawl from the West Bank (2), meanwhile police evict settlers from a house in Hebron (3). Israel agrees to allow some humanitarian aid into the blockaded Gaza strip (4). Reuters interviews Palestinians who report alleged abuse in West Bank jails (6). MJ Rosenberg urges President-elect Obama to appoint a Middle East envoy charged with implementing the Arab peace initiative (8).

Arabs need to work with Clinton
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Francis Matthew - (Editorial) December 4, 2008 - 1:00am

The Arab world has reacted badly to the appointment of Hillary Clinton as Barack Obama's Secretary of State. But it would be a mistake to write her off before she has even started.

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A matter of choice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) December 4, 2008 - 1:00am

Nothing illustrates better the “separate laws for separate people” ethos of the Israeli state than the standoff over a house in Hebron that has been taken over by Jewish extremists. The presence of a few hundred extremist Jewish settlers in the centre of Hebron has long been an outrageous provocation to the city’s 150,000 Palestinians. The settlers in Hebron, furthermore, are of the very worst kind. They are racist and anti-Muslim, and sustain a supremacist arrogance derived from their belief in divine entitlement.

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An Intolerable Spot for a Museum
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Buzz Gordon - December 4, 2008 - 1:00am

In the Jewish community, the name Simon Wiesenthal is sacrosanct — which is why Rabbi Marvin Hier chose to establish his West Coast empire on the bedrock of the Nazi hunter’s reputation when Hier entered the institutional Judaism vacuum of Los Angeles 30 years ago. Over the course of the past three decades, the Simon Wiesenthal Center brand has been enhanced by its Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, but recent developments in Israel have begun to tarnish the institution’s reputation.

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President Obama: Go For It
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by M.J. Rosenberg - (Opinion) December 4, 2008 - 1:00am

It is impossible to get Mumbai out of my mind. I keep thinking about two-year old, Moshe, sitting in his parents’ blood, crying out to a mother and father who are gone forever. It is hard to imagine how anyone can justify terror against children but many people do. In fact, fanatics of virtually every faith and nationality justify killing kids or leaving them orphans. It is sickening. Until humanity comes to the understanding that there is no justification—none, whatsoever—for killing children or making them orphans, we remain uncivilized.

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Q&A: What is the Palestinian split all about?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
December 4, 2008 - 1:00am

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority and leader of the long-dominant, secular Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), is in conflict with Hamas, the Islamist movement which won a parliamentary election in 2006. Since June 2007, when Hamas routed Abbas's forces in the Gaza Strip, prompting Abbas to fire a Hamas-led government and appoint his own in the West Bank, each side has accused the other of persecutions. Human rights monitors say there has been an upsurge in torture and detentions in the West Bank recently.

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