November 14th, 2008

Israel infuriated by U.K. plan to label West Bank produce
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Anshel Pfeffer, Barak Ravid - November 13, 2008 - 8:00pm

Relations between Israel and Britain remained strained on Thursday over Downing Street's intention to label products manufactured in West Bank settlements, a week before the expected arrival of British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, David Miliband, to the Middle East.

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Gaza ceasefire continues to unravel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck - November 13, 2008 - 8:00pm

The ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip continued to unravel on Friday, as several Israeli towns close to the territory came under attack from rockets and mortars. The two sides have been trading attacks since early last week, when an Israeli military incursion into Gaza killed six militants belonging to Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the territory. Gaza-based groups responded with a barrage of rocket and mortar fire, and the violence escalated further when a second Israeli incursion claimed the lives of four more Palestinian militants this week.

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Saudis Cool to Israeli Overture
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
November 13, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel should not parse the Arab peace plan, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said Thursday after a speech by Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, during a two-day interfaith dialogue at the United Nations. Mr. Peres and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia were in rare, close proximity. Although they did not meet, Mr. Peres addressed the king from the podium and read extracts that he supported from the peace plan first proposed by the kingdom in 2002. But Prince Saud said later that Mr.

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Barak approved settlement expansion despite Road Map
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Uri Blau - November 13, 2008 - 8:00pm

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has approved dozens of construction projects in the West Bank in recent months, contradicting Israel's commitments to the Road Map, Haaretz has learned. Barak also approved the marketing of hundreds of housing units in settlements. Some of the permits for construction projects were granted in settlements to the east of the separation fence, which are beyond the areas the state defines as "settlement blocks" and it expects to retain under Israel's control following a permanent agreement with the Palestinians.

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Israel blockade leaves much of Gaza City without power
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Rushdi Abu Alouf, Richard Boudreaux - November 13, 2008 - 8:00pm

Much of Gaza City fell into darkness Thursday night after an Israeli blockade, tightened in response to Palestinian hostilities, caused the city's electricity plant to run critically low on fuel and shut down. Israel also barred 30 truckloads of relief supplies from entering the Gaza Strip, leaving a United Nations agency without food to distribute to needy families that make up half the Palestinian territory's 1.5 million people.

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Settlers Who Long to Leave the West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - November 12, 2008 - 8:00pm

Surrounded by hostility, living on land most of the world wants turned over to Palestinians for a state, they meet quietly in Jewish settlements like this one, plotting the future. But these besieged West Bank settlers, widely viewed as an obstacle to peace, want only one surprising thing: to get out. While the vast majority of settlers vow never to abandon the heart of the historic Jewish homeland — these ancient and starkly beautiful hills whose biblical names are Judea and Samaria — thousands of other settlers say they want to move back to within the pre-1967 borders of Israel.

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U.S.-Palestinian Partnership Leaders to Travel to the West Bank
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - November 12, 2008 - 1:00am

Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James K. Glassman, together with American Task Force on Palestine President Ziad Asali and Case Foundation CEO Jean Case, will lead a delegation to the West Bank from November 15 through 18. As co-chairs of the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership (UPP), they will attend the inauguration of a youth development and resource center in the village of Beita. This is the first of four youth development and resource centers that UPP is working to expand with the support of the U.S.


November 13th

Yesterday's violence on the Gaza border again threatens the truce that has been in place since June (1) (6). The United Nations is forced to suspend food aid to 1.5 million people after Israel refuses to allow emergency supplies into Gaza (2). Israeli President Shimon Peres lauds Saudi King Abdullah's work on the Arab peace initiative (3) (9). Mayor-elect of Jerusalem, Nir Barakat, vows to keep the city "undivided" (5). Ehud Barak, Israeli defense minister and head of the Labor party, announces that Labor will not join a coalition government that is not committed to advancing peace talks with the Palestinians (7).

Peres: Arab peace plan - a serious opening for real progress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shlomo Shamir - November 12, 2008 - 8:00pm

President Shimon Peres told world leaders on Wednesday at an interfaith dialogue in New York that the Arab peace initiative must be seriously considered as "a serious opening for real progress" in Middle East peace. The proposal, initiated by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and ratified by Arab foreign ministers last year in Damascus, offers pan-Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from Arab lands c Advertisement aptured in 1967. (click here to read Peres' entire speech)

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New 'pro-Israel, pro-peace' lobby J Street hopes for Obama-era growth
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - November 12, 2008 - 8:00pm

Will the "Obama effect" that enabled Democratic candidates to ride the party's presidential candidate into Congress also contribute toward changing the map of Jewish influence on Capitol Hill? J Street, the "pro-Israel, pro-peace" lobbying group and Political Action Committee (PAC) formed just last April and seen as the left's answer to the veteran American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), is counting on it.

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