November 15th, 2007

Hamas To Curb Press, Gatherings In Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Sarah El Deeb - November 15, 2007 - 6:12pm

Gaza's Hamas rulers issued an edict Wednesday banning journalists from working in the coastal strip unless they submit to sweeping press restrictions, and it said it would soon impose new restraints on public gatherings. The moves, which follow the arrests of hundreds of opposition activists, appeared to be part of an intensifying clampdown after the Islamic militant group was confronted with a mass demonstration called by the rival Fatah movement that led to violence.

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November 14th

The New York Times looks at attempts within the Israeli Knesset to pass a bill making the return of occupied East Jerusalem to the Palestinians more difficult (2.) Reuters reports on Palestinian rebuilding of government administrative buildings in the West Bank as a symbols of authority (4.) A Washington Post opinion by David Ignatius urges Israel and the U.S. to give the Palestinians the capacity to establish security and to allow them to do so, otherwise any achievements at Annapolis will be frustrated (5.) A Baltimore Sun editorial stresses the importance of Palestinian unity and the addressing of the Hamas issue if a peace agreement with Israel is to be successful (6.) The Forward looks at the push by the Bush administration to get the organized mainstream Jewish-American community to support the Annapolis meeting (8.) The Guardian (UK) reports on Palestinian hopes that a one year timetable will be set to secure a peace agreement with Israel (10.) A Jordan Times (Jordan) editorial urges the rise of a 'third political faction' among Palestinians weary with Fatah and Hamas (12.) A Haaretz (Israel) editorial is critical of the Israeli demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as a 'Jewish state' (14.)

Asharq Al-awsat Interviews Mahmud Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Ali El-saleh - (Interview) November 14, 2007 - 1:12pm

[Asharq Al-Awsat] Following your meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, you spoke with a sign of optimism. Was there a breakthrough that you did not disclose?

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Subversion Is No Way For America To Make Friends In The Islamic World
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
(Editorial) November 14, 2007 - 1:10pm

A recent commentary by Robert Satloff - executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), the pre-eminent pro-Israel think tank - acknowledges a small part of what has gone wrong with US policy on the Middle East. Unfortunately the article, which appeared in the Washington Post, recommends remedies that promise only to make matters worse.

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More Than Words Needed
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Susie Becher - (Opinion) November 14, 2007 - 1:08pm

Hardly a day goes by without some new twist in the preparations for the Annapolis conference, and speculation is rife on whether it will end in success or failure. The Israeli prime minister is trying to lower expectations, emphasizing that it is not a peace conference but a starting point for negotiations toward a peace accord. The Palestinian president has his eye on the day after Annapolis, pushing for a time limit on the negotiations that will follow the event. The truth is that the summit itself cannot fail, because nothing will be left to chance.

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Are Two States Still Viable?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Seth Anziska - (Opinion) November 14, 2007 - 1:05pm

Oxford dons were reeling at their high table dinners late last month, in the wake of a startling controversy over the Middle East. A debate at the Oxford Union on the motion "This house believes that one state is the only solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict" was compromised by external political pressure, generating serious concerns about academic freedom and the principles of free speech.

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Like On The First Land Day
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - (Opinion) November 14, 2007 - 1:02pm

"Armed Hamas policemen who were stationed in the streets and watching the masses of people marching toward the square, gazed down at the ground. Out of shame. They saw themselves the way the marchers to the memorial rally for Yasser Arafat saw them - like Israeli policemen on the first Land Day in Israel. It was women whose votes had led to the defeat of Fatah in 2006, so it was significant now that many women came to the rally. I saw one woman go up to an armed policeman and dare him: Kill me, you Shi'ite."

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On-the-spot: 'i Was Arrested By Hamas'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by Paul Martin - (Commentary) November 14, 2007 - 1:00pm

Today I was detained while watching a demonstration by female students Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip. They had gone on strike at noon in protest against the killings in the rally yesterday, and they had made their way to a nearby police station where they were singing and chanting. In particular, they yelled: 'Shia, Shia, Shia,' which is a reference to Hamas being funded by Iran. Within a few minutes, baton-wielding police laid into the girls. Some fell to the ground, but most ran away.

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Israel 'will Halt New Settlement' Before Peace Summit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Haroon Siddique - November 14, 2007 - 12:55pm

Israel will announce a freeze in West Bank settlement construction prior to peace talks with the Palestinians in the US, it was reported today. But the moratorium would probably exclude large settlement blocs that Israel wants to retain in a final peace agreement, the Israeli paper Haaretz said. The Palestinians are demanding that all of the West Bank, which Israel captured in the 1967 six-day war, be included in a future state.

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Mourning Families In Gaza Blame Hamas For Deaths At Rally
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald Macintyre - November 14, 2007 - 12:53pm

On Monday morning, 13-year-old Ibrahim Ahmad, devoutly religious as well as a keen sports fan, went to dawn prayers at the local mosque before taking a taxi with his three older brothers to the neighbouring town of Beit Lahiya and joining the steadily growing procession on foot to the Yasser Arafat commemoration in central Gaza city. By the afternoon, he was in the morgue in Shifa hospital, shot in the neck and side, the youngest of the seven victims of the bullets fired by Hamas forces in the bloody aftermath of the rally.

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