October 22nd, 2007

Keeping Israel Safe From... Qatar? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Ray Hanania - October 22, 2007 - 11:47am Just four years ago, Democratic members of the US House of Representatives were worried they would appear unpatriotic if they challenged President George W. Bush when he announced plans to invade Iraq. At the time, Bush argued that Iraq was harnessing weapons of mass destruction and perhaps planning a nuclear strike against the United States. » Read more

Olmert And Peres: Palestinian State On 100% Of West Bank Area, With Swaps ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Akiva Eldar, Avi Issacharoff, Barak Ravid - October 22, 2007 - 11:45am Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is examining a new framework for peace in which Israel will propose transferring to the Palestinian state areas equivalent to 100 percent of the territories conquered in 1967. Israel will suggest to the Palestinians to conduct negotiations for adequate territorial compensation from Israel's sovereign territory, in exchange for settlement blocs amounting to about 5 percent of the West Bank's area. » Read more

A Borderless State Is No Solution ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian (Special Report) October 22, 2007 - 11:41am For weeks now, America and Israel have talked up the idea that, contrary to all appearances, a peace initiative may be afoot in the Middle East. Last week Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, announced a $63bn package in military aid to the Middle East, aiming to counter Iran's growing influence in the region, but also shoring up Arab support for a peace initiative. Yesterday the Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert met the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Jericho. » Read more

Amnesty Brings Hope To West Bank Fighters ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times by James Hider - October 22, 2007 - 11:40am When Ala Sanaqra heard that he was on a list of wanted Palestinian fighters being offered an amnesty by Israel, he was surprised. As a commander of 42 other Fatah fighters, he was not expecting to be pardoned. Cautiously he accepted, hoping to resume a normal life after five tough years as a fugitive. » Read more

Nakba Debate Shows Israel's Divisions ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Matthew Wagner - October 22, 2007 - 11:38am The Israeli Education Ministry's decision last week to approve a textbook for state-run Arab schools that uses the Arabic word for "catastrophe" to describe Israel's victory in its 1948 War of Independence has sparked intense debate. » Read more

Gaza Jobs Meltdown: An Ice-cream Firm's Tale ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Dan Murphy - October 22, 2007 - 11:34am When the mercury soars and the cloying humidity of the Mediterranean coast makes heading outside a shirt-drenching ordeal, Mazen Masri is usually one of the few Gazans wearing a smile. But today, Mr. Masri casts a dejected look around his mostly idle ice-cream factory. "This should be the best time of our year," he says. "But I go into the factory and my heart almost breaks." » Read more

Israeli Group Decries Palestinian Limits ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Steve Weizman - October 22, 2007 - 11:33am Dozens of Israeli checkpoints and restrictions on motorists' travel on highways in the West Bank amount to illegal collective punishment of Palestinians on territory they claim for a future state, an Israeli human rights group said Tuesday. A report by Jerusalem-based B'Tselem acknowledges Israel's right to protect its citizens from attack by Palestinian militants, but said the measures it imposes _ 47 checkpoints among them _ go beyond legitimate security needs. » Read more

Touring Israel's Barrier With Its Main Designer ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Scott Wilson - October 22, 2007 - 11:31am From his stone balcony, Dan Tirza looks out over a rippling expanse of Judean desert, the biblical landscape of the Jewish people. A student of that history, the retired army colonel is a leading actor in Israel's modern story of statehood, conquest and the volatile task of erecting a boundary that divides Arab from Jew. Soon Israel's $2.5 billion separation barrier will rise around Tirza's settlement, where 350 Jewish families live among palms, playgrounds and a synagogue 10 miles inside the West Bank. » Read more

Palestinian Merchants In Gaza Live Hand-to-market ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal Al-mughrabi - October 22, 2007 - 11:31am Reduced to poverty by a blockade on the Gaza Strip, Palestinian merchants in the Hamas-ruled enclave complain Israel's method for allowing in their merchandise often adds insult to injury. Since the Islamists took over Gaza in a June civil war, Israel has shut the main commercial crossing on the Gaza border, Karni, citing security concerns. That left Sufa crossing, where, in the absence of formal Israeli-Palestinian coordination, vendors from the Jewish state simply dump cargo on the frontier. » Read more

If Hamas Isn't In The Game ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Danny Rubenstein - (Opinion) October 22, 2007 - 11:28am The Olmert government in Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, are in the midst of renewed political activity, encouraged by intensive American efforts. There have been frequent meetings, discussions of an agreement of principles and plans for a regional conference. Although there still are many problems in the field, like the amnesty agreement for wanted men that the two sides haven't managed to finalize, there certainly has been progress. » Read more