September 4th, 2012

High cost of living in West Bank outrages Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
September 3, 2012 - 12:00am

The growing cost of living in the West Bank has urged Romel al-Swaiti, a Palestinian blogger from a village near Nablus, to devote his page on the internet to speak about the issue by publishing a comic picture of him going to work riding on a donkey. He wrote on his page on the social website of Facebook that he was obliged to go to work from his house in the village of Howara to the city of Nablus, which is about 11 km away, by riding a donkey as an alternative to traveling by car or by bus due to the high cost of transportation in the West Bank.

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Israeli "skunk" fouls West Bank protests
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Noah Browning - September 3, 2012 - 12:00am

Imagine taking a chunk of rotting corpse from a stagnant sewer, placing it in a blender and spraying the filthy liquid in your face. Your gag reflex goes off the charts and you can't escape, because the nauseating stench persists for days. This is "skunk", a fearsome but non-lethal tool in Israel's arsenal of weapons for crowd control. It comes in armoured tanker trucks fitted with a cannon that can spray a jet of stinking fluid over crowds who know how to cope with plain old tear gas.

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Israel threatens to demolish Bedouin school
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Diaa Hadid - September 2, 2012 - 12:00am

Dozens of children returned to school on Sunday, taking part in an annual ritual that has taken on special meaning in this Bedouin tent camp. The makeshift school buildings, cobbled together from mud and old tires, were built over the objections of Israeli authorities who are now threatening to demolish the structures. Israel says it won't tear them down until alternate facilities are available.

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Evicted vow to return to Migron
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - September 4, 2012 - 12:00am

Jewish settlers vowed yesterday to return to their illegal hilltop enclave in the West Bank, a day after Israeli authorities imposed a court order and evicted them from the Palestinian-owned site. "We will start a new fight," said Elisheva Razvag, 27-year-old mother of two who works as an occupational therapist. She and her family were among the 300 Israelis peacefully vacated from the hamlet of Migron on Sunday, after Israel's Supreme Court ordered the state to relocate them by today.

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Settlers evacuated from large West Bank outpost
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Alon Bernstein - September 2, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel completed evacuation of a large unauthorized West Bank settlement outpost on Sunday, culminating years of legal wrangling in a case that has become a rallying cry for hardline settler groups opposed to any withdrawal from occupied land claimed by the Palestinians. By midday, all of Migron's roughly 300 residents had left, authorities said, two days ahead of a court-ordered deadline to clear out.

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Egypt appoints new ambassador to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Tia Goldenberg - September 2, 2012 - 12:00am

Egypt has appointed a new ambassador to Israel, choosing an experienced career diplomat, officials from both countries said, in what some took as sign of positive relations between Israel and Egypt under an Islamist president in Cairo. Atef Salem el-Ahl has been serving as Egypt's consul in the Israeli resort town of Eilat. He will replace Yasser Reda, whose four-year term ends this summer. Israel's Foreign Ministry and Egypt's state media confirmed the appointment Sunday.

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Pro-Settler Vandals Attack West Bank Monastery
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Allyn Fisher-Ilan - September 4, 2012 - 12:00am

Vandals set fire to the doors of a Christian monastery in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Tuesday and daubed pro-settler graffiti on its walls in a possible retaliation for the eviction of families from an unauthorized outpost. The name of the unauthorized Migron outpost, cleared of Israeli settlers following a court order on Sunday, was scrawled on the well-known 19th century Latrun Monastery, alongside the words "Jesus is a monkey" in Hebrew, police said.

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To Calm Israel, U.S. Offers Ways to Restrain Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by David E. Sanger, Eric Schmitt - September 2, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel openly debating whether to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, the Obama administration is moving ahead with a range of steps short of war that it hopes will forestall an Israeli attack, while forcing the Iranians to take more seriously negotiations that are all but stalemated.

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Gaza: An Act of Despair
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
September 3, 2012 - 12:00am

A Palestinian man has died after setting himself on fire, apparently in response to the economic hardships in Gaza, his family and the police said Monday. The man, Ehab Abu Nada, 18, left home on Thursday after an argument with his father, who had urged him to find work to help feed his family. Frustrated in his job hunt, he set himself on fire inside a Gaza hospital. He was pronounced dead on Sunday.

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August 31st

NEWS: New divorce laws are allowing Palestinian women to more easily initiate divorces on their own. A rocket fired from Gaza hits a house in southern Israel, with no injuries reported. PM Netanyahu announces he will address the UN in September and focus mainly on Iran. DM Barak says Egypt is determined to control Sinai. Palestinians denounce new Israeli plans to control more land in the occupied West Bank. Iranian leaders say they support Palestinian reconciliation. Settlers stone a Palestinian bus near Ramallah injuring five. Hamas says it plans to censor the Internet in Gaza, ostensibly to fight pornography. Many Western countries have travel warnings for Israel. FM Lieberman compares FM Al-Maliki to Joseph Goebbels. Deputy PM Ya'alon complains that the US is undermining Israeli military threats against Iran. A UN rapporteur for human rights condemns the Rachel Corrie verdict. Normal life continues in Tel Aviv in spite of rumors of war with Iran. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dempsey says the US should not be complicit in an Israeli attack against Iran. Gaza is enduring a severe and protracted crisis over water. The rabbi of a major Israeli settlement says attacking innocent Palestinians is “a sacrilege.” Swiss experts reiterate their willingness to analyze the remains of the late Pres. Arafat but they warn time is running out. COMMENTARY: Chaim Levinson provides a primer on the ongoing dispute over a tiny settlement outpost. Ben Shalev looks at a new sound being explored by violinist-composer Nassim Dakwar. Yehuda Lukacs says Israel should join NATO. Hassan Barari thinks Israel might attack Iran even without prior warning to the United States. Rachel Dolev says women are shut out of the national security conversation in Israel. Emily Hauser looks at the history of extremist comments by Rabbi Yosef of the Shas party.

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