July 23rd, 2012

Zahhar: Hamas will not separate Gaza from the West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 23, 2012 - 12:00am Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahhar on Sunday denied media reports that the Islamist group is considering declaring the Gaza Strip a separate entity from the Palestinian Authority controlled West Bank. "Such news is being disseminated by the enemies of Hamas seeking to maintain the siege on Gaza," Zahhar told Ma'an. "This issue hasn’t been addressed officially within Hamas, but some people posed it privately on their own," he added. » Read more

Israel Walls Itself In ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by Jillian Kestler-D'Amours - (Opinion) July 20, 2012 - 12:00am As Israel continues to build walls and fences along virtually each of its borders, analysts say the country’s isolationist policies and unwillingness to deal with the Palestinians and other Arab neighbours through anything other than forceful means spells disaster. » Read more

Israel orders demolition of 8 Palestinian villages, claims need for IDF training land ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - July 23, 2012 - 12:00am Defense Minister Ehud Barak has ordered the demolition of eight Palestinian villages in the South Hebron Hills because the territory is needed for Israel Defense Forces training exercises, the state told the High Court of Justice on Sunday. The residents of the targeted villages will be moved to the town of Yatta and its environs; the state claims, based on information it obtained from local informers, that most of these people have permanent homes in that area. » Read more

Palestine Can Wait…For Now ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Nathan J. Brown - (Opinion) July 20, 2012 - 12:00am If an Israeli Rip Van Winkle had gone to sleep in 1992 and woken up in 2012 to find a news report that Palestinian leader Khalid Mishal had just concluded a meeting at the Egyptian presidential palace with President Muhammad Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, he might wonder if a previously unknown but particularly jarring piece of apocalyptic literature had somehow found its way into the daily paper.  He might go so far as to frantically turn to the weather page to see if a temperature was still listed for Tel Aviv or i » Read more

Settlers seize over 50 dunams of land across West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 23, 2012 - 12:00am Settlers on Monday appropriated over 50 dunams of land in the northern and southern West Bank, official news agency Wafa reported. In the Tubas area of the Jordan Valley, settlers seized nearly 50 dunams of land and began farming it, village council head Aref Daraghmeh said. The land, which belongs to villagers, had previously been used by the Israeli army as a tank yard, he added. In Hebron, settlers from Susiya settlement seized five dunams of private Palestinian land near the town of Yatta, popular committee coordinator Rateb al-Jabour said. » Read more

A story addresses solidarity across Israeli roadblocks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Michael Felsen - (Book Review) July 23, 2012 - 12:00am “Means of suppressing demonstrations,” a short story by 25-year old Israeli author Shani Boianjiu that recently appeared in the fiction slot of the prestigious The New Yorker magazine, has garnered plenty of attention in the few weeks since it was published. Set at a checkpoint on a closed, deserted road in the West Bank, it explores a range of questions about human dignity and the effects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on both the occupier and the occupied. Commentators are sharply divided on what the author intends with this simple story. » Read more

2nd group of Gaza families visit relatives in Israeli jails ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 23, 2012 - 12:00am A group of families from the Gaza Strip visited relatives in Israeli jails early Monday, in the second visit of its kind since 2007, a prisoners group said. A bus carrying 52 people set out from the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza City to the Erez crossing, before family members were transferred to Nafha prison facility, Gaza-based prisoners group Waed said. The Palestinian liaison department said only 33 out of a group of 57 family members were allowed to continue their journey by Israeli authorities. » Read more

'No Occupation' Report Negates Israel's Legitimacy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) July 23, 2012 - 12:00am Considerable attention has been focused these last several weeks on the report of Israel’s Levy Commission. No great surprise: The three-person commission, appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to render an advisory opinion regarding Jewish settlement in the West Bank, determined that there is no barrier to such settlement and, indeed, that the legality of all such settlements that may have been thought clouded could and should be retroactively affirmed. » Read more

Israel fears Syrian missiles, nerve gas reaching Hezbollah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Adam Gonn - July 23, 2012 - 12:00am Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Friday said that he has ordered the army to prepare to intervene should Syria start to transfer missiles and chemical weapons to the Lebanese group Hezbollah. "Syria has advanced anti-aircraft missiles, surface-to-surface missiles and elements of chemical weapons," Barak told local Chanel 2 TV, adding that "I directed the Israel Defense Forces ( IDF) to prepare for a situation where we will need to consider the possibility of an attack." » Read more

Netanyahu’s falling stock ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jeff Barak - (Opinion) July 22, 2012 - 12:00am Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu must be kicking himself as the Knesset enters the final days of its summer session this week. Had he not buckled at the very last minute and cancelled his plans for calling early elections, he would now be only a couple of months away from an easy victory and his third term in the Prime Minister’s Office. » Read more