November 14th

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. » Read more

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." » Read more

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

Hamas Cracks Down On Fatah In Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Rushdi Abu Alouf, Ken Ellingwood - November 14, 2007 - 12:51pm Officials of the Fatah faction said Tuesday that hundreds of its members were detained by Hamas after deadly violence marred a massive rally in the Gaza Strip a day earlier. Fatah leaders said a wave of arrests in Gaza targeted activists, including ranking party figures who had organized the rally marking the third anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death. The gathering erupted in gunfire, leaving seven people dead and dozens injured. » Read more

Rice: Israeli-palestinian Talks Needed To Repel Iran's Influence ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ami Eden - November 14, 2007 - 12:49pm Facing mounting skepticism over the upcoming U.S.-led, Israeli-Palestinian peace summit, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told a massive gathering of Jews here that progress toward a two-state solution is vital to confronting Iran. "What is at stake is nothing less than the future of the Middle East," Rice said Tuesday during an address to delegates at this week’s General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities. » Read more

Religious Leaders Join In Support Of Mideast Peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - November 14, 2007 - 12:47pm The highest ranking Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders from the Holy Land made a groundbreaking statement of support this week for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The Muslim sheiks in charge of Jerusalem’s holy places met with Israel’s chief rabbis and with the leaders of the major Christian denominations to present a paper that not only recognized the need to end Israeli occupation but also committed all religious leaders to work together for peace in the region. » Read more

Tough Homecoming For Lebanon's Refugees ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Nicholas Blanford - November 14, 2007 - 12:46pm Abu Tawfiq stands in the soot-encrusted ruin of his home as cold rain blows in where an outside wall once stood. "This room is Hiroshima and the other one is Nagasaki," says the former school teacher who, agreed to speak on condition of anonymity. He's one of some 5,000 Palestinians who recently returned to the battle-ravaged ruins of this coastal refugee camp in north Lebanon, home to more than 40,000 people before the outbreak in May of three months of fighting between the Lebanese Army and Al-Qaeda-inspired militants of Fatah al-Islam. » Read more

Tutu And St. Thomas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Century by James M. Wall - (Commentary) November 14, 2007 - 12:44pm The University of St. Thomas is the largest private institution of higher learning in the state of Minnesota, a school "inspired by Catholic intellectual tradition." Recently, the university found itself in the embarrassing position of having failed to do some basic research; it did not check its sources. The story behind this development began innocently enough in April, when a staff member from St. Thomas's Justice and Peace Studies program informed his colleagues that he had booked South African archbishop Desmond Tutu for a campus appearance. » Read more