October 20th

Half of Palestinians Want Combined Election ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Angus Reid Global Monitor October 19, 2008 - 8:00pm Many adults in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank would like to hold the presidential and legislative ballots at the same time, according to a poll by the Jerusalem Media & Communication Center. 51.4 per cent of respondents support having simultaneous elections. » Read more

Hamas could halt talks on Israeli soldier: official ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - October 19, 2008 - 8:00pm Hamas could halt talks on the release of an Israeli soldier seized in a cross-border raid and now being held in the Gaza Strip if Egypt does not free one of its leaders, a Hamas official said. Soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted by militants from an Israeli army base in June 2006. In exchange for his release, Hamas has demanded that Israel sets free hundreds of prisoners it holds. It also wants Egypt to release Ayman Nofal, a senior Hamas military operative arrested in Egypt on suspicion he was planning to attack targets there. Egypt has been trying to mediate a prisoner swap. » Read more

Israel slams assaults on Palestinian olive harvest ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters October 19, 2008 - 8:00pm Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak condemned on Monday "assaults by hooligans" disrupting Palestinian olive picking in the occupied West Bank, but said Israeli security could not protect the harvesters everywhere. Israel has deployed forces in a "supreme effort" to let the harvest proceed despite attacks by Jewish settlers in some olive groves this month, Barak told Israel's Army Radio. » Read more

Israel's Livni gets more time to form government ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Jeffrey Heller - October 19, 2008 - 8:00pm Tzipi Livni will have another two weeks to try to form a government and become Israel's prime minister after receiving on Monday an extension to an original 28-day presidential mandate to put together a coalition. Foreign Minister Livni, elected leader of the centrist Kadima party last month, would take over as prime minister from Ehud Olmert, who resigned in a corruption scandal but remains in office until a new government is established. » Read more

Hamas grip on Gaza is complete ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press October 19, 2008 - 8:00pm Hamas' control of the Gaza Strip is now virtually complete. Since the summer, the Islamic militants have sil-enced and disarmed their remaining opponents, filled the bureaucracy with their supporters, and kept Gaza's economy afloat, even if just barely, despite a 16-month-old international embargo and border blockades by Israel and Egypt. With nothing in sight to weaken Hamas' grip, the political split between Gaza and the West Bank -the two territories meant to make up a future Palestinian state - looks increasingly irreversible. » Read more

Israel reopens Saudi peace plan ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Aron Heller - October 19, 2008 - 8:00pm Israeli leaders are seriously considering a dormant Saudi plan offering a comprehensive peace between Israel and the Arab world in exchange for lands captured during the 1967 war, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said yesterday. Barak said it may be time to pursue an overall peace deal for the region since individual negotiations with Syria and the Palestinians have made little progress. Barak said he has discussed the Saudi plan with Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni, who is in the process of forming a new Israeli government, and that Israel is considering a response. » Read more

Mixed emotions on Hebron tour ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Heather Sharp - October 16, 2008 - 8:00pm "It's another world," says Israeli student Gilad Shalom, 29, as he follows a tour guide around the Israeli-controlled part of the divided West Bank town of Hebron. Craning his neck to see over tall, sniper-proof concrete slabs, he is partly talking about the jumble of Palestinian houses on the other side. But he is also referring to the town's Jewish settlers, known by reputation as some of the most hardline of the roughly 270,000 Israelis who live in the West Bank, not including East Jerusalem. » Read more

Olive harvest attacks anger Abbas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News October 19, 2008 - 8:00pm There have been several reports of attacks in recent days, a week into the yearly olive harvest. But settlers have accused Palestinians of burning their own olive groves and then blaming them. Mr Abbas criticised Israel for failing to stop the attacks, but the army says it is working to protect Palestinians. Millions of olive trees across the West Bank provide a livelihood to many Palestinians. » Read more

Symbol of Peace Stands at Divide Between Troubled Jerusalem’s East and West ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - October 16, 2008 - 8:00pm One recent autumn evening, under a full moon, a monument to tolerance was unveiled on a ridge high above this revered and contested city, sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews. A soaring bronze column split down the middle, with a spindly, gilded olive tree reaching up through the chasm, it seemed to encapsulate both the promise and the fragility of peace in a city increasingly on edge. » Read more

Time to resurrect the Arab peace plan ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Ian Black - October 17, 2008 - 8:00pm In late July, when Barack Obama toured the Middle East, he met the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, for a private briefing on the state of the world's most intractable conflict - a major priority for the next occupant of the Oval Office. Abbas revealed later that when he told the Democratic candidate about the Arab peace initiative - offering Israel normal relations with all 22 Arab countries in exchange for a Palestinian state - Obama's (clearly private) response was unambiguous: "The Israelis must be crazy not to accept that." » Read more