October 28th

MKs agree: Elections to be held on Feb. 10 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Amnon Meranda - October 27, 2008 - 8:00pm Kadima faction chairman, Knesset Member Yoel Hasson, announced Tuesday that his party would push to hold elections within 111 days from Monday, the day President Shimon Peres informed Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik of his decision to call general elections. According to this announcement, and as per Israeli law, elections are set to fall on February 10. » Read more

Palestinian Electricity Pact to 'Reduce Dependence on Israel' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line October 27, 2008 - 8:00pm The Palestinian Authority has joined a seven-fold electric power grid, which would allow it to become less dependent on Israeli supply of electricity within four years. The announcement was made during a meeting of ministers of electricity and energy in the network member countries. An interconnected electricity network, which includes Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Libya and Lebanon, decided earlier this week to incorporate the Palestinian electricity system. » Read more

Britain urges Israel to halt settlements ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) October 27, 2008 - 8:00pm Britain urged Israel on Tuesday to freeze settlement activities in the occupied territories, warning that they threaten the creation of an independent Palestinian state. "Continued settlement construction threatens the goal of a two-state solution to which the Israeli government itself is committed," British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Bill Rammell told reporters in Amman. » Read more

Palestinian forces conduct first raid in Hebron ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press October 27, 2008 - 8:00pm Newly deployed Palestinian security forces smashed down doors, raided homes and rounded up wanted fugitives early Monday, carrying out their first crackdown since taking up positions around this volatile city over the weekend. Hundreds of men belonging to different Palestinian security forces divided into groups throughout the nearby village of Samoua, holding lists of suspected criminals and loyalists of Hamas. Dressed in civilian clothing or clad in blue, black, green and khaki uniforms, they barged through the doors of the wanted Palestinians and searched their homes. » Read more

No peace deal with Israel this year - Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters October 26, 2008 - 8:00pm Israel and the Palestinians will not be able to reach a peace agreement this year, the Palestinian chief negotiator in U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Jewish state said on Monday. "I don't think that we will be able to reach an agreement this year," Ahmed Qurie told a group of former Israeli security officials at a conference near Tel Aviv on Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. » Read more

Palestinian Forces in the Hebron Minefield ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time by Tim McGirk - October 27, 2008 - 8:00pm When Palestinian security forces moved into the lawless West Bank towns of Jenin and Nablus, all they had to worry about were the armed criminal gangs who had been shaking down shopkeepers and stealing cars — it didn't take long to wrest control from the thugs. But Hebron, where 600 Palestinian forces rolled up over the weekend in shiny new white pick-up trucks, is far more dangerous, because it is a stronghold of Hamas and also the base of an extremist Jewish settler community. » Read more

October 27th

The amusing term ‘coexistence’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Hisham Nafa' - October 25, 2008 - 8:00pm Many people have expressed surprise at the recent violence in Acre. Particularly amusing was the mantra that rolled off the tongues of government officials, their eyes wide open: "How could such a thing happen in a city of coexistence?" » Read more

A-G orders probe into settlers' threats ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Dan Izenberg, Tovah Lazaroff - October 26, 2008 - 8:00pm A settler who apparently made comments calling to kill soldiers distributed an apology letter Monday, saying he was "in a stormy mood" when he made the comments on Sunday. "I didn't speak generally against IDF soldiers," said Kiryat Arba resident Shmuel Ben Yishai in the letter, having been quoted in the media as saying, "God damn the IDF forces. We wish they would be destroyed by their enemies, that all of them would be Gilad Schalit, that they would all be killed and slaughtered, because that's what they deserve." » Read more

Settlers vandalise Arab graves ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English October 25, 2008 - 8:00pm Jewish settlers have gone on a rampage in the West Bank, vandalising a Muslim cemetery and threatening Israeli troops. Settlers from the Harat al-Jabari neighbourhood in the city of Hebron were responding on Sunday to the dismantling a West Bank outpost by the Israeli army. Four settlers were arrested, including one for allegedly injuring a policeman and two who are suspected of trying to set fire to police cars, police officials said. Settlers also slashed the tyres of two dozen Arab-owned cars and sprayed paint on Muslim graves, the Israeli military said. » Read more

Three Solutions for the Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed - October 26, 2008 - 8:00pm There is no comfortable solution for the Palestinians to repair their domestic affairs other than the leaders abandoning their ambitions to lead. This is a fact that has been known for a long time. However, the problem is how to convince all these leaders when it's apparent how happy Hamas is with its sovereignty over Gaza, and its readiness to give everything to preserve it; the same applies to the others. » Read more