November 3rd

An Israeli dove's descent from politics ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune by Ethan Bronner - November 1, 2008 - 8:00pm For the last two decades, the easiest way to invoke dovishness in Israel has been to utter the words "Yossi Beilin." The politician who navigated mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the early 1990s and has never stopped believing, Beilin has a unique place in the Israeli political galaxy, both admired and reviled for his relentlessness. » Read more

Israel Acts to Cut Off Funds to Illegal Settlements ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - November 2, 2008 - 8:00pm Ehud Olmert, the departing prime minister of Israel, announced a series of measures on Sunday in response to a rise in violence by extremist Jewish settlers in the West Bank, including a halt to all direct or indirect government financing of illegal outposts. The announcement amounted to an acknowledgment that public funds were still being spent on the outposts, contrary to government policy and despite a longstanding pledge to the United States to remove at least two dozen settlements immediately. » Read more

Israeli Settlers Look for Compensation to Leave ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Der Spiegel by Christoph Schult - August 24, 2008 - 8:00pm When Benny Raz comes home in the evening and gets out of his car, his neighbors turn their backs on him and disappear into their houses. Ras is wearing a short black jacket and jeans. His head looks like a coarsely modeled sculpture, with his protruding cheekbones and eyes set deeply in their sockets. He is 55, and he says: "I have lost all of my friends here." » Read more

To carry a camera in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Diana Mukkaled - August 22, 2008 - 8:00pm Anybody carrying a camera in the Gaza Strip is a potential target. This is the simple conclusion that can be reached following the Israeli military prosecutor’s report that was issued a few days ago. The report cleared Israeli soldiers who shot dead Palestinian cameraman Fadel Shana who died on April 16, 2008 along with eight unarmed youths under 16 years of age. Why did Israeli soldiers venture upon launching two missiles towards a group of unarmed youths and the Reuters cameraman who was holding his camera and whose clothes and equipment were clearly marked ‘press’? » Read more

Hamas Seeking to Come In From Cold ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times by Sana Abdallah - August 27, 2008 - 8:00pm Chances of coming in from the cold are looking better for Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement ruling the Gaza Strip, as the world braces itself for crucial changes in political leaderships and power shifts that might also bring strategic policy turns in the Middle East. » Read more

Israel arrests four fishermen from the Gaza strip ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News August 28, 2008 - 8:00pm Israel arrested four fishermen from the Gaza Strip on Friday when naval vessels intercepted their boats off the Mediterranean coast, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. The incident was a rare confrontation since a June 19 truce brokered by Egypt has largely calmed violence between Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. An Israeli military spokesman said navymen stopped three fishing boats early on Friday after they floated beyond Gaza's territorial waters toward Israel, and that the fishermen on board were "taken for questioning in Israel." » Read more

Palestinian laws get overhaul with little oversight ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Mohammed Assadi, Adam Entous - August 28, 2008 - 8:00pm President Mahmoud Abbas and his government are rewriting economic, social and security laws for the Palestinian territories with little public oversight, Palestinian and Western officials say. Reuters has obtained hundreds of Abbas decrees and a five-year legislative plan that could transform the Palestinian political and economic systems from top to bottom, yet which few of the four million residents of the territories have heard of. » Read more

Iconic Palestinian headscarf outgrows Mideast conflict ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) August 27, 2008 - 8:00pm Anti-war activists and fashionistas have carried the iconic Palestinian keffiyeh across the globe, but in the West Bank producers of the headscarf are struggling to compete with Chinese imports. The black-and-white checkered scarf -- which became an international symbol of the Palestinian struggle when Yasser Arafat first sported it in the 1960s -- has since grown into a global phenomenon more and more disconnected from the land and the struggle in which it was born. » Read more

Changing the West Bank Status Quo: A Conversation with Brigadier General (ret.) Baruch Spiegel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum (Interview) August 26, 2008 - 8:00pm The current system of checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank (checkpoints are manned structures while roadblocks are unmanned) was instituted in response to the suicide bombings that began in the late 1990s. The idea behind the policy was to stop terrorists from reaching Israel by having a presence throughout the West Bank in Nablus, Jenin, and Ramallah. As a result, Palestinians must not only cross through checkpoints and go through security checks when leaving the West Bank but also when traveling through it. » Read more

Seafaring activists, Palestinians leave Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters August 27, 2008 - 8:00pm Two boats carrying foreign peace activists who had defied an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip left the Hamas-ruled territory on Thursday for Cyprus, taking with them seven Palestinians. An Israeli official said the Israeli navy would not intercept the boats. Thousands of cheering Palestinians had welcomed the boats, carrying 44 peace activists from 17 nations, when they docked in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. A Hamas official said nine activists decided to stay in the territory in a show of solidarity with its 1.5 million inhabitants. » Read more