November 20th

Gazans despair over blockade ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Aleem Maqbool - November 19, 2008 - 8:00pm "People in Gaza are waiting in lines for almost everything, and that's if they're lucky enough to find something to wait for," says Bassam Nasser, 39. An aid worker in Gaza City, he, like so many others there, including the UN relief agency, says living conditions are the worst he has ever seen in the strip. "People queue for two or three hours for bread, but sometimes there's no cooking gas or flour, so no bread. "People wait in line for UN food handouts, but sometimes there aren't any. The suffering is reaching every aspect of life." » Read more

November 19th

Settler rabbi: The State of Israel is an enemy of the people ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Nadav Shragai - November 18, 2008 - 8:00pm "The state of Israel has become the enemy of the people and the land of Israel," settler rabbi Shalom Dov Wolpe said Tuesday during an emergency meeting on the state's plan to evacuate a house in Hebron whose ownership has been at the center of a bitter dispute for over a year. The four-story building became a flash point for tensions when settlers moved in early last year after claiming to have purchased it from a Palestinian. But the Palestinian denies the claim and Israeli authorities have not recognized the sale as legal. » Read more

Hamas: We're prepared to end cease-fire and confront Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - November 18, 2008 - 8:00pm Hamas' military wing announced Tuesday it was "prepared for a confrontation with Israel" and for the end of the cease-fire with Israel. But political sources said the cease-fire was expected to go on. Hamas' Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades threatened to "turn the cease-fire tables on the heads of the Zionists," they said in a statement. Abu Obeida, the alias of a spokesman for the military wing, threatened that Hamas would "retaliate fiercely" should Israel resume its targeted-killings policy, as some defense officials have said were advisable after the cease-fire. » Read more

Dividing Jerusalem, one wall at a time ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Bradley Burston - November 18, 2008 - 8:00pm There is a new wall in the downtown heart of the Holy City. It is, in fact, a new security fence. It is not tall, nor built to last. But the wall, and what it protects, may do more to undermine Israel's moral claims to Jerusalem than the huge concrete structure that has marred the city's Arab eastern half for years. There is no sign on the wall. There is no explanation for the need of a uniformed guard posted at its entrance. There is no indication, therefore, that it protects construction on a quarter-billion dollar monument to insensitivity. » Read more

Lawmaker moves into Hebron house ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) November 18, 2008 - 8:00pm An Israeli lawmaker moved into a house in Hebron that the High Court has ordered to be evacuated. Rabbi Nissim Ze’ev of the religious Shas Party on Tuesday moved into the "Peace House," a four-story building located halfway between Kiryat Arba and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, a day before a court-ordered deadline for the 20 Jewish families living in the building to vacate. The families, who moved into the building in March 2007, claim they bought the home from its Palestinian owner. The Palestinian has denied the sale. » Read more

Palestinians will need Barack Obama's helping hand ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Yasser Abed Rabbo - November 18, 2008 - 8:00pm President-elect Barack Obama's defiantly positive campaign for change has inspired hope not only in the millions of Americans who voted for him, but also in the billions of others worldwide who could not. Across the Middle East, as elsewhere, expectations are building that his presidency will herald a new era for America's role in the world. » Read more

Churches to deliver Christmas notes to Bethlehem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press November 18, 2008 - 8:00pm The World Council of Churches will help deliver Christmas messages and prayers of peace to the biblical birthplace of Jesus. Christianity's largest ecumenical movement says messages e-mailed before the Jan. 7 Christmas celebrated by Orthodox Christians will be printed and handed out at schools and places of worship in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. » Read more

UN resumes food distribution in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) by Mai Yaghi - November 18, 2008 - 8:00pm Food distribution to half the Gaza Strip's 1.5 million population resumed on Tuesday, although the United Nations warned aid supplies would soon run out unless Israel eases its crippling blockade. "Distribution will go on of the very small amount we brought in on Monday," said UN Relief and Works Agency spokesman Chris Gunness. "The supplies will last days, not weeks," he told AFP. Crowds rushed to the UNRWA distribution centres to try to get hold of the limited supplies of flour, sugar, rice, powdered milk and luncheon meat. » Read more

High in the Holy Land, a Biblical view of peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Douglas Hamilton - November 18, 2008 - 8:00pm When God ordered Abraham to slaughter a son, the angel of the Lord stepped in at the last minute to stay his hand. Was it a test of faith, or had Abraham's imagination simply run away with him? Scholars may differ, but to many Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, the story is as real as the airy heights and rocky slopes where Hebrew and Philistine armies clashed in biblical times, and where they live today. » Read more

Israel renews blockade of Gaza crossings ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - November 18, 2008 - 8:00pm Israel resealed border crossings with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, blaming continued rocket fire at its towns, despite warnings from world aid groups of looming shortages of food and fuel in the coastal territory. Israel had allowed 33 truckloads of supplies into Gaza for the first time in two weeks on Monday, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas he would not permit a humanitarian crisis to develop there. » Read more