Hamas Bans Women Dancers, Scooter Riders in Gaza Push ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg by Dan Williams - November 30, 2009 - 1:00am The Islamic Hamas movement banned girls last month from riding behind men on motor scooters and forbade women from dancing at the opening of a folk museum. Girls in some public schools must wear headscarves and cloaks. Signs of Hamas’s creeping Islamization are everywhere in Gaza, the Mediterranean coastal enclave that Hamas has run by itself since 2007. Gaza is already politically divided from the West Bank, the Palestinian territory administered by the secular Fatah movement. » Read more

Hamas influence in Gaza is growing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) November 30, 2009 - 1:00am What can we learn from the state's response Sunday to a High Court of Justice petition demanding the publication of which Palestinian prisoners would be freed in exchange for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit? Not much. » Read more

Blair: 2-state solution or 'hell of a fight' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yitzhak Benhorin - November 29, 2009 - 1:00am Quartet envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair portrayed Sunday a harsh picture of the region without a Palestinian state. "The alternative to a two-state solution is a one-state solution and that will, I assure you, be a hell of fight," he said in an interview to the CNN network. According to Blair, the next month "will be completely critical and fundamental" in the efforts to resume direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The former British prime minister noted that it was essential for the sides to sit down and talk "as quickly as possible". » Read more

Case of Israeli chutzpah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Orly Azoulay - November 30, 2009 - 1:00am Exactly at the time when US President Barack Obama was holding the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, Minister Limor Livnat was speaking in Beersheba and badmouthing the American Administration. We have never faced such terrible US Administration, she said. Never before has an Israeli minister spoken out about the American government that way; at least not publicly. » Read more

Report: German mediator arrives in Gaza for fresh Shalit talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff, Tomer Zarchin - November 30, 2009 - 1:00am The German mediator involved in negotiations for the release of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit arrived in Gaza on Monday to relay Israel's answer to Hamas' demands in the talks, the Al-Arabiya TV network reported. According to the report, the mediator was to meet with Hamas representatives later Monday, but the Islamist militant group would only respond to the Israeli offer after consultations between its leaderships in Gaza and Damascus. » Read more

Settlers label Obama 'enemy of the Jews' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 30, 2009 - 1:00am Members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own party held a meeting on Saturday to voice outrage at a declared slowdown in construction of West Bank settlements. Settler leaders were among the 200 members of the ruling Likud party who attended the meeting in the city of Ra’ana inside Israel. The right-wing activists saved their most intense criticism for US President Barack Obama, who for 10 months has been urging a total freeze on the expansion of settlements on land taken from Palestinians. » Read more

Costa Rican president: Palestinians don't need army ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Netanel Shlomovich - November 30, 2009 - 1:00am The recipe for peace between Israel and the Palestinians includes negotiations, honesty, immediate talks on the core issues, and the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state – this is the vision presented by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias in a special interview with Ynet. Arias, who is currently visiting Israel and the Palestinian Authority, boasts extensive experience in mediating peace agreements; his efforts prompted his Nobel Peace Prize win in 1987. » Read more

Israel: 980 Palestinians slated for release ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 30, 2009 - 1:00am Israel will release 980 Palestinians in exchange for a soldier captured in 2006, its State Attorney's Office said Sunday. The office said Hamas will select 450 names and Israel will choose the rest. The announcement came after an activist group petitioned the country's Supreme Court against a swap deal, according to the Hebrew-language daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. » Read more

Report: German mediator arrives in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 30, 2009 - 1:00am A German mediator arrived in Gaza City on Monday to deliver Israel's final response to Hamas' demands over an impending prisoner swap deal, the Dubai-based satellite network Al-Arabiyya reported. Meanwhile, other Hamas sources ruled out the possibility that the movement would issue a response before sending a delegation of its own to Damascus to consult with leadership there. Israel will release 980 Palestinians in exchange for a soldier captured in 2006, its State Attorney's Office said Sunday. The office said Hamas will select 450 names and Israel will choose the rest. » Read more

‘Arab women need not apply’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Jonathan Cook - November 30, 2009 - 1:00am Israel’s finance minister was accused last week of trying to deflect attention from discriminatory policies keeping many of the country’s Arab families in poverty by blaming their economic troubles on what he described as Arab society’s opposition to women working. A recent report from Israel’s National Insurance Institute showed that half of all Arab families in Israel are classified as poor compared with just 14 per cent of Jewish families. » Read more