Israel stripped thousands of Jerusalem Arabs of residency in 2008 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Nir Hasson - December 2, 2009 - 1:00am Last year set an all-time record for the number of Arab residents of East Jerusalem who were stripped of residency rights by the Interior Ministry. Altogether, the ministry revoked the residency of 4,577 East Jerusalemites in 2008 - 21 times the average of the previous 40 years. » Read more

Peres accuses Hamas of holding up Shalit deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - December 2, 2009 - 1:00am President Shimon Peres accused Hamas on Wednesday of holding up a deal for the release of Gilad Shalit, amid reports that talks have hit a snag over 50 prisoners whom Israel refuses to free in return for the abducted Israeli soldier. "The delay is not caused by the Israeli government but rather by the other side - there are internal disagreements within Hamas," Army Radio quoted Peres as saying in speech to students at Kibbutz Yotveta. » Read more

David Makovsky / Obama and Netanyahu: Lessons of 2009 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by David Makovsky - (Opinion) December 1, 2009 - 1:00am WASHINGTON - The announcement of a moratorium on building in the settlements ends the first chapter of U.S.-Israel relations during the Obama era. There are lessons for all. The move by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is clearly a bid to improve U.S.-Israel relations as much as it is an effort to restart negotiations with the Palestinians. It may also be a counterbalance toward Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, against a potential prisoner swap with Hamas for Gilad Shalit. » Read more

Magazine names Fayyad one of 100 top global thinkers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 2, 2009 - 1:00am Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was ranked 61 on the American magazine Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers list published this week. Fayyad earned his spot, the report said, "for showing how to govern effectively in the middle of a conflict." Summing up his contribution to global leadership, the magazine wrote: » Read more

UN expresses solidarity with Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 2, 2009 - 1:00am Members of the UN Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People discussed the status of Palestinians and the ongoing Israeli occupation on Monday as the UN observed the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed his concerns over the failure to resume peace talks based on a two state solution for over a year and further called on Israel and Palestinian authorities to conduct immediate investigations into allegations of grave human rights violations committed in Gaza during Israel’s Operation Cast Led last year. » Read more

Israel settlers obstruct building curbs inspectors ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News December 1, 2009 - 1:00am Groups of settlers, who have vowed to ignore the curbs, gathered at the entrance to one settlement and said they had forced inspectors to leave. A government official said there had been some "low level friction". The Palestinians say Israel's 10-month building pause is not enough and are refusing to restart peace talks. The building restrictions do not apply to East Jerusalem, where the Palestinians want to locate the capital of their future state. 'Without violence' » Read more

Hamas fighter dies in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 2, 2009 - 1:00am Hamas’ armed wing said one of its members died early Wednesday during what it described as a “Jihad mission” in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. In a statement, the Al-Qassam Brigades said 37-year-old Yasser Sabri Radi, a resident of the An-Nuseirat Refugee Camp, died during the mission. The statement did not disclose further details. On Monday night a member of Fatah’s armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Brigades, was killed when a car exploded in the Ash-Shati Refugee Camp near Gaza City. The Israeli military said it had no connection to the blast.

Islamic Movement gathers steam in Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Dina Kraft - November 30, 2009 - 1:00am It's time for noon prayers in this Israeli Arab city, and a jumble of sneakers piles up outside the doors of a mosque on the top floor of a private high school for the sciences. Inside, the boys, led in prayer by a math teacher, stand in two rows on a soft green-and-beige carpet and then kneel in unison. The $5.8 million tab to construct the high school, considered one of the top Arab schools in Israel with its state-of-the art physics and chemistry labs, was picked up by the Islamic Movement. » Read more

One Palestinian Prisoner Could Change the Balance ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by Jerrold Kessel, Pierre Klochendler - (Analysis) November 30, 2009 - 1:00am The political timing is definitely ripe. This week a major residual source of tension between Israelis and Palestinians may just be about to be resolved - if German mediation finally overcomes last-minute hitches to the long-awaited exchange - a thousand Palestinian prisoners for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. It's not yet certain that the prisoner exchange will go through. Nor is it clear who among the 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails will be part of the deal. » Read more

Spoilers: The End of the Peace Process ATFP World Press Roundup Article from World Affairs Journal by Elliott Abrams, Michael Singh - December 2, 2009 - 1:00am Typically, explanations for the lack of progress in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians revolve around disagreements over the “core issues,” insufficient diplomatic activism and pressure on Israel from the United States, and Israeli intransigence. Such views share one premise: that Israeli bargaining power overwhelms that of the Palestinians and must be compensated for by action on the part of the international community. » Read more