Settlers reject Netanyahu plea to respect settlement freeze ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Chaim Levinson, Barak Ravid - December 3, 2009 - 1:00am Defiant West Bank settler leaders rejected on Thursday a personal plea from the prime minister to respect a construction freeze in the territories, vowing to keep confronting security forces sent to enforce the edict. In the West Bank, settlers blocked inspectors from entering a settlement to search for unauthorized construction, the third straight day of such confrontations. There has been no violence, but authorities have made at least six arrests. » Read more

Jenin: Israeli forces herd men into town square ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 3, 2009 - 1:00am Jenin – Ma’an – Israeli forces carried out a wide-scale detention campaign east of Jenin overnight Wednesday, targeting young men in the village of Deir Abu Daif. Israel's military said 15 were detained from across the West Bank, but local sources said troops seized 20 men during the raid. Thirteen were released by Thursday morning, according to locals. » Read more

Breakthrough or more of the same? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) December 3, 2009 - 1:00am Ever since the announcement by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that he will not run in the next Palestinian presidential elections, political circles in Palestine have been witnessing a sort of paralysis. Gone are the daily meetings in Ramallah’s muqatta with foreign leaders, and gone are the almost daily statements by US, Israeli and Palestinian officials. Naturally, with the presidency in deep freeze, the Palestinian issue has been dropped from the headlines. Except for a brief moment when a prisoner exchange appeared to be happening, Palestine has become a nonstory. » Read more

Abu Mujahid: No Shalit deal yet ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency December 3, 2009 - 1:00am Gaza – Ma’an – A spokesman for the captors of Gilad Shalit in Gaza denied on Thursday a report that the Israeli soldier was transferred to Egypt as a step toward a prisoner exchange. Popular Resistance Committees spokesman Abu Mujahid said in a statement that Israel is propagating false information about Shalit in order to force the hand of the Palestinian negotiators. "The ball is in Israel's court," he said, noting that a "deal is not over yet." » Read more

Ethnic cleansing, pure and simple ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times (Editorial) December 3, 2009 - 1:00am Israel stripped over 4,500 Jerusalemite Palestinians of their “residency rights” in 2008. This marks a huge acceleration of a policy that has been in force since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967. In these 41 years, Israel has now stripped over 12,000 Palestinians of their “permits” to live in Jerusalem, 35 per cent or so of those in 2008 alone. It also maps out exactly where the current right-wing Israeli government, which has made no secret of its wish to Judaise Jerusalem, a travesty of history if ever there was one, is heading. » Read more

EU likely to reject Swedish East Jerusalem capital call ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by David Harris - December 3, 2009 - 1:00am When European Union (EU) foreign ministers meet on Monday and Tuesday next week, they are scheduled to discuss a Swedish proposal to recognize East Jerusalem as capital of a future Palestinian state. The Swedes have also called for reopening Palestinian governmental institutions in the Israeli-controlled eastern section of the city, according to a draft of the proposal that was leaked to Israeli daily Ha'aretz. » Read more

Critics of Mr Abbas are rarely a logical or loyal opposition ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Michael Young - (Opinion) December 3, 2009 - 1:00am It isn’t difficult to grasp why the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, elicits such tepidness. Judged by the dual benchmarks of charisma and political success, he fails on both counts. To many people he seems a man out of touch with his people’s revolutionary situation. » Read more

Turkey, the Kurds and Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat by Patrick Seale - (Opinion) November 28, 2009 - 1:00am In launching his ‘Democratic Opening’ towards Turkey’s 15 million Kurds earlier this month, Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan has embarked on possibly the most perilous phase of his political career. His Kurdish initiative could lose him precious votes at the next election. If it misfires, it could even bring an end to the AKP’s domination of the Turkish political landscape, which began with its first electoral victory in 2002. The initiative has already aroused the fierce hostility of diehard Turkish nationalists, who condemn it as a treasonous plot to dismember the country. » Read more

Shattering Israel's image of 'democracy' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Ben White - (Opinion) December 3, 2009 - 1:00am A struggle over land, home demolitions, and an Israeli government working with Jewish agencies to "develop" the land for the benefit of one group at the expense of another. It could be a picture of the illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, but in fact, it's inside Israel – in the Negev. The Negev, or al-Naqab in Arabic, is an area that since the inception of the state has been targeted by Israeli governments, along with agencies like the Jewish National Fund (JNF), for so-called "development". » Read more

Crisis Spurs Migration to Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal by Sarah Toth Stub - December 3, 2009 - 1:00am JERUSALEM -- Immigration into Israel and the Palestinian West Bank is surging after the financial crisis and economic downturn evaporated jobs elsewhere. After years of a brain drain from the region, and despite the lack of a peace settlement, by the end of this month about 4,000 North American Jews will have immigrated to Israel this year, an increase of 33% over 2008 and the most in one year since 1973, according to Nefesh B'Nefesh, an organization that oversees and assists with immigration to Israel from North America. » Read more