December 2nd

Bethlehem traders still waiting for Christmas cheer ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Erika Soloman - December 1, 2009 - 1:00am The lights are going up and carols are ringing from Manger Square, but Christmas cheer hasn't spread to all of Bethlehem's residents. While calm has returned to the Biblical birthplace of Jesus, scene of heavy fighting during the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, in the early years of this decade, big-spending foreign tourists have mostly not, say the shopkeepers and restaurant owners who depend on them for their livelihood. » Read more

Report: Barghouti to be freed only if deported ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Roee Nahmias - December 2, 2009 - 1:00am Will Israel free Marwan Barghouti but keep him away from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ? London-based Arabic-language al-Hayat newspaper on Wednesday quoted sources involved in the negotiations for a prisoner exchange deal as saying that Israel was willing to discuss the release – and deportation – of the former Tanzim secretary-general in the West Bank. According to the sources, the talks on Barghouti are still going on, but if Israel insists on deporting him from the West Bank, it will be entirely up to him. » Read more

Israel decries proposed E.U. stance on East Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Howard Schneider - December 2, 2009 - 1:00am Israel on Tuesday criticized a proposed statement by the European Union recognizing East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state -- part of the country's growing resistance to efforts to pressure it into reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians in the absence of direct, U.S.-sponsored talks. The draft statement, which the Israeli daily Haaretz published Tuesday, is to be considered by E.U. foreign ministers next week. Its first point calls for establishment of a Palestinian state "with East Jerusalem as its capital." » Read more

Jewish Nationalists Clash With Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - December 1, 2009 - 1:00am Jewish nationalists and Palestinians clashed in an East Jerusalem neighborhood on Tuesday after the Israelis took over a house by court order in a predominantly Arab area. The confrontation further strained tensions in this contested city, where competing Israeli and Palestinian claims have become a sticking point in the Obama administration’s efforts to restart peace talks. » Read more

November 30th

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