November 4th

ANALYSIS / Israel preparing public for a new war in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - (Analysis) November 4, 2009 - 1:00am Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, director of Military Intelligence, announced Tuesday that Hamas launched a rocket some 60 kilometers into the sea, apparently as an experiment. Such a rocket, if fired from the northernmost point of the Gaza Strip, could strike the southern cities of the Gush Dan area - including Rishon Letzion, Holon and Bat Yam - and possibly reach as far as Tel Aviv itself. » Read more

Controversy over draft UN resolution on Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 4, 2009 - 1:00am The UN General Assembly is likely to vote in support of a UN report alleging war crimes in Gaza on Wednesday, but experts say that, if not properly worded, the resolution could close off options for further action on the matter. » Read more

Palestinians who see nonviolence as their weapon ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Richard Boudreaux - November 4, 2009 - 1:00am Every Friday, Mohammed Khatib's forces assemble for battle with the Israeli army and gather their weapons: a bullhorn, banners -- and a fierce belief that peaceful protest can bring about a Palestinian state. A few hundred strong, they march to the Israeli barrier that separates the tiny farming community of Bilin from much of its land. They chant and shout. A few teenagers throw stones. Khatib helped launch the weekly ritual five years ago in an attempt to "re-brand" a Palestinian struggle often associated with rocket attacks and suicide bombers. » Read more

U.S. hope dims for high-level Israeli-Palestinian talks over state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Karen Deyoung, Howard Schneider - November 4, 2009 - 1:00am The Obama administration has concluded that an early resumption of high-level negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians over a Palestinian state is unlikely in the near future -- an acknowledgment that it has fallen short, for now, on one of its major initial foreign policy goals. While still pressing for face-to-face talks between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Binyamin Netanyahu, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has begun to urge Arab states to encourage Palestinian participation in lower-level talks with Israel to avoid a vacuum. » Read more

Short-Term Fixes Sought in Mideast ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Mark Landler - November 3, 2009 - 1:00am For the last seven months, the Obama administration has labored in vain to bring the Israelis and the Palestinians together, pushing for a loose quid pro quo under which Israel would freeze construction of Jewish settlements while its Arab neighbors undertook diplomatic steps to bolster Israel’s confidence in its security. » Read more

November 3rd

Need for US-sponsored Arab-Israeli deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Ghassan Rubeiz - (Opinion) November 3, 2009 - 1:00am Palestinians and Israelis are locked in a relationship of deep mistrust. A credible outside force must intervene to break up an enduring cycle of despair. In the foreseeable future, there seems to be no Middle East miracle cure, spontaneous recovery, inspiration, powerful leadership or any of those signs of self-generated breakthroughs. » Read more

PLO Factions to Run on One Ticket against Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Kifah Zaboun - November 2, 2009 - 1:00am Ramallah, Asharq Al-Awsat-Well-informed sources have told Asharq Al-Awsat that PLO factions are studying a proposal by Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas to run in the forthcoming presidential and legislative elections as one list to confront Hamas, which achieved a sweeping victory in the previous elections four years ago, when it won majority seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council [PLC]. » Read more

Palestinian revolutionary dies ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Omar Karmi - November 3, 2009 - 1:00am Sakher Habash, the Palestinian revolutionary and intellectual who died on Sunday after a stroke aged 70, devoted the greater part of his life to the Palestinian struggle. Known by his nom de guerre Abu Nizar, Habash was a founding member of the Fatah Party and although he supported the Oslo process of talks with Israel in the mid-1990s, he never rejected armed resistance. Violence, he argued, was a legitimate way for Palestinians to struggle for their rights. To the end, like his lifelong compadre Yasser Arafat, Habash donned the revolutionary uniform. » Read more

Obama betrays hope created by Cairo speech ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Craig Nelson - (Opinion) November 3, 2009 - 1:00am It’s official: forget Cairo. Fold up the speech and throw it in the bin, or put it in that already bulging folder marked “Bad Faith & Broken Promises”. That seems to be the unintended but unavoidably obvious message of the about-face by the US president Barack Obama and his decision last weekend to press ahead with Israeli-Palestinian talks despite Arab and Palestinian demands that Israel halt West Bank settlement construction first. » Read more

Jerusalem artists go underground ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News November 3, 2009 - 1:00am Jerusalem has played host to a two-day arts festival with a difference as part of Palestinian attempts to celebrate the city's year of being Capital of Arab Culture. The BBC Arabic Service correspondent in the city, Ahmad Budeiri, joined the audience. A group of about 100 specially invited guests gathered at Jerusalem's Damascus Gate for the evening's programme to begin. » Read more