November 8th

My family, the enemy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Jonathan Freedland - (Film Review) November 8, 2010 - 1:00am Back when peace did not seem such an impossibility, it was fashionable to cast the Middle East conflict as a family feud. Jews and Arabs were held to be if not brothers then long-lost cousins – the descendants, of Isaac and Ishmael, perhaps, or of Jacob and Esau – who would one day end their estrangement in an embrace. After the collapse of the Oslo peace process, a second intifada and a lethal military offensive in Gaza, you don't hear that kind of talk so much these days. » Read more

PLO official: Egypt, Palestinians stress to halt Jewish settlement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua November 8, 2010 - 1:00am RAMALLAH, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian leadership and Egypt have agreed that any initiative to push forward peace talks between Palestinians and Israel should base on halting Jewish settlement in the occupied lands, a Palestinian official said Monday. Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization ( PLO) official, denied reports that Egypt's recent efforts could ignore the Palestinian demand on settlement freeze in the West Bank. Egypt "wants a solution to all final-status issues, and not to seek a partial one," Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine Radio. » Read more

Dispatches From New Orleans on the JFNA General Assembly ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Josh Nathan-Kazis - November 5, 2010 - 12:00am Vice President Joe Biden reaffirmed the Obama administration’s support for Israel in an address to the opening plenary of the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. At a convention marked by its focus on defending Israel, Biden spoke at length about his personal ties to the Jewish state and its leaders, and emphasized the administration’s support for JFNA’s newly announced efforts to combat what it calls the delegitimization of Israel. » Read more

Israel artists boycott new theater in settlement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Karin Laub - November 8, 2010 - 1:00am JERUSALEM — An artists' boycott of a $11 million performing arts center opening Monday in the Jewish settlement of Ariel is giving a new twist to a pressing question — where should Israel's permanent borders run? Leading Israeli playwrights, actors and artists say they will not cross the "Green Line" — Israel's frontier before it captured the West Bank in 1967 — to perform in the new theater in Ariel, an Israeli enclave of 19,000 people. The artists wrote in a letter explaining the boycott that Ariel was built in the heart of a war-won land to prevent creation of a Palestinian state. » Read more

PA: Israel raided thousands of homes in October ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 6, 2010 - 12:00am The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Detainees' Affairs said Israeli forces detained 403 Palestinians and raided 2148 homes across the West Bank during October. In a report released Saturday, the ministry said Israeli soldiers intimidated and assaulted residents, destroying the contents of homes during the raids. Of those detained, 95 percent had been assaulted in front of their families and were beaten en route to detention centers in Israeli military jeeps. » Read more

Stressed out Gazans need therapists, pop pills ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal al-Mughrabi - November 8, 2010 - 1:00am JABALYA, Gaza Strip, Nov 8 (Reuters) - If ever there was a little corner of the world where trauma therapists hanging out their shingle should do a boom business, it has to be Gaza. Take, for example, Samira, a 43-year-old schoolteacher and mother of five who lived too close to a Hamas security complex bombed repeatedly during Israel's December 2008-January 2009 cross-border offensive. » Read more

After the Midterm Elections: A Different Man in the White House! ATFP World Press Roundup Article from by Raghida Dergham - (Opinion) November 5, 2010 - 12:00am New York-Domestic affairs, and especially the economy, will remain the prime concern of US President Barack Obama, who suffered a historic defeat at the midterm elections this week. And US public opinion will remain angry, seeking change and demanding that their government take every measure that would place “America first”. » Read more

PA: Israel raided thousands of homes in October ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 6, 2010 - 12:00am The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Detainees' Affairs said Israeli forces detained 403 Palestinians and raided 2148 homes across the West Bank during October. In a report released Saturday, the ministry said Israeli soldiers intimidated and assaulted residents, destroying the contents of homes during the raids. Of those detained, 95 percent had been assaulted in front of their families and were beaten en route to detention centers in Israeli military jeeps. » Read more

Israeli police, Bedouin clash at mosque demolition ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 8, 2010 - 1:00am Israeli police on Sunday arrested five people protesting the demolition of a mosque in the Bedouin city of Rahat in southern Israel. Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said the protestors had thrown rocks at the police, who were providing security for civil authority workers who were taking down the structure. The mosque had been built without the necessary permission, and was earmarked for demolition under a court order. According to Rosenfeld, Rahat inhabitants had rejected compromise proposals to build the mosque in another location. » Read more

Abbas: We will have final word ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 8, 2010 - 1:00am Palestinians will have the final word if negotiations with Israel fail, President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday. Speaking at the first Sir Bani Yas Forum on Peace and Global Security in Abu Dhabi, Abbas said Palestinians had complied with a number of international resolutions, while Israel had not complied with any. "We met our obligations, but you [Israel] did not, and so we will be discharged from obligations." » Read more