August 19th

UN hails Lebanese step towards Palestinian refugees ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua August 19, 2010 - 12:00am The United Nations on Wednesday hailed a Lebanese decision to lift an employment ban on Palestinian refugees in the country. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA and the International Labor Office (ILO) said in a joint statement distributed to the press that the Lebanese move represents "an important step in the right direction." "This endorsement of the universal right to work by Lebanese legislators is an important breakthrough," added the statement. "It reaffirms Lebanon's commitment to social justice and decent work for all," it stressed. » Read more

Palestinians learn about the Holocaust in Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Aron Heller - August 19, 2010 - 12:00am Growing up in the West Bank, Mujahid Sarsur knew next to nothing about the Holocaust and saw little ground to sympathize with a people he saw as his occupier. But thanks to an Israeli roommate overseas, the 21-year-old Palestinian student learned about the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews during World War II and discovered a new understanding of his Israeli neighbors. Now he wants other Arabs to do the same. Sarsur heads one of a handful of Palestinian grass-roots groups seeking knowledge about the Holocaust. » Read more

UN official: Israel should extend freeze ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jordana Horn - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am In a briefing to the Security Council at its meeting Tuesday morning on the Middle East, a senior United Nations official called on Israel to continue the partial moratorium on settlement construction beyond September 26 and to extend it to all settlement activity, as well as to construction in east Jerusalem. “We are nearing a turning point in the efforts to promote direct negotiations,” Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez- Taranco told the Security Council, in his briefing on the situation in the Middle East. » Read more

Skip the lecture on Israel's 'risks for peace' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by George F. Will - August 19, 2010 - 12:00am In the intifada that began in 2000, Palestinian terrorism killed more than 1,000 Israelis. As a portion of U.S. population, that would be 42,000, approaching the toll of America's eight years in Vietnam. During the onslaught, which began 10 Septembers ago, Israeli parents sending two children to a school would put them on separate buses to decrease the chance that neither would return for dinner. Surely most Americans can imagine, even if their tone-deaf leaders cannot, how grating it is when those leaders lecture Israel on the need to take "risks for peace." » Read more

Amin al-Hindi, Former Palestinian Intelligence Chief, Dies at 70 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am Amin al-Hindi, an associate of the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat and a former Palestinian Authority intelligence chief who was widely suspected of having played an organizing role in the deadly attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, died Tuesday in Amman, Jordan. He was 70. His death was reported by the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, which did not list the cause. However, the Palestinian ambassador in Amman, Atallah Kheiry, told Agence France-Presse that Mr. Hindi had been treated for cancer. » Read more

Rally held for rabbis suspected of incitement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Kobi Nahshoni - August 19, 2010 - 12:00am Dozens of rabbis, educators, public figures and right-wing activists attended on Wednesday a support rally for Rabbis Dov Lior and Yaakov Yosef, who refused to report for police questioning over their endorsement of the controversial book "Torat Hamelech," which relates a halachic perspective on violence against non-Jews. The two, along with other rabbis and the author of the book, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, are being investigated on suspicion of incitement. The rally was moderated by Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira, head of Ramat Gan's Hesder Yeshiva and brother of the book's author. » Read more

August 18th

Last-minute hitch before Palestinians, Israelis launch direct talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by David Harris - August 17, 2010 - 12:00am A statement is anticipated any day now to announce the commencement of direct Israeli-Palestinian talks. However, the news initially expected as early as Sunday has been put on ice as the parties continue to argue about the terms of reference. DOMESTIC CONSIDERATION The Jewish settlement issue is still on the way leading to the direct talks, as the Palestinians are reportedly insisting the statement stressing there be an Israeli settlement freeze in the West Bank and that a final deal be signed in two years. » Read more

Israeli Left, Right academia in turmoil over "threat letter" ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua August 18, 2010 - 12:00am A group of Israeli academics have come out strongly against what they are calling a "threat letter" sent by rightist group "Im Tirtzu" to the President of Ben- Gurion University (BGU) in Beersheba. The letter demands the school offer what it considers equal teaching and learning opportunities to those not in line with what it claims is a hard-core left-wing doctrine among the center's educators and leadership. Im Tirtzu charges that BGU's Politics and Government Department is the most left-wing in the country. » Read more

Bassam Aramin's search for justice ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent August 18, 2010 - 12:00am On a hot August afternoon exactly three years ago Bassam Aramin was adamant that he did not want revenge for the death of his ten-year-old daughter, Abir, but justice. At the time, he added quietly: "I have to prove my daughter was killed: that is my problem." Yesterday he had the satisfaction of knowing that his three-year fight to do just that had been vindicated by a judge's ruling that Abir Aramin had indeed been shot dead by a border policeman with a rubber bullet, that the killing was "totally unjustifiable" and that the state should pay her family compensation. » Read more

Hamas Blames Israel for Mail Embargo ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by David Miller - August 17, 2010 - 12:00am Israel is imposing a postal blockade on Gaza, officials in the Hamas government have claimed, calling on the international community to intervene. Yousef Al-Mansi, Hamas Minister of Communications and Information Technology, called Monday for the Universal Postal Union and international human rights groups to intervene and pressure Israel into allowing mail to enter and exit the Gaza Strip. » Read more