September 29th

Confessions of an Israeli anti-settler bigot ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Bradley Burston - (Blog) September 29, 2010 - 12:00am I needed to hear it. Even though I knew that when I did, I'd be livid. The freeze still had eight hours to run, but in a small settlement outside the shinbone-in-the-throat settler city of Ariel, it was time to humiliate the president of the United States. I needed to hear it. I turned up the car radio. A drainage ditch of a voice. "From this stage I turn to Hussein Obama and tell him, 'The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel.'" » Read more

Lieberman is making a liar out of Netanyahu ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Aluf Benn - (Opinion) September 29, 2010 - 12:00am Israel showed the international community on Tuesday that the country is ruled by a circus, not a responsible government with a policy. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the representatives of the world's nations from the UN podium that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is spreading illusions and silly talk about peace. There is no chance for a permanent settlement for a generation, Lieberman said, and it is necessary to "exchange" populated areas and adjust the state to its correct size. » Read more

Israel flotilla raid could go to int'l court-lawyer ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters September 28, 2010 - 12:00am Israel's raid on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza could end up as a case before the International Criminal Court (ICC), a lawyer who investigated the May raid for the United Nations Human Rights Council said on Tuesday. The mission investigating the raid was not asked to make any recommendations and did not do so. But the suggestion that the case could end up at the ICC -- to which Israel is not a signatory -- maintains pressure on Israel over the incident. » Read more

Israel minister's UN speech disowned by Netanyahu ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Patrick Worsnip - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am Israel's foreign minister said on Tuesday a peace deal with the Palestinians could take decades and pressed his own plan which seeks to get rid of as many Israeli Arab citizens as possible in a land swap. In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly in New York that was quickly disowned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Avigdor Lieberman again exposed the serious differences between Netanyahu and him over peace prospects. » Read more

Netanyahu says Mideast peace talks must go on ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Joseph Nasr - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday agreed to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a summit in Paris next month, a joint effort to overcome the threat of their peace talks collapsing. A statement from Netanyahu's office said the prime minister had held phone conversations with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and told them he hoped "positive negotiations" with Abbas would continue. » Read more

Medics: Israeli tanks shell Gaza overnight ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency September 29, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli artillery shelling was reported overnight Tuesday in two Gaza districts near the border area, medics told Ma'an. Gaza medical services spokesman Adham Abu Silmiyya said tanks stationed along the northern border close to the Karni crossing opened fire toward homes, reporting no injuries. Abu Silmiyya also said tanks opened fire at homes east of the Al-Bureij refugee camp in the Joher Ad-Dik neighborhood, again reporting no injuries. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the Israeli army was not familiar with either incident.

14 justices sue PA over vehicle restrictions ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency September 29, 2010 - 12:00am Fourteen Palestinian supreme court justices have filed a lawsuit against the Palestinian Authority, prime minister and finance minister Salam Fayyad, and transportation minister Sa’di Al-Krunz. The plaintiffs complain that the Ramallah-based Palestinian government’s decision to reduce the number of government cars used by civil servants has inflicted social and financial harm on them. » Read more

New iPhone app tracks Israeli settlement expansion ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - September 28, 2010 - 12:00am With building ramping up again in West Bank settlements after Israel's 10-month moratorium expired Sunday, the antisettlement group Peace Now is hoping to get Israelis more in touch with what's happening there – literally. A new iPhone app called "Facts on the Ground" allows users to zoom in on Google satellite images of the West Bank, where little blue Monopoly-style houses denote the size of each settlement – 123 in all. » Read more

Palestinian eviction threat comes at a sensitive moment ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - September 29, 2010 - 12:00am A threat to evict about three dozen Palestinians this week from their East Jerusalem homes to allow Jewish landowners to build housing in an Arab-dominated neighborhood is posing the latest threat to fragile Mideast peace talks. The ruling in the long-running dispute comes at a particularly sensitive time, as Israel faces mounting criticism for its decision to resume settlement construction in the West Bank after a 10-month moratorium. U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell arrived in Israel on Tuesday in a diplomatic bid to keep Palestinians from quitting the talks in protest. » Read more

A One-to-Two-State Solution ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Robert Wright - (Blog) September 28, 2010 - 12:00am This week’s bad news from the West Bank — the resumption of settlement construction after a 10-month moratorium, just as a new round of peace talks had gotten underway — didn’t much dampen optimism among seasoned Middle East watchers. That’s because there wasn’t much optimism to dampen. For the past few years, more and more people who follow these things have been saying that the perennial goal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks — a two-state solution — will never be reached in any event. These experts fall into two camps. » Read more