October 10th

Abbas arrives in Colombia for official visit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency October 10, 2011 - 12:00am President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Bogota for an official visit on Sunday. He is scheduled to meet with Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos on Tuesday. The leader traveled to Colombia after meeting with Salvadoran president Mauricio Funes. He is touring Latin America to follow up on support for a Palestinian bid for full membership in the United Nations as a state. Colombia, which has a seat on the UN Security Council, has argued that recognition of a Palestinian state should come through negotiations with Israel. » Read more

Dividing the Land of Israel into two states is a moral imperative ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by A.B. Yehoshua - October 9, 2011 - 12:00am There is no more problematic concept in regard to Jewish identity than that of homeland (moledet ). Yet, a primal and natural connection to a homeland is a cornerstone on which every national identity is constructed. The connection to territory overrides in importance both shared national language, shared religion and, certainly, a shared historical context. Without a primal connection to a homeland - which is often compared to the primal maternal bond - national identity is shaky and hollow. » Read more

The “Peace Process” is Dead; What’s Next? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Brookings Institution by Salman Shaikh - October 10, 2011 - 12:00am Recent events at the United Nations confirmed what has been blindingly obvious for months: the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process” is dead. Furthermore, with elections scheduled in the United States, Palestine, and perhaps Israel in the next twelve months, it is hard to imagine that any meaningful negotiations can overcome the political realities in each country. As a result, the United States will come under increasing pressure to relinquish its decades-old monopoly on peacemaking, particularly at a time when its influence and reputation in the Middle East is deeply threatened. » Read more

Israel Is Under Attack ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Gilad Sharon - (Opinion) October 9, 2011 - 12:00am The word “spring” is a symbol of blossoming and renewal. But right now the Arab world is filled with demonstrations, shootings, and the replacement of one dictatorship for another. (Except for Saudi Arabia which has announced it will allow women to “vote” and drive by the year 2015!) And, most significantly for Israel, there is a PLO petition for statehood at the United Nations. » Read more

Will the Real Benjamin Netanyahu Please Stand Up? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Daniel Levy - (Opinion) October 7, 2011 - 12:00am With the old peace process precariously poised between Palestinian flirtations with seeking international redress, U.S. congressional threats to funding, and Middle East Quartet incantations to resume negotiations, October promises to be just as rhetorically intense on the Israel-Palestine front as was the long-awaited September. Much depends on one's reading of Israel's man at the helm -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. » Read more

Why Did Tunisia Block Palestinians From Arab Blogger Conference? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Voice of America by Cecily Hilleary - October 7, 2011 - 12:00am Pro-democracy activists attending this week’s 3rd annual Arab Bloggers Conference in Tunis thought they were gathering for four days of networking, socializing and information sharing; instead, they found themselves organizing yet another protest. » Read more

Obama’s Israel problem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Ian Buruma - October 10, 2011 - 12:00am On a rare foray outside his native Texas, Governor Rick Perry accused US President Barack Obama of “appeasement” towards the Palestinians. Former New York City Mayor Edward Koch supported a Catholic Republican congressional candidate against a Jewish Democrat in New York, because the Republican supports Israel through thick and thin - and because Obama had voiced reservations about Israel’s expansion of settlements on the West Bank. In Koch’s words, Obama “threw Israel under the bus”. The Republican won. » Read more

Top Israeli defense official arrives in Egypt to discuss border security ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Jack Khoury - October 9, 2011 - 12:00am A top Israeli security official is visiting Cairo, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Sunday, amid recent tensions between Israel and Egypt over security arrangements in the Sinai. Relations between Israel and Egypt took a turn to the worse in August, when eight Israelis were killed on a desert border road by gunmen who Israel has said infiltrated from the Gaza Strip via Egypt's Sinai desert. » Read more

Hamas fees and taxes infuriate Gazans ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Hugh Naylor - October 9, 2011 - 12:00am RAFAH, GAZA STRIP // Hamas is imposing a taxation system that raises the cost of fuel, permits and government-property leases. The measures are angering Gazans and raising speculation that Hamas is suffering from a significant drop in funding from Islamist supporters. Analysts say Hamas's financial backers may be providing less because they now are sending money to Islamists in Egypt and helping fund Arab Spring uprisings. Also, Iran may be punishing Hamas for failing to publicly pledge its support for the Syrian regime during its crackdown on protesters. » Read more

Fight for Justice Continues Against Violent Settlers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) October 6, 2011 - 12:00am Two of my young Israeli friends, key activists in Solidarity, the folks who for nearly two years have demonstrated every Friday afternoon at Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem where Israeli Jews have been buying up Palestinian property and claiming that the neighborhood is legally Jewish, were assaulted September 30. My friends, graduate students, were assaulted by Jewish settlers in a village near Jerusalem, a 20-minute drive from the center of the city, an hour’s walk from the Old City, in Anatot, once the home of Jeremiah the prophet. » Read more