December 7th

By today’s standards, Rabin would have been considered a disgrace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Chemi Shalev - (Opinion) December 7, 2011 - 1:00am On October 16, 1993, inside the Israeli Boeing jet that was idling on the tarmac of Jakarta Airport, I experienced one of the high points of my journalistic career. Together with my dear colleague, the late Dan Semama of Israel Television, I had been chosen to enter the Indonesian capital to cover the historic meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and President Suharto. Before the encounter, we were to be privately briefed by the head of the Mossad, Shabtai Shavit, and by Rabin himself. » Read more

When Jews in Berkeley vote to cut support for Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) December 7, 2011 - 1:00am Every vote sends a message. Last week, when the Berkeley Jewish Student Union voted to bar J Street's student organization from membership, the message it sent was regrettably clear: The choice is up to you - You can be welcomed as a Jew, or you can speak your mind on Israel. » Read more

Without peace talks, Israel must leave East Jerusalem alone ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) December 7, 2011 - 1:00am As the diplomatic process has sunk deeper into hibernation, acts whose sole purpose is to tighten Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem have multiplied. Thus even as the Palestinians have given the Quartet a proposal on security arrangements and permanent borders in the West Bank, Israel is advancing proposals to change the master plans of neighborhoods over the Green Line. » Read more

Tensions high in Ain el-Hilweh after shooting ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star December 7, 2011 - 1:00am Tensions ran high at the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh Wednesday after an unknown assailant shot and wounded the personal bodyguard of a senior Fatah officer. A security source said the attacker opened fire with an automatic weapon at around midday on Uday Hammad, the Syrian-Palestinian personal bodyguard for the military commander of the mainstream Fatah Movement, Brig. Gen. Sobhi Abu Arab. The source, speaking to The Daily Star on condition of anonymity, said the shooting took place in the camp’s Safsaf neighborhood, a stronghold for fundamentalists. » Read more

Palestinian mission breached ASA code by wiping Israel off the map ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Roy Greenslade - (Blog) December 7, 2011 - 1:00am The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has censured the Palestinian Diplomatic Mission to the UK for carrying a map on its website that described Israel as Palestine. In effect, it wiped the state of Israel off the map. It showed all the land in the region - Israel, plus the occupied territories, such as the West Bank and Gaza - in the colours of the Palestinian flag. Headlined "Discover Palestine", the interactive map was aimed at promoting tourism. Users could click on to various cities, such as Haifa, in order to obtain tourist information. » Read more

'Fayyad mulling PA presidential run' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Khaled Abu Toameh - December 6, 2011 - 1:00am Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday chaired a meeting of the Fatah central committee in Ramallah amid reports that Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is planning to run in the next presidential election. Sources close to Fayyad were quoted as saying that the prime minister would present his candidacy for PA president only if Abbas decides not to run for another term. » Read more

Quartet to meet in Jerusalem next week ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press December 6, 2011 - 1:00am The United States and other Mideast mediators will gather next week in another effort to revive the Israel-Palestinian peace process, but with little hope of even restarting direct negotiations let alone reaching a breakthrough on a two-state peace agreement. The "Quartet" of mediators that includes the US, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations plans to meet Dec. 14 in Jerusalem, US officials said. » Read more

Israeli army arrests 21 Palestinians in West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua December 7, 2011 - 1:00am Israeli army on Wednesday arrested 21 Palestinians in the West Bank, Palestinian sources said. Among them, 12 people, including officials from Islamic Hamas movement and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, were arrested in the city of Nablus , Palestinian security sources said. Other raids took place in Hebron and Bethlehem where a total of nine were arrested. Israel Radio reported that West Bank raids are targeting wanted Palestinians, and they take place on a daily basis. » Read more

Israeli troops kill gunman in Gaza -medics ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal al-Mughrabi - December 6, 2011 - 1:00am Israeli forces clashed with members of the militant Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing one gunman and wounding another in a rare cross-border incursion, witnesses and hospital officials said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the air force had struck two groups of gunmen preparing to launch rockets. But she had no immediate comment on a ground operation, in which Hamas said a small number of armoured vehicles crossed about 150 m (yards) beyond the border, east of Gaza City. Hamas also dispatched fighters to the area. » Read more

NGO: Israel army fails Palestinian complainants ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) December 7, 2011 - 1:00am The Israeli army's inquiries into Palestinian complaints against its soldiers are frequently flawed and less than four percent result in an indictment, an Israeli rights group said on Wednesday. In a report entitled "Alleged Investigation," Yesh Din said more than a third of the 3,150 complaints against Israeli troops filed between 2000 and 2010, were dismissed without a criminal investigation. » Read more