Israeli-Palestinian commerce works against the clock ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Dave Bender - July 28, 2011 - 12:00am JERUSALEM, July 27 (Xinhua) -- On a media tour on Tuesday featuring commercial, health and hi-tech cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians, representatives sought to project a " business-as-usual" mien, while, half a world away both sides sparred at the United Nations Security Council over a possible Palestinian National Authority (PNA) bid for statehood at the UN General Assembly in September. » Read more

U.S. report recommends ending loan guarantees to Israel at end of 2011 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - July 28, 2011 - 12:00am An internal report of the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of State recommends terminating the U.S. loan guarantee program to Israel at the end of 2011. The report, which deals with the performance of the U.S. embassy in Israel, says American diplomats have difficulty mustering support for the Obama administration's policies and implies the embassy failed completely in its PR efforts during the Obama administration. » Read more

Israel’s Arabs Debate National Service ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by David Miller - July 26, 2011 - 12:00am Hanin Zoabi, a member of Israel’s parliament, was in the Galilee village of Musmus last week to address a group of teenagers about the importance of national service. But she wasn’t there to encourage them to take a year or two after high school to serve in schools and hospitals. One of 14 Arab lawmakers in the Knesset, Zoabi is a determined fighter for the national rights of Palestinians who live inside the country’s 1967 borders against those in the West Bank. She was invited by the youth leadership of her Balad Party to urge young people not to volunteer. » Read more

Norway attacks spotlight far-right outreach to Jews, Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Uriel Heilman - July 28, 2011 - 12:00am For decades after World War II, far-right political movements in Europe stirred up for Jews images of skinheads and Nazi storm troopers marching across the continent. But in recent years, as European xenophobia has focused on the exploding growth of Muslims on the continent, right-wing anti-Semitism has been replaced in some corners by outreach to Jews and Israel. It’s part of an effort in far-right movements to gain broader, mainstream support for an anti-Muslim alliance opposed to the notion of a multicultural Europe. » Read more

Bill would shut down PLO office for statehood action ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) July 28, 2011 - 12:00am An appropriations bill would shut down the PLO office in Washington if Palestinians pursue statehood recognition absent talks with Israel and fail to take steps to stop incitement. The bill, referred Wednesday by the foreign operations subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee to the full committee, for the first time restricts the broad presidential waiver that applied to the 1988 law that originally banned setting up a Palestine Liberation Organization office on U.S. soil. » Read more

Palestinians fear for ancient West Bank water source ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Tom Perry - July 28, 2011 - 12:00am RASHAYIDA, West Bank, July 28 (Reuters) - Hewn from rock, the cavernous cisterns which dot the desert beyond Bethlehem have for centuries harvested winter rain to provide shepherds and their flocks with water through summer. Under a baking sun, an elderly Bedouin explains how cisterns he remembers from childhood, many of them restored to full working order in the last few years, are once again helping his goat-herding community to survive. That, he concludes, is why the Israeli authorities who control the West Bank have demolished at least three in the area since November. » Read more

Gaza film-makers decry Hamas censorship ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal al-Mughrabi - July 28, 2011 - 12:00am It's not just the dearth of funds, equipment and studio facilities that prompts such laments from film-makers in the Gaza Strip. Four years into Islamist Hamas rule, cultural censors are fraying the already threadbare local movie industry. Locked in conflict with Israel and vying against secular Palestinian rivals in the occupied West Bank, Hamas has long invested in television- and Internet-based news, educational shows and even animated clips that advance its political views. » Read more

Palestinian October elections 'only in the West Bank' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 28, 2011 - 12:00am RAMALLAH (AFP) -- Palestinian local elections in October will only be held in the West Bank as Hamas is hampering preparations in Gaza, a senior electoral official said on Wednesday. Speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, the official said the government had informed the Central Elections Commission (CEC) of a decision taken earlier on Wednesday. "The elections committee was informed today by the government that it had decided to hold municipal elections only in the West Bank on October 22," he said. » Read more

The evolution of Syrian policy towards Palestine and the Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) July 28, 2011 - 12:00am The policies of the Hafez and Bashar Al-Assad regimes in Syria have systematically undermined independent Palestinian national leadership and asserted control over the Palestinian cause and movement. These policies did not arise in a vacuum, but rather are a continuation and intensification of traditional Syrian approaches to the question of Palestine. These Syrian efforts to “own a piece of Palestine" -- if not the whole thing, at least as an issue -- are not unique among the Arab states. » Read more

In the Occupied Territories, Order Trumps Law ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward by Olga Gershenson - (Opinion) July 27, 2011 - 12:00am The audience was remarkably quiet during a screening of “The Law in These Parts” at the Jerusalem Film Festival. My fellow Israelis, who usually have no qualms about exchanging opinions during a movie, or even about answering an occasional cell phone call, sat absolutely still. Even after the movie ended, there was a moment of shocked silence before the audience burst into applause and called onstage the director, Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, and the producer, Liran Atzmor. It was very clear which film would win the prize for best documentary. » Read more