November 29th

Rockets fired across Lebanon, Israel border ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters (Analysis) November 29, 2011 - 1:00am An exchange of rocket fire hit the Lebanese-Israeli border on Tuesday in the first such incident since 2009, coming at a time of heightened regional tensions over Syria and Iran's nuclear programme. UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, said at least one rocket was fired at northern Israel, prompting the Israeli army to return fire. The Lebanese army said Israel launched four rockets in return. » Read more

Abbas 'hopes' for May 4 elections ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) (Analysis) November 29, 2011 - 1:00am President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday he hoped elections would be held on May 4 next year, after what he called "important" talks between his Fatah group and Hamas in Cairo. "I hope, God willing, that the elections will be on May 4," Abbas told reporters during a visit to Vienna after talks with Austrian President Heinz Fischer. The comments followed Abbas' reconciliation talks last week in Cairo with Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal aimed at cementing a stalled unity deal signed six months ago. » Read more

Fatah, Hamas to release political prisoners ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency (Analysis) November 29, 2011 - 1:00am Fatah and Hamas are in talks to release political prisoners in a bid to end all outstanding disagreements, an official said Monday. "(President Mahmoud) Abbas gave instructions to the director of the Palestinian Authority’s general intelligence service, Majid Faraj, to release Hamas-affiliated detainees stated in a list received from Hamas," Fatah affiliated lawmaker Faysal Abu Shahla told Ma'an. There are no political detainees in Ramallah, only suspects held on security-related charges, Abu Shahla added. » Read more

Second Palestinian teenager found guilty in murder of settler family ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - (Blog) November 28, 2011 - 1:00am An Israeli military court on Monday convicted a second Palestinian teenager of murder in the March deaths of five Jewish settlers, including three children, as they slept in their home. Conservative Israeli lawmaker Michael Ben-Ari repeatedly interrupted Monday's hearing, cursing the defendant, Amjad Awad, 19, and urging the judges to impose the death penalty. Prosecutors are recommending five life sentences. In September, Awad's cousin and co-defendant, Hakim Awad, 18, was given five terms in the slayings. » Read more

Israeli Leader Visits Jordan to Discuss Palestinian Issue ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - (Analysis) November 28, 2011 - 1:00am King Abdullah II of Jordan played host on Monday to Shimon Peres, the president of Israel, in an effort to make progress on the stubborn Palestinian question at a time of regional diplomatic uncertainty and fragmentation. Last week, the king made his first visit in a decade to the West Bank to see Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, and is to travel next week to Washington. As postrevolutionary Egypt pulls back from its longstanding role as the bridge between Israel and the Arab world, Jordan sees an opportunity and is using these public visits to make that clear. » Read more

Majority of Palestinians Support Retaining Fayyad as Prime Minister ATFP World Press Roundup Article from AWRAD (Analysis) November 29, 2011 - 1:00am According to the preliminary findings of Arab World for Research and Development‘s [AWRAD] most recent poll in the West Bank and Gaza, conducted November 22-24, a majority of Palestinians (57 percent) believe that Salam Fayyad should be retained as Prime Minister in a unity government. The results were identical in the West Bank and Gaza. The percentage of respondents opposed was higher in Gaza at 40 percent compared to 28 percent in the West Bank. About 11 percent responded "don‘t know"; 4 percent in Gaza and 15 percent in the West Bank. » Read more

November 28th

Israel’s Other Occupation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Gershom Gorenberg - (Opinion) November 25, 2011 - 1:00am “CLEARLY, there’s a war here, sometimes even worse than the one in Samaria,” the yeshiva student said. “It’s not a war with guns. It’s a war of light against darkness.” We were sitting in the mixed Jewish-Arab town of Acre in Israel. The war he described was another front in the struggle he knew from growing up in a settlement in the northern West Bank, or Samaria: the daily contest between Jews and Palestinians for control of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. » Read more

Netanyahu's day of reckoning is nearing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amir Oren - (Opinion) November 27, 2011 - 1:00am Two separate legal processes in the area of public law that are finally nearing completion will rock Israel's political establishment in January, possibly even to the point of bringing down the government. The first is State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss versus Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the matter of the Carmel forest fire of last December. The second is Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein versus Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, whose indictment for money laundering, fraud, breach of trust and harassing a witness, among other charges, is a near certainty. » Read more

When the Judge Is Your Enemy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Dan Ephron - (Opinion) November 28, 2011 - 1:00am War has a way of testing a country’s commitment to civil liberties like nothing else. It’s easy to be high-minded when you’re Switzerland. But when terrorists are flying planes into your buildings, as the U.S. discovered after 9/11, the impulse to deny some suspects even the right to be brought before a judge, a core tenet of any fair legal system, can be powerful. » Read more

Israel shares the Palestinian plan ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Chicago Sun Times by Neil Steinberg - (Opinion) November 28, 2011 - 1:00am One of the odder aspects of the endless Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that the side you would expect to be the more active and effective of the two participants — the Israeli government — seems frequently sunk into passivity. The Palestinians cook up creative public relations ploys like running the Israeli naval blockade or appealing to the United Nations to declare it a state, while Israeli leaders sit around, waiting to see what the Palestinians do next. » Read more