ATFP News Roundup December 6, 2017

News:

President Donald Trump will announce on Wednesday that the United States recognizesJerusalem as the capital of Israel and will move its embassy there, breaking with longtime U.S. policy and potentially threatening regional stability. (Reuters/Washington Post/AP/New York Times/The National/Foreign Policy/Times of Israel)

Hours before US Pres. Trump is expected to announce his decision to move the American embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognized the Israeli-occupied city as the official capital of Israel, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, in a last-ditch-effort, is reportedly pleading to the United Nations to stop the move. (Ma'an)

Palestinians seethed with anger and a sense of betrayal over U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize the disputed city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. (Reuters)

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian Authority Pres. Abbas agreed Wednesday that Palestinians had to stage a protest against an expected announcement the same evening by President Donald Trump stating that the US recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. (Ynet/Times of Israel)

Pres. Trump’s move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Wednesday could have deep repercussions across the region. (AP)

Jewish groups in the U.S. expressed deep concern and dismay following Tuesday evening's announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump that he intends to move the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. (Ha'aretz)

The patriarchs and heads of all the churches in Jerusalem on Wednesday delivered  a last-minute plea to US President Donald Trump, urging him not to change US policy toward Jerusalem for fear this could cause “irreparable harm.” (Times of Israel)

Pope Francis called on Wednesday for the status quo of Jerusalem to be respected and for “wisdom and prudence” to prevail to avoid further conflict, hours before the expected announcement that the United States is recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. (AP)

British PM Theresa May said she intends to speak to U.S. President Donald Trump about the status of Jerusalem, which she said should be determined as part of a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. (Ha'aretz)

U.S. plans to move its Israel embassy to Jerusalem are a sign of incompetence and failure, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

China expressed concern on Wednesday about U.S. President Donald Trump's reported intention to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocate the U.S. Embassy to the ancient city, saying it could spark new hostility. (Reuters)

Palestinians protest U.S. embassy plan, as Israelis brace for violence. (New York Times)

The New York Times looks at why Jerusalem is contested. (New York Times)

As President Donald Trump prepares to address the issue of Jerusalem in a White House speech, the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem instructed U.S. officials not to travel to the Old City or West Bank in the face of reports that there will be protests. (JTA)

Sec. Tillerson touts ‘good opportunity’ for Mideast peace despite criticism of U.S. policy shift on Jerusalem. (Washington Post/Times of Israel)

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot met with top military officers in the West Bank on Wednesdaymorning amid calls by groups for violence in the region over an expected American announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. (Times of Israel)

US Vice President Mike Pence said on Wednesday he would visit Bethlehem despite the tense relations between Palestine and the United States. (PNN)

Israeli army forces have temporarily closed off the entrance to a Jenin-area town in the northern occupied West Bank, allegedly in response to shots fired at an Israeli settler bus near the village. (Ma'an)

The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill that would reduce U.S. funding for the Palestinians unless their official bodies stop subsidizing families of killers of Israelis. (JTA)

France accused the Syrian government on Wednesday of obstructing U.N.-led peace talks with its refusal to return to Geneva and called on Russia not to shirk its responsibilities to get Damascus to the negotiating table. (Reuters)

Talks on ending the six-year war in Syria resumed on Wednesday with no sign of President Bashar al-Assad's delegation returning to the negotiations in Geneva after they walked out last week. (Reuters)

Commentary:

The New York Times says moving the American embassy to Jerusalem is almost certain to anger the Palestinians and most Arab nations. (New York Times)

Emma Green says President Trump’s announcement on the status of the holy city may be perceived as a threat to sacred space—and could spark a crisis across the Middle East. (The Atlantic)

H.A. Hellyer explains why Pres. Trump's decision on Jerusalem changes very little at all. (The National)

Dana H. Allin and Steven N. Simon say the most basic requirement in the Holy Land is to do no harm, thus following in the tradition of past presidents. (Foreign Affairs)

Nir Hasson says over 300,000 Palestinians currently live in Jerusalem without citizenship rights, a situation the U.S. move could inadvertently force Israel to address. (Ha'aretz)

Ha'aretz says instead of unilateral declarations favoring one side, the goal must be  West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. (Ha'aretz)

Avi Issacharoff says Pres. Abbas is leading the charge against American plans to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the embassy; if violence ensues, it will have stemmed from the top. (Times of Israel)

David Greene explains why the world doesn’t recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. (Ha'aretz)

Shmuel Rosner says of course Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. (New York Times)

Eliora Katz makes the Zionist case against an Embassy move. (Wall Street Journal)

Bradley Burston says the biggest loser in Pres. Trump's high-stakes Jerusalem embassy decision is PM Netanyahu. (Ha'aretz) 

Akiva Eldar asks if settlers could stay in a future Palestinian state. (Al-Monitor)

Thomas Friedman says obsession with Iran is driving the Mideast and the U.S.c crazy. (New York Times)

ATFP News Roundup November 2, 2016

News:

Italian President Sergio Mattarella expressed on Tuesday his appreciation for the link between his country and Palestine during his first visit to the occupied Palestinian territory. (Ma'an/Times of Israel)

A mountainous Palestinian community in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Al Jab'a differs in many ways from surrounding Israeli settlements but it shares one worry with its neighbors – a shortage of water. (Reuters)

PM Netanyahu says heads "most sympathetic government toward settlements" ever. (Ha'aretz)

Palestinian Authority security forces reportedly attempted to prevent an attack by one of its officers on Israeli soldiers at a West Bank checkpoint. (Ma'an/Times of Israel)

Israeli Nature and Parks Authority forces demolished several graves inside a Palestinian cemetery in occupied East Jerusalem on Tuesday morning, according to local sources.  (Ma'an)

Clashes broke out between Palestinian youth and Israeli forces on Tuesday afternoon near al-Quds University in the Jerusalem district town of Abu Dis. (Ma'an)

The Palestinian soccer chief said Tuesday he would appeal to the world’s top sports court if the soccer world body FIFA fails to punish Israel over clubs based in the West Bank. (Times of Israel)

Israeli media reported that Israeli security forces “thwarted a potential stabbing attack,” after they stopped a Palestinian woman who allegedly had knives in her possession near the Ibrahimi mosque in the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron. (Ma'an)

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday a Western failure to rein in violent Islamists in Syria had indefinitely delayed the resumption of peace talks. (Reuters)

All sides fighting over the Syrian city of Aleppo may be committing war crimes through indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Meeting reporters, Mr. Assad radiated confidence that he was firmly in control of his country, declaring that he planned to remain president until his term ends in 2021. (New York Times)

After Islamic State conquered villages in northern Iraq, it spelled out in minute detail the rules of its self-proclaimed caliphate, from beard length to alms to guidelines for taking women as sex slaves. (Reuters)

Islamic State militants killed 40 former members of the Iraqi Security Forces near Mosul on Saturday and threw their bodies in the Tigris river, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday, citing reports from the field. (Reuters)

Iraqi forces battled Islamic State fighters on the eastern edge of Mosul on Tuesday as the two-week campaign to recapture the jihadists' last main bastion in Iraq entered a new phase of urban warfare. (Reuters)

Saudi Arabia has injected more than $25 billion into the faltering Egyptian economy in two years, but ties between the two most influential Sunni nations are fraying. (New York Times)

Commentary:

Akiva Eldar says Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman's "carrot-and-stick" plan promises Palestinians big punishments alongside negligible benefits, very much like the policies of the European colonial powers in Africa. (

Mohammed Othman says Hamas has released Zaki al-Sakani from prison, raising questions of whether it was part of a deal between Hamas and Mohammed Dahlan, with whom it just restored relations. (Al-Monitor)

The Washington Post says President Erdogan tramples free expression in a colossal purge. (Washington Post)

Antoun Issa says Lebanon has a new president, not that it matters. (Foreign Policy)

Abdul Rahman Al Rashed says during the years ahead, whether the war continues or peace prevails, it will not be easy for Houthis to impose themselves as a dominating power. (Al Arabiya)

ATFP News Roundup October 31, 2016

News:

Following the United States’ reelection to the United Nations Human Rights Council, U.S. Secretary of John Kerry criticized the body for its “biased focus on Israel.” (JTA/Times of Israel)

Leaders of Hamas announced that they had offered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a “complete vision” to achieving reconciliation between Hamas and the ruling Fatah movement. (Ma'an)

Pres. Abbas' Political Rival Dahlan Says He Won't Seek Palestinian Presidency, Backs Jailed Barghouti. (Ha'aretz)

Three Israeli Border Police officers were injured in a car ramming attack near Hebron, the fifth attempted West Bank attack in two days. (JTA)

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announced that Kuwait would be donating $5 million to the organization. (Ma'an)

A Palestinian allegedly carrying out a car-ramming attack was killed by Israeli forces near the village of Beit Ummar in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron early on Sundayevening. (Ma'an)

The Israeli Foreign Ministry says relocating illegal West Bank outpost to abandoned Palestinian land would harm Israel. (Ha'aretz)

Israeli authorities have banned 5-year-old Ibrahim from visiting his father, Palestinian Muhammad Ahmad Abd al-Fatah Abu Fanunah, in prison, Abu Fanunah’s wife said to Voice of Prisoners (Sawt al-Asra) radio on Sunday. (Ma'an)

A prominent Israeli journalist and author quit his job on Sunday after a second woman accused him of sexual harassment, the first having been persuaded to go public by the raft of sexual assault allegations against U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. (Reuters/New York Times/JTA/Ha'aretz)

Iraqi troops and security forces edged closer to Mosul on two southern fronts on Sunday but a leader of the Shi'ite militias newly participating in the offensive warned that the battle for Islamic State's Iraq stronghold would be long and grueling. (Reuters)

Iraqi federal policemen stood over the corpse of an Islamic State suicide bomber covered by a curtain. The chain attached to his ankle was tied to a car that had dragged him through streets, they said, that were once part of a self-proclaimed jihadist caliphate. (Reuters)

Gun trucks and humvees streamed north on a highway heading to Mosul on Sunday flying the banners of Shi’ite militias along with Iraqi flags while blaring religious songs. (Reuters)

Iraqi Christians, scarred by Islamic State’s cruelty, doubt they will return to Mosul. (Washington Post)

Twenty-six years after being forced from Lebanon's presidential palace and into exile by the Syrian army, Michel Aoun is set to be elected head of state on Monday, backed by many of his old enemies. (Reuters)

An air raid by an Arab coalition killed 60 people in Yemen, including inmates of a prison near the city of Hodeidah, medical sources said. (Reuters/New York Times)

Turkey said it had dismissed a further 10,000 civil servants and closed 15 more media outlets over suspected links with terrorist organizations and U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for orchestrating a failed coup in July. (Reuters)

Commentary:

Roger Cohen says it’s easier to leave Palestinians in limbo waiting for a “peace process” that goes nowhere. (New York Times)

Mohammed Othman says Palestinians are divided over the motives behind recent coordination between Hamas and dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan. (Al-Monitor)

Avi Issacharoff says the PA president has been meeting with the leaders of Turkey, Qatar and Hamas — perhaps because his friends are abandoning him. (Times of Israel)

Aziza Nofal says a recent study found that despite the significant role foreign aid plays in the Palestinian economy, the private sector is not receiving the support it deserves. (Al-Monitor)

Uri Savir says new UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will present innovative and proactive ideas for the United Nations to deepen its involvement in advancing the two-state solution. (Al-Monitor)

Yossi Beilin looks at Pres. Obama's last chance to rectify Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking failures. (Ha'aretz)

Akiva Eldar says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu uses time and again the demand that Palestinians recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people to sideline the issues of occupation and settlements. (Al-Monitor)

Gideon Eshet says the rhetoric between Jerusalem and Gaza may be filled with deep hatred, but it allows both governments to prove there is no solution; In the meantime, the strip's residents are paying the price. (Ynet)

Emile Hokayem says the weakening of the Islamic State will resurface more potent fault lines. (Washington Post)

Hassan Hassan highlights some underlying troubles of the battle to liberate Mosul that should worry the US-led coalition. (The National)

Hisham Melhem says the new American president will inherit a crumbling region, half of it in a state of conflagration and the other half struggling to protect itself from flames. (Al Arabiya)

ATFP News Roundup October 26, 2016

News:

A group of U.S. senators and congressmen have called on a UNESCO committee to vote against a second resolution that diminishes Jewish and Christian ties to the Old City of Jerusalem. (JTA)

A petition urging the nullification of the recent UNESCO resolution, which strongly condemned Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, was submitted on Tuesday to the organization’s director-general by a group of Israeli organizations. (Ma'an)

Without providing prior warning or an explanation to Ramallah, Saudi Arabia has been holding back financial aid earmarked for the Palestinian Authority for over six months, senior PA officials say. (Times of Israel)

International Relations Commissioner for the Fatah movement Nabil Shaath called on Palestinians to begin a full-fledged consumer boycott of Israel in an interview with The Arab Weekly on Tuesday. (Ma'an)

A leading Palestinian daily came under intense criticism Tuesday from its media peers for “normalization” with Israel — a harsh charge among Palestinians — after it published a full-page interview with Israeli DM Liberman. (Times of Israel)

Intense clashes erupted in three refugee camps Tuesday night between Palestinian youths and Palestinian Authority security forces, after a protest over the recent expulsion from the Fatah party of a Palestinian lawmaker was suppressed. (Times of Israel)

The Israeli national theater, Habima, will perform in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, sparking protests on social media by academics and artists. (JTA)

Israeli artists, academics protest national theater performance in West Bank settlement. (Ha'aretz)

Ongoing protests in the occupied Palestinian territory and around the world have demanded the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese militant for Palestinian resistance who has been imprisoned by France for more than 32 years. (Ma'an)

An Israeli internal army investigation into recent incidents of Israeli soldiers killing or severely injuring Palestinians in the occupied West Bank revealed that the lives of Israeli soldiers were not at risk when 15-year-old Khalid Bahr Ahmad Bahr was shot to death after allegedly throwing a stone at a soldier. (Ma'an)

The union for local employees of UNRWA announced on Tuesday that a series of protests would take place in the occupied Palestinian territory after talks with UNRWA reached an impasse. (Ma'an)

Britain and France pushed on Tuesday for the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on Syrian government forces blamed for three gas attacks by an international inquiry as Syrian ally Russia said it was still studying the findings. (Reuters)

Russia said on Tuesday it would extend a moratorium on air strikes on Syria's Aleppo into a ninth day, but a monitor and a civil defense official said that rebel-held parts of the divided city had been struck in recent days. (Reuters)

An elite unit of the Iraqi army paused its week-long advance on Mosul as it approached the city's eastern edge on Tuesday, waiting for other U.S.-backed forces to close in on Islamic State's last major urban stronghold in Iraq. (Reuters)

The United States on Tuesday made its strongest indication yet that the battle to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State could be fast approaching, saying it would "overlap" with an already unfolding assault in Iraq to seize the city of Mosul. (Reuters)

The Islamic State is carrying out mass killings and using human shields. Refugees are being turned away over fears terrorist sleeper cells. Burning sulfur has sickened dozens. (New York Times)

The emaciated frame of 18-year-old Saida Ahmad Baghili lies on a hospital bed in the red sea port city of Hodaida, her suffering stark evidence of the malnutrition spread by Yemen's 19-month civil war. (Reuters)

An expanding military role and tough talk placate hard-liners even as Tehran welcomes Western investment and gradually extends new freedoms to Iranians. (New York Times)

Commentary:

Saeb Erekat says as long as Israel continues its settlements, a two-state solution is impossible. (Washington Post)

Adnan Abu Amer says Palestinian activists living abroad report being targeted for airing their criticisms on social media. (Al-Monitor)

Mohammed Othman says the conference on the Palestinian cause held in Ain Sokhna in Egypt stirred controversy among Fatah members supporting Palestinian Pres. Abbas and supporters of dismissed Fatah leader Mohammed Dahlan. (Al-Monitor)

Akiva Eldar says after the executive director of Israeli human rights group B'Tselem spoke out against settlements before the UN Security Council, the resulting criticism took issue only with his call for international intervention to advance peace. (Al-Monitor)

Shlomi Eldar says actor George Ibrahim appeared at the Acre Fringe Theater Festival almost 30 years after leaving the Israeli art scene and establishing the Al-Kasaba Ramallah Theater. (Al-Monitor)

Stephen Blackwell looks at the possible consequences of a collapse of ISIL in Iraq and Syria. (The National)

Cole Bunzel says the caliphate’s propagandists are digging through the Quran to prove that getting beaten back in Mosul doesn’t stray from the preordained plan. (Foreign Policy)

The New York Times says President Erdogan wants a direct role in the battle against ISIS, but his real priority seems to be defeating Kurdish separatists. (New York Times)

Joyce Karam says the Aoun-Hariri deal is a pact for power and survival by both leaders and a statement of the shifting realpolitik alliances in Lebanon. (Al Arabiya)

ATFP News Roundup October 27, 2016

News:

A new version of a UNESCO resolution that strongly condemned Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinians territory was approved on Wednesday after widespread uproar from Israel. (Ma'an)

Israel is recalling its ambassador to UNESCO to Jerusalem for consultations in the wake of the adoption of a second resolution that denies Jewish ties to Jerusalem holy sites. (JTA/Times of Israel)

A Trump administration will never pressure Israel into a two-state solution or any other solution that is against the will of the Israeli people,' the GOP candidate's Israel adviser tells rally. (Ha'aretz)

Prosecutors in Israel on Wednesday charged 13 people with inciting violence and terrorism after a wedding video showed far-right Jews dancing with guns and knives and guests mocking the death by arson of a Palestinian toddler. (Reuters/JTA)

Two Israeli security guards will not face charges for shooting dead a Palestinian woman brandishing a knife and her brother, the Justice Ministry said on Wednesday. (Reuters)

An Israeli court in Jerusalem sentenced a Palestinian on Wednesday to 17 years in prison for carrying out a stabbing attack in 2015 in which an Israeli soldier was moderately injured. (Ma'an)

Israeli-enforced demolitions in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Beit Hanina and Silwan on Wednesday left at least 44 Palestinians homeless. (Ma'an)

The Palestinian Authority's preventive security service arrested former spokesperson for the Jerusalem office of the Fatah movement on Tuesday night, shortly after he gave a televised interview commenting on his removal from office days earlier. (Ma'an)

The Israeli military said an Israeli soldier was wounded on Wednesday by shots fired from a vehicle traveling in Lebanon along a border fence, and troops returned fire. (Reuters)

The board of trustees of the Jewish Federations of North America reportedly will be asked to decide whether to allow its missions to Israel to visit Jewish settlements in the West Bank. (JTA)

United Nations aid chief Stephen O'Brien told the Security Council on Wednesday that the "buck stops with you" when it comes to ending the nearly six year war in Syria and he is "incandescent with rage" that no action is being taken to do so. (Reuters)

Air strikes by Syrian or Russian warplanes on Wednesday killed at least 26 people, most of them schoolchildren, in a village in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province, rescue workers and a monitoring group said. (Reuters)

The warships were en route to the Mediterranean to bolster the bombing campaign against the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo. (New York Times)

Islamic State militants have in recent days executed dozens of prisoners taken from villages the group has been forced to abandon by an Iraqi army advance on the city of Mosul. (Reuters)

The United States has begun using a Tunisian air base to conduct surveillance drone operations inside Libya, the latest expansion of its campaign against Islamic State militants in North Africa. (Reuters)

Commentary:

Ben Caspit says Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman granted the Palestinian newspaper al-Quds an interview in an attempt to reach out to the Palestinian public while bypassing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. (Al-Monitor)

Moath al-Amoudi says while some Palestinian politicos discuss creating a vice presidential position appointed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as a transitional safeguard, others complain that the next in line to lead must be elected. (Al-Monitor)

Ari Shavit lookss at Pres. Barack Obama’s 70-day dilemma. (Ha'aretz)

Ahmad Melhem says more Palestinian women are marrying prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails in what they see as an act of patriotism. (Al-Monitor)

Arad Nir says neither Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are particularly enthusiastic about implementing the reconciliation agreement between the two countries. (Al-Monitor)

Amira Hass says a look at a West Bank checkpoint 'that provides the Jews land and rights that it deprives the Palestinians of, a violence of the overlord that is intravenously fed into the veins of every Israeli.' (Ha'aretz)

David Ignatius says the U.S. pattern of recruiting local forces, then abandoning them, is at play again with the Kurdish militia fighting the Islamic State. (Washington Post)

Daniel Byman says the Islamic State is failing everywhere, except, apparently, in American politics. (Washington Post)