Obama Aims for Middle East Agreement to Counter Iran by Stabilizing Region
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg
by Gwen Ackerman, Nicole Gaouette - September 1, 2010 - 12:00am

President Barack Obama leads Israel and the Palestinian Authority into direct talks starting tomorrow aiming for a big prize: a peace deal that will help stabilize the region and thwart Iran’s bid to expand its influence. Obama is bringing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu together in Washington to seek agreement on security and territorial issues that lie at the heart of their dispute and have defied solution over two decades of negotiation.

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Israel seals off Hebron following shootings
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli forces on Wednesday sealed off parts of the southern West Bank district of Hebron in the wake of an attack against Israeli settlers in the area which killed four. Deputy mayor of Bani Na'im Raja Ziadat, a village close to the illegal Kiryat Arba settlement, where the attack occurred, said a curfew was imposed at dawn after troops withdrew. He added that Israeli forces were deployed heavily throughout the district. Israeli forces are denying residents access to the village and barring vehicular travel on the Route 60 bypass road, the mayor said.

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PA condemns attack claimed by Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 1, 2010 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority has condemned Tuesday's shooting attack that left four Israeli citizens dead near a settlement close to Hebron in the occupied West Bank. "What happened tonight in Hebron was timed to coincide with the PLO's decision to engage in negotiations to end the occupation and achieve freedom and independence for our people," Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said.

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Israel hints Jerusalem compromise in peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Joseph Nasr, Matt Spetalnick - September 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's defence minister said on Wednesday the Jewish state would be willing to hand over parts of Jerusalem in peace talks with the Palestinians to be launched by U.S. President Barack Obama. A flare-up of violence in the occupied West Bank and a deadlock over Jewish settlements there loom as potential deal-breakers for Obama, who will host Middle East leaders for dinner at the White House in Washington.

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ATFP Deplores Attacks on Israelis near Hebron
Press Release - Contact Information: Ghaith al-Omari - August 31, 2010 - 12:00am

Washington DC, Aug. 31 - ATFP strongly deplores the attack near Hebron in which four Israelis were killed. Such terrorist attacks are morally repugnant and should be vigorously combated and condemned. ATFP urges the parties to cooperate in identifying and punishing the perpetrators and planners of this crime. ATFP also calls upon the parties to thwart the objectives of the terrorists through renewing their commitment to a negotiated two-state solution that will put a permanent end to the conflict.


Killing of Israeli Settlers Rattles Leaders
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - August 31, 2010 - 12:00am

The killing of four Israeli settlers, including a pregnant woman, in the West Bank on Tuesday evening rattled Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the eve of peace talks in Washington and underscored the disruptive role that the issue of Jewish settlements could play in the already fragile negotiations. The military wing of Hamas, the Islamic group, claimed responsibility for the attack — in which gunmen fired on a vehicle carrying two men and two women at a junction near the city of Hebron — and described it on its Arabic Web site as a “heroic operation.”

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The banality of occupation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Edna Canetti - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Those who want to know what’s happening know it. The truth screams from all directions. The Breaking the Silence movement publishes detailed reports about the conduct of IDF soldiers in the territories. The same is true for B’Tselem, Machsom Watch, and journalists such as Gideon Levy and Amira Hass.

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An American woman seeks justice for Palestinian husband
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Get the girls ready, Ziad Jilani's wife recalls him saying as he rushed out the door, and when I'm back from prayers we'll have a day at the beach. With temperatures soaring and school in recess, the Jilani family was looking forward to a little fun and relaxation. After Friday prayers at Al Aqsa mosque in the Old City, Jilani jumped into his white Mitsubishi pickup and began driving through a crowded East Jerusalem neighborhood. His family believes he was planning to buy fruit for his eldest daughter and make a quick stop to visit his grandmother.

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Medics: Elderly woman shot dead in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Unidentified gunmen shot and killed a 60-year-old woman in Gaza City on Tuesday night, medical sources told Ma'an. Relatives of the woman brought her into the Ash-Shifa Hospital from her home of Al-Abeed Street in the city center. She was pronounced dead on arrival, medics said. Gaza emergency medicine director Muawiya Hassanein said the unidentified woman's body was taken to the coroner's office for autopsy and that police had opened an investigation into the incident.


Bassam Aramin's search for justice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

On a hot August afternoon exactly three years ago Bassam Aramin was adamant that he did not want revenge for the death of his ten-year-old daughter, Abir, but justice. At the time, he added quietly: "I have to prove my daughter was killed: that is my problem." Yesterday he had the satisfaction of knowing that his three-year fight to do just that had been vindicated by a judge's ruling that Abir Aramin had indeed been shot dead by a border policeman with a rubber bullet, that the killing was "totally unjustifiable" and that the state should pay her family compensation.

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