Jerusalem Diary: Choir caught in disharmony
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Tim Franks - (Blog) December 22, 2009 - 1:00am

It should be a time of unalloyed joy for Tim Brown. The director of one of Britain's most well-regarded choirs is beginning a six-concert tour of Israel this week. The choir of Clare College, Cambridge, will be singing Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Israel Camerata Orchestra. But the singers have not, as a choir, been able to perform in East Jerusalem or Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, after a Palestinian protest against the choir's tour of Israel. The choir has been caught in the passionate arguments over whether Israel should be boycotted.

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Lieberman: We will be building again in 10 months
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 18, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Thursday that the 10-month settlement freeze was simply a tactical move and not a real effort to stop settlement growth, Israeli media sources reported Friday. "It is clear to everyone that in 10 months, we will be building again [in] full force; anyone who understands anything knows this," he told gathered settlers at a meeting in the West Bank settlement town of Ariel as quoted in the Israeli daily Haaretz.

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International law is clear: Israeli settlements are illegal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Iain Scobbie - (Opinion) December 17, 2009 - 1:00am

Eric Rozenman's Dec. 11 Op-Ed article, "Israeli settlements are more than legitimate," is legal nonsense that disregards history. He is correct in his observation that Article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine permitted "close settlement by Jews on the land, including state lands and waste lands not required for public purposes," but the conclusions he then draws are flatly wrong.

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Palestinian village caught amid Israel settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Ben Hubbard - December 17, 2009 - 1:00am

The head of this Palestinian village can't scan the horizon without being reminded of everything his people have lost. From the roof of the village council building, Abdelnasser Bedawi can see six of the nine Israeli settlements and outposts that have sprung up on the surrounding hills in the last three decades, fencing in the village and keeping it from two-thirds of its land.

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Haaretz exclusive: Olmert's plan for peace with the Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - December 17, 2009 - 1:00am

Former prime minister Ehud Olmert proposed giving the Palestinians land from communities bordering the Gaza Strip and from the Judean Desert nature reserve in exchange for settlement blocs in the West Bank. According to the map proposed by Olmert, which is being made public here for the first time, the future border between Israel and the Gaza Strip would be adjacent to kibbutzim and moshavim such as Be'eri, Kissufim and Nir Oz, whose fields would be given to the Palestinians.

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Four Myths About the Mideast and Real Estate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) December 17, 2009 - 1:00am

‘Take not heed unto all words that are spoken,” the wise old preacher Ecclesiastes wrote. You might find to your grief that people don’t always say what they mean — or worse, that they do. In that spirit, here’s a quick primer to some common sayings in circulation these days and what they really mean. Myth No. 1: Israeli settlements in the territories aren’t the problem preventing peace. The problem is Arab refusal to accept Israel’s legitimacy as a Jewish state.

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Stand-off over Palestinian demo in Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
December 17, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli police surrounded the French cultural centre in mostly Arab east Jerusalem on Thursday, apparently to detain the organiser of a Palestinian cultural event, a French diplomat said. Around 50 people, including officials from the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA), took part at an event at the centre in honour of Jerusalem's selection as the 2009 "capital of Arab culture" by UNESCO and the Arab League.

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Abbas: Israel wants to expel Palestinians from Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 17, 2009 - 1:00am

Israel is attempting to expel Palestinians from East Jerusalem, President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday evening. Speaking at the closing event of the Al-Quds Capital of Arab Culture festival in Nablus, Abbas said, “Jerusalem is suffering an unprecedented settlement attack aimed at eliminating its identity, separating it from its surroundings and suffocating every activity in order to achieve one goal, which is expulsion, and this will not be allowed to happen.” “There is no Palestine without Jerusalem no one will accept this. Without Jerusalem there will be no peace,” he also said.

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Palestinian leaders to extend President Mahmoud Abbas's term indefinitely
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - December 16, 2009 - 1:00am

The Palestinian Liberation Organization's ruling Central Council gathered here this week to extend the soon-to-expire term of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a session that promised to say as much about the drift and division in Palestinian politics as about the 74-year-old leader's standing.

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Abbas to Haaretz: Peace possible in 6 months if Israel freezes all settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - December 16, 2009 - 1:00am

If Israel completely halts construction in the settlements, negotiations with the Palestinians on a final-status agreement can be completed within six months, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Haaretz Tuesday, adding that Israel needn't declare the freeze, just carry it out. Abbas, who appeared self-assured and upbeat during the exclusive interview, said the Palestinians had no preconditions for talks with Israel but wanted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet his obligations to the road map, which calls for a cessation of construction in the settlements.

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