Israelis and Palestinians find peace on the playground
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
November 17, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israeli and Palestinian youngsters are finding some common ground on a school playground. Basketball games, hosted in Jerusalem by Hand in Hand, one of the few Israeli public schools where Jews and Arabs study together, are giving youths aged 10 to 16 a chance to try to bridge a wide political and religious divide. "I'm not afraid but I'm tense," said Azeza Shiquart, 15, of the village of Jabal Mukaber, in the occupied West Bank on the edge of Arab East Jerusalem, preparing for her first basketball game against Jewish teenagers from west Jerusalem.

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Mayor-elect vows to keep Jerusalem occupied
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
November 12, 2008 - 8:00pm

A secular tycoon celebrating his election as Occupied Jerusalem mayor on Wednesday vowed to turn the holy city into a world metropolis and bolster its illegal status as Israel's "undivided" capital. Nir Barkat won 52 percent of the vote in Tuesday's poll, routing an ultra-Orthodox rabbi, a scandal-plagued Russian-Israeli arms dealer and a pro-cannabis candidate. Media hailed his triumph as a secular revolution after five years under ultra-Orthodox Mayor Uri Lupolianski.

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Settlers Who Long to Leave the West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - November 12, 2008 - 8:00pm

Surrounded by hostility, living on land most of the world wants turned over to Palestinians for a state, they meet quietly in Jewish settlements like this one, plotting the future. But these besieged West Bank settlers, widely viewed as an obstacle to peace, want only one surprising thing: to get out. While the vast majority of settlers vow never to abandon the heart of the historic Jewish homeland — these ancient and starkly beautiful hills whose biblical names are Judea and Samaria — thousands of other settlers say they want to move back to within the pre-1967 borders of Israel.

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Secular, but not so liberal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Daphna Baram - November 11, 2008 - 1:00am

After five years under an ultra-orthodox mayor, secular Jerusalemites finally got their act together, turned out in number at the polling stations, and elected the secular candidate, young businessmen Nir Barkat.

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Obama urged to make peace top priority - Ban
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
November 11, 2008 - 1:00am

The main players in the Middle East peace process hope Barack Obama will make the issue a top priority when he takes over the US presidency in January, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday. Last weekend the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators - the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States - met in Egypt to keep alive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, even though political uncertainty in Israel has scotched hopes for a deal this year.

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Israeli police evict Palestinian couple from home of 52 years
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Rory McCarthy - November 10, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israeli police have evicted a disabled Palestinian man and his wife from the home where they had lived for 52 years, in a Palestinian district of east Jerusalem which is now surrounded by hardline Jewish settlers. The eviction came after years of litigation which culminated in an Israeli supreme court ruling in July ordering them out of the house. Several foreign governments, including the US and Britain, had tried to intervene on behalf of Muhammad and Fawzieh al-Kurd, but without success.

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IDF: Army may need to respond to fresh terror alerts from Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel - November 9, 2008 - 8:00pm

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip may be planning to execute terror attacks against Israel which would require responsive military operations like the one carried out last week, Israeli defense officials said on Sunday. Over the next two days, Defense Minister Ehud Barak will determine whether to reopen the border crossings with Gaza, which were shut down last Wednesday after Gaza militants resumed rocket fire on the western Negev.

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Time to appoint a Middle East envoy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
(Editorial) November 6, 2008 - 8:00pm

In speech after spell-binding speech, Barack Obama made clear throughout his campaign his intention to restore America’s reputation in the world; that, as he told the vast crowd at his Chicago victory rally, “America’s beacon still burns as bright”. In the Middle East and throughout broad swathes of the Muslim world, that beacon is invisible after eight years of the Bush administration’s bungling. President-elect Obama has a unique chance to rekindle it.

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Israel demolishes homes for 'City of David' heritage site
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - November 6, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel has been accused of demolishing Palestinian houses in Arab East Jerusalem while international attention was focused on the election of Barack Obama.

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Clashes as Israel flattens homes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
November 5, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel demolished four unauthorised Palestinian-owned buildings in occupied East Jerusalem in one day, triggering clashes in one Arab neighbourhood. Palestinian youths threw stones at police and a demolition unit in Silwan, where two homes were razed. A house in Shuafat and a wedding hall in Beit Hanina also were demolished. Human rights groups have criticised homes demolitions, saying it is often impossible for Palestinians to obtain permits in Israeli-occupied areas. The Israeli authorities said they were applying the law by removing structures built illegally without permits.

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