Gaza truce in jeopardy after Hamas-Israeli clashes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
November 4, 2008 - 8:00pm

Hamas militants pounded southern Israel with a barrage of rockets Wednesday, hours after Israeli soldiers killed six gunmen in new violence that threatened a five-month-old truce that has brought relief to both Gaza and southern Israel. The clashes began late Tuesday after Israeli forces burst into Gaza to destroy what the army said was a tunnel being dug near the border to kidnap Israeli troops. Despite the outbreak of violence, both the Israeli authorities and officials with Gaza's Hamas government said they wanted to restore the calm that has largely prevailed for five months.

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Police trying to disperse East Jerusalem rioters in house demolition row
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
November 4, 2008 - 8:00pm

Police said Wednesday they were trying to disperse a violent protest in East Jerusalem, where Palestinian protesters sought to block demolition of a house. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says authorities went to the area early Wednesday to take down a home that was built illegally. The crowd gathered and began pelting police with stones. He says police are trying to break up the crowd with stun grenades.

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Hamas uneasy over Egyptian plan for unity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
November 2, 2008 - 8:00pm

The Islamist Hamas movement expressed reservations Sunday over an Egyptian plan for reconciliation with the Fateh Party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "The Egyptian plan is a document suggested for discussion and Hamas will not treat it as a final draft to be signed," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters in Gaza City days before the factions were to meet in Egypt.

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A direct and immediate impact
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - November 2, 2008 - 8:00pm

The domestic Israeli political scene and balance of powers have a very strong effect on the peace process and the domestic Palestinian scene. The Israeli balance of power is in turn deeply influenced by Israeli public opinion. The latter sets the limits for how far negotiators can go as well as for how far Israeli bulldozers may reach.

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Israel Acts to Cut Off Funds to Illegal Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - November 2, 2008 - 8:00pm

Ehud Olmert, the departing prime minister of Israel, announced a series of measures on Sunday in response to a rise in violence by extremist Jewish settlers in the West Bank, including a halt to all direct or indirect government financing of illegal outposts. The announcement amounted to an acknowledgment that public funds were still being spent on the outposts, contrary to government policy and despite a longstanding pledge to the United States to remove at least two dozen settlements immediately.

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An Israeli dove's descent from politics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Ethan Bronner - November 1, 2008 - 8:00pm

For the last two decades, the easiest way to invoke dovishness in Israel has been to utter the words "Yossi Beilin." The politician who navigated mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the early 1990s and has never stopped believing, Beilin has a unique place in the Israeli political galaxy, both admired and reviled for his relentlessness.

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Farming Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from New Statesman
by Ben White - October 30, 2008 - 8:00pm

n what is becoming somewhat of an annual tradition, recent weeks have seen dozens of stories in the international media about the difficulties facing Palestinians during the olive harvest season. Ever since the start of the Second Intifada in 2000, the West Bank olive harvest has been extensively covered by the press, with reporters accompanying Palestinian farmers and villagers out to the groves.

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Britain urges Israel to halt settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
October 27, 2008 - 8:00pm

Britain urged Israel on Tuesday to freeze settlement activities in the occupied territories, warning that they threaten the creation of an independent Palestinian state. "Continued settlement construction threatens the goal of a two-state solution to which the Israeli government itself is committed," British Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Bill Rammell told reporters in Amman.

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Livni Abandons Effort to Form Israeli Coalition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Linda Gradstein - October 26, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Sunday gave up trying to form a coalition government, paving the way for new elections in early 2009. Palestinian officials worried that her decision could also mean the end of the fragile Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which resumed just under a year ago and had been a priority of the Bush administration.

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Polls Show Even Split in Israeli Elections
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
October 26, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel moved closer Monday to a bruising election campaign that will decide the future of peace talks, as polls showed the moderate foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, in a surprisingly close race with hard-line opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Neither of Israel's two leading political parties would have enough seats to form a government on its own, according to the surveys, which also showed an even split between the country's hawkish and center-left blocs. That signals more deadlock in peacemaking with Syria and the Palestinians.

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