US official to brief PA on talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
November 17, 2010 - 1:00am

A senior US official will brief Palestinian leaders in Ramallah on Thursday about the latest developments in efforts to renew direct talks with Israel. Chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Israeli radio that David Hale, a deputy to US Mideast envoy George Mitchell, would deliver "details and suggestions" in his briefing. He added that President Abbas would review Hale's suggestions with the PLO and Fatah, and with the leaders of Arab states.

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Half Netanyahu's party against new freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
November 17, 2010 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM (DPA) -- Around half of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 27-member parliamentary caucus have signed a petition rejecting a new temporary freeze on construction in West Bank settlements, Israeli media reported Wednesday. The temporary freeze, proposed by the US, is aimed at enticing Palestinians back to the negotiating table, but at least four Likud Party cabinet ministers are among the signatories to the petition.

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Israeli politics: A lurch to the right?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
by Wyre Davies - November 16, 2010 - 1:00am

Joshua Sobol is one of Israel's most venerated and prolific playwrights. At 71, he is still very much involved in theatre - and politics. He recently took part in a boycott of a new theatre in Ariel - a long-established Jewish settlement built on occupied Palestinian land. Several leading Israeli actors and playwrights are joining the boycott. They say, it represents much of what is wrong with their country; the settlements, the treatment of Palestinians and growing intolerance.

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What exactly does Obama expect from Netanyahu?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - (Opinion) November 15, 2010 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from his journey to the United States with an American dictate: Freeze settlements for three months, during which time speedy negotiations will be held to determine the future border between Israel and Palestine. To soften the impression that this would be seen as giving in to U.S. pressure and to make it easier to gain cabinet approval for the freeze, the dictate was padded with political and security goodies, which can be summed up as such: stealth military aircraft in exchange for an end to Netanyahu's evasive tactics.

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Netanyahu poised to win razor-thin support for West Bank freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - November 15, 2010 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will apparently be able to muster a majority of his diplomatic-security cabinet to approve an additional 90-day freeze on West Bank settlement construction in exchange for an incentive package from the United States. But Netanyahu's majority will be a razor-thin one, made possible only by Shas ministers' agreement to either abstain or absent themselves from the vote.

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Livni: Government suffers from political schizophrenia
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
November 12, 2010 - 1:00am

"I heard (Foreign Minister Avigdor) Lieberman say that whoever thinks peace with Syria can be achieved is a political hypochondriac. If we're already talking in psychiatric terms, I think a government that says this one day and then talks of peace with Syria and the Palestinians the next day – this is a government of political schizophrenia," Opposition Chairperson Tzipi Livni said Friday. During a meeting with residents of the Menashe Regional Council, the leader of the Kadima party said the government "is not being truthful with the public or with itself."

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Bureaucracy causes chaos at West Bank checkpoints
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - November 12, 2010 - 1:00am

Though a Defense Ministry unit was set up five years ago to oversee checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank, these checkpoints are still run by no fewer than six different agencies, and no single body coordinates their work, Haaretz has found.

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Lieberman: 'There won't be another building moratorium'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
November 11, 2010 - 1:00am

During visit to Golan Heights foreign minister adamant that Israel will not be pressured, says pressure must be put on Palestinians. Israel will not accept another moratorium on building in the West Bank, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday in a speech in the Golan town of Katzrin. He reportedly added that Israel will not be pressured, but that pressure should rather be put on the Palestinians.

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Israeli parliament sets to deny pension from former Arab legislator
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
November 10, 2010 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- The Israeli Knesset parliament on Tuesday approved in its first reading of a bill that would revoke stipends and other benefits from legislators who fail to appear at criminal proceedings held against them, reported The Jerusalem Post. One former lawmaker who stands to lose his monthly pension is Azmi Bishara, an Israeli Arab who headed the Balad party and fled the country in April 2007 after being suspected of allegedly spying for Hezbollah during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

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Livni: Two-state solution only way to keep Israel Jewish and democratic
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - November 10, 2010 - 1:00am

A two-state solution is the only way to keep Israel as a Jewish democratic state, opposition leader and Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni said on Tuesday in an address to the annual General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. "A Jewish state is a homeland for the Jewish people," she said. "It's not a religious state or halachic state. A Jewish state is a sovereign state that can take the decisions about the future of Israel but takes into consideration the concerns of the world Jewry."

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