A frustrating vicious cycle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Analysis) September 10, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to approve new Jewish settlements just as a possible settlement freeze was being suggested shows yet again his country’s disregard of reason, a trend exhibited for over 40 years now.

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UN chief Ban: Israel settlements in West Bank are illegal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
September 10, 2009 - 12:00am

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "deep concern" on Wednesday about Israel's decision to approve new settler homes in the occupied West Bank and urged the Jewish state to end all such activity. "Such actions and all settlement activity are contrary to international law and the roadmap," said a statement read out by UN spokesman Farhan Haq. The 2003 Middle East roadmap drawn up by international mediators calls on Israel to halt settlement expansion in the West Bank and for the Palestinians to rein in militants.

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Why stop with Elbit?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - (Opinion) September 9, 2009 - 12:00am

The question is not why Norway divested from the defense electronics giant Elbit Systems, but why only now, and why only from that company? The country that gave the name of its capital city to what the world thought of as a peace process is still invested in companies involved in construction and development in the West Bank settlements - the principal factor in destroying any chance for peace (at least any peace other than the belligerent demand that the Palestinians say "thank you" for what Israel is willing to give them).

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New neighborhood launched in disputed E1 area
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
September 8, 2009 - 12:00am

"This is our answer to the international community's demand that Israel halt construction in the West Bank," Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) said Monday during a groundbreaking ceremony for a new residential neighborhood in E1, a sprawl of land connecting Jerusalem to Maaleh Adumim. The US is opposed to any construction in the area, claiming that it hinders peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

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The Elders' View Of the Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jimmy Carter - September 6, 2009 - 12:00am

During the past 16 months I have visited the Middle East four times and met with leaders in Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza. I was in Damascus when President Obama made his historic speech in Cairo, which raised high hopes among the more-optimistic Israelis and Palestinians, who recognize that his insistence on a total freeze of settlement expansion is the key to any acceptable peace agreement or any positive responses toward Israel from Arab nations.

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High level PA panel to investigate "organ theft" claims
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 3, 2009 - 12:00am

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is forming a high-level panel to investigate allegations that the Israeli military “stole organs” from Palestinian detainees, officials said on Thursday. The secretary general of the PA Council of Ministers, Dr Hassan Abu Libdeh, said that the committee has already started work by collecting all available information about the issue. He said the PA will take a sharp position on this issue, because, if true, the alleged events would constitute violations of human rights.

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The case against boycott
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) August 31, 2009 - 12:00am

How much did the boycott of South Africa actually contribute to the fall of the racist regime? This week I talked with Desmond Tutu about this question, which has been on my mind for a long time.

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Merkel warns Iran on sanctions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
August 27, 2009 - 12:00am

Angela Merkel was speaking after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Berlin. She also called on Israel to freeze its settlement construction for the sake of progress in peace talks. In London on Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu suggested Israel was close to an agreement on settlements. During his visit to Germany, the Israeli prime minister has also been given original blueprints of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.

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Boycotts only harden Israeli opinion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Benjamin Pogrund - (Opinion) August 24, 2009 - 12:00am

The most inaccurate way to describe Israel today is as an apartheid state. That's the exact opposite of what Neve Gordon said on Cif last week. Level whatever criticisms you want against Israel – start with West Bank occupation and oppression of Palestinians, and go on to the domestic discrimination suffered by the Arab minority – but the simple fact is that none of it is the apartheid of the old South Africa. Abundant evidence of this is readily available, in the Guardian and elsewhere.

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Boycott Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Neve Gordon - (Opinion) August 20, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli newspapers this summer are filled with angry articles about the push for an international boycott of Israel. Films have been withdrawn from Israeli film festivals, Leonard Cohen is under fire around the world for his decision to perform in Tel Aviv, and Oxfam has severed ties with a celebrity spokesperson, a British actress who also endorses cosmetics produced in the occupied territories. Clearly, the campaign to use the kind of tactics that helped put an end to the practice of apartheid in South Africa is gaining many followers around the world.

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