Report: Netanyahu okays Israel-Egypt border wall
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved the construction of a wall along the border between Israel and Egypt, Israeli media reported on Tuesday. The decision came, according to Israeli daily Ma’ariv, after consultations involving security, political, and financial officials in Israel. Netanyahu believes construction of a barrier will stop smuggling and the migration of Africans seeking work or asylum in Israel. The decision, according to Ma’ariv, was made as a result of an increase in the number of African immigrants crossing into Israel.

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EU likely to reject Swedish East Jerusalem capital call
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by David Harris - December 3, 2009 - 1:00am

When European Union (EU) foreign ministers meet on Monday and Tuesday next week, they are scheduled to discuss a Swedish proposal to recognize East Jerusalem as capital of a future Palestinian state. The Swedes have also called for reopening Palestinian governmental institutions in the Israeli-controlled eastern section of the city, according to a draft of the proposal that was leaked to Israeli daily Ha'aretz.

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Settlers reject Netanyahu plea to respect settlement freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson, Barak Ravid - December 3, 2009 - 1:00am

Defiant West Bank settler leaders rejected on Thursday a personal plea from the prime minister to respect a construction freeze in the territories, vowing to keep confronting security forces sent to enforce the edict. In the West Bank, settlers blocked inspectors from entering a settlement to search for unauthorized construction, the third straight day of such confrontations. There has been no violence, but authorities have made at least six arrests.

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Israel decries proposed E.U. stance on East Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - December 2, 2009 - 1:00am

Israel on Tuesday criticized a proposed statement by the European Union recognizing East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state -- part of the country's growing resistance to efforts to pressure it into reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians in the absence of direct, U.S.-sponsored talks. The draft statement, which the Israeli daily Haaretz published Tuesday, is to be considered by E.U. foreign ministers next week. Its first point calls for establishment of a Palestinian state "with East Jerusalem as its capital."

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Israel rejects European Union plan to divide Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - December 1, 2009 - 1:00am

Israel's foreign ministry said Tuesday that a Swedish-led push for the European Union to call for the division of Jerusalem and the recognition of East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state would trip up Europe's own efforts to play a role in Middle East peacemaking.

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Palestinians accuse Israel settlements of diverting water
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - (Analysis) November 19, 2009 - 1:00am

The Hmoud family once prospered in this arid Palestinian farm village by cultivating banana and eggplant crops, earning enough to send a son abroad for medical school and to build a house with a showy staircase and a two-story window. But drought has decimated the spring that is Auja's only agricultural water source, and fields once filled with palm trees are now empty. Village residents have been forced to find work in the greenhouses near Jewish settlements that are hooked up to Israeli water mains.

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Abbas in Cairo: PA committed to seeking UN recognition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

President Abbas confirmed on Tuesday the unilateral decision to seek UN recognition of a Palestinian state in accordance with the recent Arab Peace Initiative committee’s support, during a news conference with Egyptian President Hosni Mobarak. Abbas confirmed the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to appealing to the UN Security Council for a resolution recognizing a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with Arab support.

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Let down by Obama, Palestinians see few options
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Tom Perry - (Opinion) November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

With US diplomacy seemingly going nowhere, Palestinians are exploring desperate and at best symbolic measures to press a demand for a state that even firm believers in peace among them fear may never emerge. Appeals to the United Nations and European Union to consider recognizing a state that Israel says it cannot accept on the Palestinians’ terms look unlikely to break the deadlock.

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Editorial: Time for action
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) November 18, 2009 - 1:00am

If both Israel and Hamas condemn the proposal of a UN declaration of independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, as they have, it suggests it must be the right idea. The Palestinian Authority has come up with it because nothing is happening to the peace process. It is their way of forcing it back onto the international agenda.

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The Only Hope Left?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Daoud Kuttab - November 17, 2009 - 1:00am

Mahmoud Abbas is in a bind. Faced with a seemingly insurmountable impasse to negotiations with Israel, the Palestinian Authority president can either resign from his PLO chairmanship or come up with some serious, unilateral action to break the deadlock. With hopes that Barack Obama would stand up to the right-wing Israeli leadership dashed, an unwillingness to return to violent resistance, and the inability to resign his presidency of the PA in protest, the Palestinian leader has no alternative but to declare a Palestinian state unilaterally.

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