September 27, 2010

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

Negotiations are in question as Israel's settlement moratorium expires, and settlers begin new construction projects. Palestinians have not quit the talks. The Washington Post says Pres. Abbas has the most to lose from a breakdown, but he says with settlement activity talks are futile. The CSM says Abbas and PM Netanyahu should match Pres. Obama's risk-taking. An Israeli settler is injured in another drive-by shooting. Reuters looks at occupied Hebron. Settlers claim God gave them the West Bank. An AP photographer is injured by Israeli troops. PLO officials say they believe Israel will restrain settlement activity. Sec. Clinton asks Arab leaders to support Abbas. Nahum Barnea says all three leaders have miscalculated on the settlement issue. B'tselem says 6,371 Palestinians and 1,083 Israelis have died in armed conflict in the past 10 years. Israelis are still being induced to become settlers with heavy subsidies. Asharq Al-Awsat interviews Deputy PM Meridor. Raghida Dergham analyzes Palestinian state building.

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Abbas vows to continue with talks

Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, has said Palestinians would not immediately walk away from peace talks with Israel even if it does not extend a 10-month limited settlement moratorium due to expire on Sunday at midnight.

Abbas's comments on Sunday came as diplomatic efforts intensified to try to get Israel to extend the partial freeze on construction by Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Amid settlements impasse, signs peace talks may continue

Despite intense American negotiations going on into the night, a partial Israeli West Bank settlement freeze expired Sunday with no apparent deal reached. Yet there were signs Monday that the U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace talks might continue in spite of the current settlements impasse.

Mideast Talks Teeter as the Settlement Freeze Expires

JERUSALEM — Israel’s freeze on Jewish settlement construction in the West Bank expired at midnight, but Palestinians did not immediately carry out a threat to quit peace negotiations as several settlements resumed limited home building on Monday and American-led efforts to save the talks moved into high gear.

For President Obama, who had publicly called on Israel to extend the freeze, the Israeli decision was another setback in what has been a tortuous effort to help resolve one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.

U.S. Scrambling to Save Talks on Middle East

JERUSALEM — Israel allowed a politically charged freeze on Jewish settlement building in the West Bank to expire on Sunday, but the Palestinians did not carry out a threat to quit peace negotiations, setting the stage for further frantic efforts to keep the talks alive.

For President Obama, who had publicly called on Israel to extend the freeze, the Israeli decision was another setback in what has been a tortuous effort to help resolve one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.

Palestinian President Abbas has the most to lose

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S Middle East peace diplomacy has made some progress, but an early error still haunts it. The president's ill-advised attempt to force a freeze of Israeli housing construction in Jerusalem and the West Bank could cause the breakdown this weekend of direct talks on a final settlement, only a month after they began.

Israeli settlers rev bulldozers as settlement freeze nears end

Tel Aviv —

With Israel and Palestinian negotiators deadlocked over settlement expansion just hours before the expiration of a 10-month Israeli settlement freeze, Jewish settlers vowed to renew building during symbolic celebrations in the West Bank.

As Israel settlement freeze ends, one-year peace plan begins

Tel Aviv —

If negotiators can overcome today’s deadline to resolve a dispute on Israeli settlement expansion and keep peace talks alive, the date of September 2011 will begin to loom as the target for reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

Obama and his audacity of hope for Middle East peace talks

At the United Nations on Thursday, President Obama took a risk by speaking so optimistically about the fragile Middle East peace talks. He told his international audience that “this time will be different.”

The president offered that outcome as a choice, but even so, he went out on a limb by pronouncing that one short year from now, the UN could have a new member: a sovereign Palestine living in peace with Israel. In 2003, President Bush held out that possibility for 2005.

West Bank settlement construction resumes

NABLUS (Ma’an) -- Israelis resumed construction across several illegal West Bank settlements on Monday, following the expiration of Israel's 10-month partial moratorium at midnight.

Israel's Channel 2 said construction would be resumed in at least eight illegal West Bank settlements, including Kiryat Arba in Hebron.

Abbas: Talks waste of time if settlements continue

PARIS (Ma’an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas told members of France's Jewish community on Sunday that peace talks would be futile if Israel's settlement activity continued in the West Bank.

Abbas met with 20 well-known members of the Jewish community at Le Meurice Hotel in Paris, reiterating that "if Israel does not continue the freeze on settlement process, the peace process will be a waste of time."

Israeli couple injured in drive-by shooting

HEBRON (Ma'an) -- An pregnant Israeli woman and her husband were injured Sunday evening in a shooting attack south of the West Bank city of Hebron, the Israeli army reported.

The couple were driving near the illegal Tene settlement, an Israeli military spokeswoman said, adding that both had been taken to Soroka Medical Center to be treated for moderate injuries.

A second car was also fired at in the same attack, but no passengers were reported injured.

Divided city of Hebron shows challenge of peace

The growth of a Jewish settlement next to Hany Abu Haykel's home means the Palestinian needs an Israeli permit to use his front gate.

Hardly anyone visits, he says. Guests need permission to reach the house where he was born 41 years ago, in an old neighbourhood of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank. Abu Haykel's family must trek through an olive grove patrolled by Israeli soldiers to enter the house the back way.

Jewish settlers claim biblical birthright to land

YITZHAR, West Bank, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Jewish settler Avraham Binyamin says any Israeli withdrawal from occupied land would be like severing a limb from his body.

As one of some 300,000 Israelis living in enclaves built on West Bank land that Palestinians seek for a state, Binyamin expresses a view held by many that the area is a Jewish biblical birthright and must never be relinquished, not even for peace.

Israel's West Bank settlement slowdown expires; no Palestinian decision to quit peace talks

Israel's West Bank settlement slowdown expires; no Palestinian decision to quit peace talks.

AP photographer wounded during West Bank protest

An Associated Press photographer suffered a broken rib on Saturday while being detained by Israeli security forces during a protest in the West Bank.

The photographer, Nasser Shiyoukhi, was injured in Beit Omar, a Palestinian village where residents, joined by foreign activists, hold a weekly protest against a nearby Jewish settlement.

During Saturday's protest, Israeli security forces physically scuffled with activists who pushed them and yelled at them. The forces frequently fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Top Likud minister: Obama knows settlements are part of Jewish homeland

A holiday toast at the home of Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) on Sunday evening turned quickly from a festive gathering into a triumphant celebration to mark the end of Israel's temporary freeze on construction in the West Bank.

Thousands of activists from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's faction crowded the lawn outside Katz's estate in Moshav Kfar Achim, where their host declared that Israel should never accede to international pressure when it comes to exhibiting their right to settle in the Jewish homeland.

PA says 'quiet' construction freeze to go on

Renewed Israeli construction in the West Bank following the settlement freeze's expiration will be limited and won't prompt the Palestinian Authority to quit direct talks with Israel, a senior PA official says.

The senior official, who is closely familiar with the negotiations, told Ynet Monday that construction will not be renewed in a manner that would "embarrass" the PA.

Clinton asks Arab leaders to support Abbas

As officials in the US administration scramble to find a last-minute solution to the West Bank settlement building freeze, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has met in the past few days with senior officials from the Arab states in order to promote peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Painted into a corner

The following question shall not appear in the next history matriculation exam at Israeli high schools: Three politicians – Barack Obama, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Mahmoud Abbas – painted themselves into a corner and didn’t know how to get out of it. Who will go down now? The answer: None of them. Not immediately, The only thing that would crumple is the small chance of advancing an Israeli-Palestinian deal.

B'tselem: Since 2000, 7,454 Israelis, Palestinians killed

Since September 29th, 2000, 6,371 Palestinians have been killed and 1,083 Israelis according to a report by B'tselem on the casualties of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict released on Monday.

'We were looking for a nice, peaceful place near Jerusalem'

The housing project currently under construction in Almon offers enticingly priced, spacious family homes with a garden and a view. The surrounding neighbourhood, also known as Anatot, sits on a ridge overlooking the Judean hills, near Jerusalem, a blaze of cultivated greenery in the parched landscape. Residents have a relaxed air, and newcomers who have recently relocated from Jerusalem wish they'd made the move years ago. If I were a prospective house-buyer, I'd be charmed. But I would not be looking here – because Almon is in the occupied West Bank.

Asharq Al-Awsat Talks to Israeli Deputy PM Dan Meridor

Tel Aviv, Asharq Al-Awsat- Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Intelligence Dan Meridor has appealled to Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas (Abu-Mazin) not to withdraw from the direct negotiations because of the issue of settlement construction activity.

In An exclusive interview with Asharq Al-Awsat Meridor said that the negotiations are over something that is more important than the settlement activities; they are over the establishment of a Palestinian State that will provide the Palestinian people with stability and put an end to their suffering.

The Palestinians Are Taking the Initiative to End the Occupation

New York-The concept of building the state or destroying it remains obscure for many in the Arab region – this not out of a lack of awareness but rather purposely. This is why many ignore the importance of what the Palestinian Authority is doing in terms of strengthening the building of the Palestinian state’s institutions, in parallel with political negotiations, as a strategy to end the Israeli occupation.

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