August 10, 2012

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: Egyptian troops are moving to restore order in Sinai, testing a key provision of the peace treaty with Israel: demilitarization of the peninsula. Human rights activists say Israeli forces are entering Egyptian territory in the Sinai Peninsula to intercept would-be African migrants. Hamas says Egypt temporarily lifted its closure of the Gaza crossing point, but only to let people back into Gaza. Residents of an Israeli settlement slated for court-ordered eviction are raising funds in an effort to buy the land from its Palestinian owners. Israel frees a hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner. Israeli occupation authorities in East Jerusalem ordered the demolition of 2 trailers provided to displaced Palestinians by the UN. Pres. Abbas forms a committee to study women's rights. Palestinians say they're going to raise their VAT in September. The PA Finance Minister says most public-sector employees will be paid next Monday. An Israeli military tribunal convicts a Palestinian man in the death of an Israeli soldier in 2000. Israel's largest newspaper says PM Netanyahu and DM Barak are mulling a fall strike against Iran. Palestinian refugees in Syria are fleeing to Lebanon. A report into alleged anti-Semitism on UC campuses draws controversy. COMMENTARY: ATFP Pres. Ziad J. Asali gives his take on Palestinian culture. Zahi Khouri challenges Mitt Romney's account of Palestinian circumstances. Ha'aretz says Israel should cooperate with Egypt in every way it can so as to restore order in Sinai. Hussein Shabokshi says Egypt has to change the way it deals with Sinai altogether. Ofer Shelah says following the Sinai attack, Israel must reprioritize its security concerns. Amir Oren says Israel should be extremely concerned about the consequences of an attack on Iran that is not coordinated with the United States. Brent Sasley says the Israeli left is growing more pragmatic. Kathleen Peratis calls plans for the forced eviction of Palestinian villagers in the occupied West Bank a "human rights calamity.”

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Sinai buildup shifts tenet of Egypt-Israel peace

Article Author(s): 

Hamza Hendawi

Media Outlet: 

The Associated Press

Date: 

August 10, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/sinai-buildup-shifts-tenet-of-egypt-israel-... [6]

Egyptian troops, light tanks, armored vehicles and attack helicopters are pouring into the Sinai desert to root out increasingly aggressive Islamic militants in the most significant easing to date of a key provision in the landmark 1979 peace treaty with Israel: The demilitarization of the peninsula.

Activists: Israeli forces enter Egypt for migrants

Article Author(s): 

Mark Lavie

Media Outlet: 

The Associated Press

Date: 

August 10, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/activists-israeli-forces-enter-egypt-for-mi... [7]

Israel has been sending soldiers into Egypt's Sinai desert to stop African migrants before they reach the border, handing them over to Egyptian forces, human rights groups charged in a report released Friday.

Hamas: Egypt briefly reopens border with Gaza

Media Outlet: 

The Associated Press

Date: 

August 10, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/hamas-egypt-briefly-reopens-border-with-gaz... [8]

A Hamas official says Egypt has temporarily reopened its border with Gaza but only to allow the passage of Palestinians back to the coastal territory.

West Bank settlers raise fund to purchase Palestinian land

Media Outlet: 

Xinhua

Date: 

August 9, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-08/09/c_131774034.htm [9]

Residents of a West Bank outpost slated for demolition on Thursday launched a fundraising campaign aimed at purchasing the land on which their community was built.

Israel frees Palestinian prisoner after 78-day hunger strike

Media Outlet: 

Xinhua

Date: 

August 9, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-08/09/c_131773931.htm [10]

Israel on Thursday freed a Palestinian prisoner who has been on a hunger strike for more than two months, the fifth similar case this year.

UN agency, Jerusalem officials lock horns over trailers for homeless Palestinians

Media Outlet: 

Xinhua

Date: 

August 9, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-08/09/c_131773823.htm [11]

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has signed demolition papers for two trailers in east Jerusalem erected by the United Nation's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Israeli media reported Thursday.

Abbas forms committee as violence against women rises

Media Outlet: 

Ma'an News Agency

Date: 

August 9, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=511322 [12]

President Mahmoud Abbas is forming a committee to study personal status laws to protect women, following a rise in violent attacks against women in the West Bank, state media reported.

VAT tax rise to be implemented in September

Media Outlet: 

Ma'an News Agency

Date: 

August 5, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=510104 [13]

The Palestinian Authority will put into effect a recently approved decision to raise Value Added Tax by 1 percent by the beginning of September, a VAT official said Sunday.

Minister: Most public sector salaries to be paid Monday

Media Outlet: 

Ma'an News Agency

Date: 

August 9, 2012

Source Link(s): 

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=511200 [14]

Palestinian Authority Minister of Finance Nabil Qassis said Thursday that most public sector salaries will be paid next Monday.

Article Author(s): 

Chaim Levinson

The military appeals court last week convicted Wisam Radi of murdering a soldier during the 2000 Ramallah lynching, overturning a lower court's decision to acquit him.

'Netanyahu, Barak mulling fall strike on Iran'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak advocate an attack of Iran's nuclear facilities in the upcoming fall, Yedioth Ahronoth's senior commentators Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer reported Friday. 

Syria's Palestinians flee to Lebanon, but for how long?

At the edge of a sprawling Palestinian camp in south Beirut, Syrian volunteers unload two dozen boxes from the trunk of a taxi. Young boys help carry them into the dark, narrow alleyways where families peer out from underground houses that were bomb shelters during Lebanon's past civil wars.

UC report on anti-Semitism draws ire

Katherine Orr had just started her freshman year at UC Berkeley last August when she was stunned to see five students in military fatigues carrying what looked like rifles and stopping students at Sather Gate.

Another Look at Palestinian Culture

Given the current conversation about issue of Palestinian culture and its relationship to politics and economics, I feel it's appropriate for me to add my own Palestinian-American perspective.

The Palestine Romney doesn’t know

I am a proud American. I am a hardworking businessman and job creator. I am a faithful Christian.

And I am Palestinian.

Much as my multiple identities might drive Mitt Romney to head scratching, it is he who needs a lesson in, to borrow his recent words, “culture and a few other things.”

A crucial alliance

"Peace between the two countries has been, and still is, an interest common to both peoples," read the condolence message from Israel's Foreign Ministry to Egypt after the attack on the border this week. Indeed, we have a key common interest in rooting out terror from the Sinai. This week's tragedy has led to what neither Israel nor Egypt dreamed would happen since the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978.

Who killed the Egyptian soldiers?

The recent terrorist incident that took place in Sinai, and led to the deaths of a large number of Egyptian soldiers, was a huge shock to the people of Egypt. They were stunned by the extent of the attack and the resultant victims, and the sheer aggression of the perpetrators.

Since Sinai Attack, Israel Must Re-Prioritize

The foiled terror attack near the Kerem Shalom border crossing [on the Israel-Egypt-Gaza border] on August 5 is no doubt exceptional in terms of the method of operation implemented, the daring displayed and above all, the target chosen for the attack, which was aimed not only against Israel but also directly against Egyptian forces.

An Israeli strike on Iran nuclear facilities could endanger Israel's Dimona reactor

A foul wind is blowing over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with weekend gusts toward Caesarea. A wind of pugnacity. Before the eyes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and in the spirit of the chants of which he is so fond ("They are frightened"; "There's no free lunch" ) - it's as if a new sign has been raised high, bearing the words: "Strike now!"

The Israeli left’s growing pragmatism

It’s often said these days that the left in Israel not only is decimated, but it continues to cling to long outdated idealism about how to solve the conflict with the Palestinians and withdraw from the West Bank. Also that it’s out of touch with Israelis’ current preoccupations and the settlers’ successes. Avraham Burg’s latest editorial in The New York Times is taken as illustrative of this.

Susiya: A Human Rights Calamity

In 2004, Ha'aretz ran the following story: "Last week, the High Court of Justice postponed for four months the state's request to destroy the structures and tents in Susiya, a village of caves in the southern part of the Hebron Hills.”

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