August 13, 2012

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: The US and Egypt increase security talks after the Sinai attack. The Israeli tourism industry is booming. Memorials for victims of suicide attacks proliferate on a road in Jaffa. The Knesset is considering a bill that would segregate prayer times at the al-Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. Palestinians remain divided over an official's visit to Auschwitz. More Gaza families visit relatives in Israeli prison. 11 Palestinians are killed and many more injured in a car pileup at Bala junction east of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank. A Palestinian media watchdog group says violations of media freedoms in the occupied territories were slightly lower in 2012 and 2011, the bulk still being committed by Israeli occupation authorities. Another Egyptian military official suggests Hamas probably knew about the Sinai attack in advance. Rhetoric and pro forma preparations for a potential attack on Iran are in full swing in Israel. Former Israeli settlers evacuated from Gaza are growing distant from the settler movement. COMMENTARY: Amira Hass says Palestinians are moving to exercise authority in “Area C.” Akiva Eldar says it's amazing that many Israelis still prefer the prospect of regional war over peace. Carlo Strenger says if things continue as they are, by the end of PM Netanyahu's term in office, the two-state solution will be dead as he has intended all along. Eitan Haber says Israel's present core of leadership lacks the experience to make momentous decisions such as those regarding Iran. Nathan Guttman looks at efforts in Congress to raise the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab states to offset the Palestinian refugee final status issue. Ben Caspit asks if Netanyahu and DM Barak are really determined to attack Iran, and Dimi Reider says military officials may defy them anyway. Brandon Davis looks at competing Israeli and Palestinian views of an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank built on privately owned Palestinian land. Pierre Klochendler looks at how Israelis and Palestinians struggle over archaeology and its interpretation in occupied East Jerusalem.

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After Sinai Attack, U.S. and Egypt Step Up Talks on Security

In the wake of the attack that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers near the border with Israel last Sunday, the United States and Egypt are negotiating a package of assistance to address what administration officials described as a worsening security vacuum in the Sinai Peninsula.

Despite rocky region, Israeli tourism booming

It's priming for a risky showdown with Iran over its suspected nuclear program, concerned about neighboring Syria's bloody civil war spilling across the border and dealing with terrorists attempting to infiltrate from Egypt's lawless Sinai Peninsula.

But that doesn't seem to be deterring hundreds of thousands of tourists from flocking to Israel each month. Despite the region's turmoil, Israel is enjoying an unexpected tourism boom, and 2012 is shaping up to be a record year.

On Jerusalem’s Jaffa Road, an artist evokes mood at time of suicide attacks

It was a tour that could happen only here: a stroll to the sites of Palestinian suicide bombings up and down Jaffa Road, Jerusalem’s main thoroughfare, which has the dubious distinction of being the street hit by the most such attacks anywhere in the world.

The guide was a young Israeli performance artist, Yossi Atia, and the tour was an attempt to map the trauma and explore the scars left by the attacks, which have dwindled since their peak about a decade ago, receding from the day-to-day consciousness of most Israelis.

New Israeli bill calls to divide prayer times for Jews, Muslims at Jerusalem holy site

A new bill introduced to the Israeli Knesset parliament Sunday suggested dividing prayer times at the Temple Mount holy site in Jerusalem.

The bill was introduced by Knesset member Arye Eldad, from the right-wing National Union party, reported The Jerusalem Post.

According to the legal proposal, the bill seeks to implement " freedom of worship for all three religions at Temple Mount."

Palestinian comments on Holocaust underscore internal divides

A rare gesture of empathy for victims of the Holocaust has underscored how divided Palestinians are over recognizing what Jews consider the darkest chapter in their history – and also how far apart Israelis and Palestinians remain, not only when it comes to the present conflict, but also the past.

Gaza families visit relatives in Israeli jails

Relatives of Palestinians jailed in Israel left the Gaza Strip on Monday to visit detainees, a prisoners group said, in the fifth such visit since 2007.

As part of a deal to end mass hunger strikes in Israeli jails in May, Israeli authorities agreed to ease a ban on Gaza families visiting prisons.

Fifty-seven people left Gaza on Monday to visit 42 imprisoned relatives in Israel, Gaza-based prisoners group Husam said.

PA official: 11 killed in car crash near Tulkarem

Eleven people were killed and several injured on Sunday when two vehicles crashed in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian Authority official said.

Minister of Health Hani Abdin told Ma'an that 10 people died and five were injured when a service taxi collided with a private car at Bala junction east of Tulkarem. One of the injured people succumbed to his wounds later bringing the death toll to eleven.

Six of the victims' bodies were transferred to Thabet Thabet hospital and the injured were taken to al-Zakah hospital, both in Tulkarem.

Press freedom group: Attacks on media decrease in 2012

A Palestinian press freedom group has recorded over 100 violations of media freedom in the first half of 2012, a slight decline on last year, a report said this week.

"The status of media freedoms in the occupied Palestinian territories remains under serious threat," the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms said Wednesday.

MADA documented 102 press freedom violations in the first six months of 2012, compared to 113 in the same period in 2011, the group's report said.

Egypt: Hamas likely knew about Kerem Shalom attack

Senior Egyptian officials expressed skepticism Sunday about Hamas claims that the Islamist group would shut down the tunnels connecting Gaza and Sinai if Egypt permanently reopens the Rafah crossing to people and goods.

Preparations and Rhetoric for Possible Israeli Strike on Iran

Sometime this week, all Israelis will get the following SMS message in Hebrew on their cell-phones:  “Home Front, testing cellphone warning system.”

The test is the final preparation before declaring the new warning system operational next month, according to military officials who explain that the mechanism is believed to be an effective way to transmit messages during wartime.

After seven years, Gaza evacuees are growing distant from the settler movement

From an overlooking road, the district of this desert town called Nitzan B seems like a unified mass of identical red-roofed single-family homes, reminiscent of a crowded American postwar Levittown.

“From far away it looks nice,” says Galit Kakon, a Nitzan B resident.

Like the rest of the district’s 600 families, Kakon used to live in Gush Katif, the bloc of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip that Israel evacuated seven years ago this week in an operation called "the disengagement."

A zoning intifada

"How can you watch this and keep on using diplomatic language?" I asked, not expecting an answer from the three European Union diplomats in whose car I rode through the southern Hebron hills last Wednesday. By "this" I meant the sickening disparity between the lush green vegetation and the abundance of new homes in the Jewish settlements and the avalanche of demolition orders issued against tents and jury-rigged shanties where Palestinians live on their own land and 30 liters of water per person (because of Israel's refusal to connect them to the water grid ).

Preferring regional war to chances of peace

The Arab Spring, it transpires, is not exactly what we thought it would be.

Netanyahu is burying the two state solution

Benjamin Netanyahu certainly has remarkable tactical acumen, even though many question his long-term strategic wisdom. In addition he is lucky: he has now found unexpected allies who will make sure that he stays in power for at least another term: Islamic Jihadists in Gaza and Sinai. By the end of his next term, the two state solution will be discarded in the dustbin of history, as he has wished from the outset.

Where's Ben-Gurion when you need him?

I've been a part of the Israeli media and its system of government for over three decades, and yet I'm envious of those who know if we should thwart the Iranian nuclear program with a military strike or hold our fire and await further developments.

Bill Mandates Discussion of Sephardi Refugees

In a rare show of pre-election bipartisanship, lawmakers from both parties are sponsoring a bill [22] that would link the plight of Palestinian refugees with that of Jews from Arab countries.

Bibi and Barak: Enough Chatter, Decide Already!

You can all relax — in the last two weeks, nothing new has happened with regard to an attack on Iran. The cabinet hasn’t convened, the defense minister hasn’t summoned the IDF general staff and no new information has been received. Everything that is known today was known two months ago.

Will Netanyahu and Barak Risk a Coup?