Middle East News: World Press Roundup
NEWS:
A British eyewitness to the killing of Rachel Corrie contradicts the official Israeli account in a statement to the New York Times. Former commandos are coming to dominate Israel's politics. Egypt is reportedly negotiating with extremists in the Sinai Peninsula, as it simultaneously widens its campaign against them. FM Malki says Palestinians have put their renewed UN efforts on hold for now. A woman in Gaza is critically injured by Israeli forces. Two Palestinian cars are torched in the occupied West Bank. FM Lieberman invites Pres. Morsy to visit Israel. French authorities say they have opened a murder investigation into the death of the late Pres. Arafat, and a former senior Israeli official denies Israel was involved in any way in his death. PM Fayyad approves measures to counter the growing electricity crisis. A new report suggests that 40% of high school seniors in occupied East Jerusalem drop out. Fayyad will be making the case for statehood and introducing a new film about it at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
COMMENTARY:
Anshel Pfeffer says the extreme right wing in Europe is now embroiled in a controversy over who to hate more: Muslims or Jews? Mordechai Twersky recalls a massacre of Jews in Hebron in 1929. Avi Issacharoff asks why, in the end, Hamas did not show up in Tehran during the NAM. The Jerusalem Post says the Rachel Corrie verdict should be a wake-up call for pro-Palestinian activists, but Hussein Ibish says it should be a wake-up call to Americans. The National says the verdict exposes the falsity of Israel's official narrative of Corrie's death. Natalia Simanovsky says the media missed the real importance of the visit to Auschwitz by an advisor to Pres. Abbas. David Horovitz outlines the bitter debate among Israeli insiders about the possibility of an attack against Iran.
Witness to Rachel Corrie’s Death Responds to Israeli Court Ruling Absolving Soldier
Article Author(s):
Robert Mackey
Media Outlet:
The New York Times
As my colleagues Jodi Rudoren and Danielle Ziri report, an Israeli judge ruled on Tuesday that the state bore no responsibility for the death of Rachel Corrie, an American activist who was crushed to death by a military bulldozer in 2003 as she tried to block the demolition of a Palestinian home in Gaza.
Ms. Corrie, who was a student at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., joined the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement in January 2003, and was killed two months later in the Gazan town of Rafah, which straddles the border with Egypt.
Former Israeli commandos dominate politics
Article Author(s):
Aron Heller
Media Outlet:
The Associated Press
When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to fill a sensitive Cabinet post recently, he turned to an old army buddy from his days in an elite commando unit.
His choice for minister of civil defense, Avi Dichter, replaced another graduate of the legendary Sayeret Matkal unit. Netanyahu's defense minister and vice premier, as well as Israel's opposition leader, also served there.
Egypt leader said to reach out to Sinai radicals
Article Author(s):
Maggie Michael
Media Outlet:
The Associated Press
Egypt's Islamist president is using former jihadists to mediate with radical Islamists in Sinai, trying to ensure a halt in militant attacks in return for a stop in a military offensive in the lawless peninsula, participants in the talks say.
Egypt broadens Sinai campaign against militants
Article Author(s):
Marwa Awad
Egypt's military said on Wednesday it would broaden its offensive against militants in the Sinai Peninsula, a campaign that has raised concerns in Israel about the movement of heavy armor into the area near its border.
After militants attacked and killed 16 border guards on Aug. 5, Egypt launched an operation using the army and police to raid militant hideouts, arrest suspects and seize weapons, including rockets and other arms, that are rife in the area.
Palestinian's UN recognition quest on hold
Article Author(s):
Mohammed Daraghmeh
Media Outlet:
The Associated Press
The Palestinian foreign minister says the Palestinians are putting their quest for international recognition at the U.N. on hold for now.
Foreign Minister Riad Malki says President Mahmoud Abbas has decided not to apply at the General Assembly session next month, although he will informally appeal for recognition in a speech.
The decision stands in contrast to last year, when the Palestinians asked the Security Council to admit them as a full member state.
Palestinian woman critically wounded by Israeli fire in Gaza
Israeli forces stationed on Gaza borders opened fire at Palestinian farmers Wednesday, critically wounding a woman, witnesses and medical sources said.
The 42-year-old woman was working on her land near the eastern edge of central Gaza Strip when she received several gunshots, the witnesses added.
Israel has established a buffer zone along its borders with the Gaza Strip, saying the aim was to distance militants from the security fence separating the two territories. However, Palestinians say the 300-meter wide no-go area takes most of Gaza' s agricultural land.
Two Palestinian cars torched in West Bank
Two Palestinian vehicles were torched and vandalized Tuesday night in a refugee camp near Ramallah just several hours after a similar incident in the West Bank, Israel Radio reported Wednesday.
Perpetrators lit two cars on fire and spray painted them with slogans reading: "Revenge on the Arabs" and "Freedom for the homeland."
Security forces were called into the Jalazun refugee camp north of Ramallah and launched an investigation after reports of Israelis entering the camp, Israel Radio reported.
Egypt's Morsi invited to visit Israel
In a rare departure from his oft- quoted hawkish declarations, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday extended an invitation to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to visit Israel.
Speaking at a legal conference in Tel Aviv, Lieberman said, "We hope that whoever speaks about peace and about stability understands that there can be no hypothetical peace.
"We hope that Morsi will meet with Israeli officials, that he will be interviewed by Israeli media and that he will visit Jerusalem as the guest of President (Shimon) Peres."
France opens Arafat murder inquiry
A French court has opened a murder inquiry into the 2004 death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, prosecutors said on Tuesday, following claims by his wife that he may have been poisoned.
Arafat died in a Paris military hospital in November 2004, a month after being airlifted - when his health collapsed - from his battered headquarters in Ramallah, where he had been effectively confined by Israel for more than two and a half years.
Former Israeli official denies Israel poisoned Arafat
Media Outlet:
The Associated Press
A former Israeli official is denying allegations that Israel poisoned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as French prosecutors begin investigating his possible murder.
Dov Weisglass was chief of staff to the Israeli prime minister when Arafat died in 2004. He says Israel had no interest in harming the Palestinian leader at the end of his political career.
Weisglass told Army Radio Wednesday that Israel permitted Arafat to seek medical treatment in France so Israel could not be accused of exacerbating his illness.
Fayyad approves measures to counter electricity crisis
Media Outlet:
Ma'an News Agency
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad approved new measures on Tuesday to help counter an electricity crisis in the West Bank, a statement said.
Fayyad approved the measures during a weekly session of the Council of Ministers in Ramallah. The council endorsed measures to support low-income consumers of electricity as well as encouraging higher-income consumers to conserve their energy consumption.
The council will also enter discussions with Jordan about bringing electricity prices into line with previous tariffs.
Report: 40% of east J'lem seniors drop out of school
Article Author(s):
Noam Dvir
No student registration, high dropout rates, overcrowded classes and slow construction of new classrooms – these are only some of the failures characterizing the east Jerusalem education system, a report published Tuesday by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and Ir Amim organization suggests.
Palestinian Authority prime minister attending TIFF
Article Author(s):
Brent Lang
Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad will make the argument for statehood at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
Fayyad will appear at a press conference on September 11 in conjunction with the Toronto premiere of "State 194," producer Participant Media said Tuesday.
The U.K. extreme right is undecided on who to hate: Jews or Muslims?
Article Author(s):
Anshel Pfeffer
The battle for leadership of Britain's far-right took a bizarre twist this month when the British National Party, long the most prominent racist group in British politics, issued a detailed report accusing their main rivals, the English Defense League, of being the “useful idiots” of “neo-cons” and “ultra-Zionists.”
Scars of an Israeli survivor of the Hebron massacre
Article Author(s):
Mordechai Twersky
Shlomo Slonim gazes at four large black and white photos of family members adorning the dining room wall of his apartment in Ra'anana, a city in central Israel.
He battles with his health. He has recurrent flashbacks. But some memories cut even deeper than the one-inch indentation above his freckled forehead and the scars on his right hand from where his fingers were nearly severed.
Why did Hamas cancel participation in Iran's Non-Aligned Movement summit?
Article Author(s):
Avi Issacharoff
A fierce storm briefly raged in the Palestinian political arena over the weekend. A few hours after the Hamas government spokesman announced in Gaza on Saturday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had invited Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to attend the Non-Aligned Movement conference and that Haniyeh intended to go, officials close to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that if Haniyeh goes to Tehran, Abbas would not.
The Corrie verdict
Media Outlet:
The Jerusalem Post
The death of 23-year-old American rights activist Rachel Corrie was a “regrettable accident,” not an intentional war crime, Haifa District Court Judge Oded Gershon ruled on Tuesday.
For those following the trial who are unbiased by a perennial desire to bash Israel and search tirelessly for its faults, the verdict was no surprise.
Bulldozing the Special Relationship
Article Author(s):
Hussein Ibish
Media Outlet:
Foreign Policy
Only the most naive observers would be surprised by the verdict from an Israeli court on the civil case brought by the parents of Rachel Corrie, the American activist killed in 2003 at the hands of the Israeli military. The court ruled this week that Israel was not responsible for the death of the 23-year-old student, referring to it as a "regrettable accident" that Corrie herself could have prevented by staying out of the area.
Corrie verdict exposes Israel's false narrative
Media Outlet:
The National
After nine years of injustice, the Israeli court's decision did not come as much of a surprise. For the parents of the 23-year-old American activist crushed by an Israeli bulldozer as she tried to stop it from demolishing a Palestinian home, there will be no justice from an Israeli court. But today, perhaps more than at any time since her death, Rachel Corrie continues to fight the injustice that Palestinians face under occupation.
Auschwitz and Palestinians: what the media missed
Article Author(s):
Natalia Simanovsky
Media Outlet:
The Daily Star
In late July, Ziad al-Bandak, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made an official visit to the Auschwitz Holocaust memorial to pay respect to the million-and-a-half victims of the camp, most of whom were Jewish.
The most fateful decision of all
Article Author(s):
David Horovitz
Media Outlet:
The Times of Israel
Hear that frantic whispering noise beneath the hum of the air-conditioners in this sweltering Israeli summer? That’s the sound of many Israeli insiders repeating over and over and over: Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t do it.
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