January 10, 2013

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: Pres. Abbas and Hamas leader Mishaal meet in Cairo. A car has exploded in Tel Aviv but no clear explanation is yet determined. Abbas rejects a conditional Israeli offer on Palestinian refugees from Syria. A Palestinian man in Gaza, and four in the West Bank, die due to extreme weather. Hamas' University in Gaza is training Hebrew teachers. At least two Palestinians are shot in confrontations with settlers near Nablus. Peace Now says the Israeli government has secretly approved yet another "unauthorized" settlement outpost. Israeli occupation forces demolish a Palestinian home in occupied East Jerusalem. Human rights groups express concern about the death of a Palestinian man in Hamas custody. Israel is persisting in new settlement expansion plans in occupied East Jerusalem in spite of unanimous international opposition. Rap music faces increasing censorship by Hamas in Gaza. COMMENTARY: Reuters interviews extremist Israeli politician Naftali Bennett. Zvi Bar'el says it's absurd that Israel's Arab citizens are so irrelevant to its elections and in the Knesset. Dov Weisglass says the only way forward now is the creation of a temporary Palestinian state with provisional borders, along the lines of Phase II of the Roadmap. Eitan Haber says Pres. Obama's appointment of Chuck Hagel signals Israel cannot move independently against Iran. Mendy Finkel says Israel's critics are too quick to dismiss prospects for a two-state solution. Chris McGreal says Hagel is a true friend of Israel. Laura Rozen says the campaign against Hagel has backfired against right-wing Jewish groups. Osman Mirghani says Hamas' acknowledgement that there is a big difference between opposition and governance, or fantasy and reality, should be a lesson to Islamists everywhere. Abeer Ayyoub says Iran has become the principal backer of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Shlomi Eldar interviews MK Tibi. Aaron David Miller says the short-term future may be a three, not a two, state reality.

---

---

[5]

---

Abbas and Hamas Leader Meet at Egypt’s Invitation

 

Israeli police say blast criminally motivated

 

Palestinian leader rejects deal on Syria refugees

 

Storm leaves Gaza man dead, Jerusalem snowed in

 

Four Palestinians killed in West Bank flooding

 

Four Palestinians have died in the West Bank as a result of this week's storm. On Wednesday morning Palestinian rescue personnel found two bodies of young Palestinian women who had been missing since Tuesday night, after the car they were riding in was swept away by floods between Nablus and Tul Karm. The car and its driver were found several kilometers away with the driver suffering from hypothermia.

Hamas flagship university grooms Hebrew teachers

 

Settlers clash with Nablus villages, 2 wounded by gunfire

Two Palestinians suffered gunshot wounds in clashes with Israeli settlers and soldiers in separate incidents in the northern West Bank on Thursday, an official said.

Dozens of residents of Yitzhar settlement clashed with Palestinians who were playing in the snow in the nearby Urif village, south of Nablus, settler-monitoring official Ghassan Daghlas said.

Israeli forces arrived at the scene and tried to persuade the Palestinian to leave, but they refused, he said.

Peace Now: Israeli govt secretly approved settler outpost

After the Israeli government gave official sanction to three settler outposts last year, a fourth illegal community has been included in the boundaries, an Israeli peace group said Tuesday.

All Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law. However, Israel distinguishes between settlements it has approved and the outposts which were never granted official authorization.

In April 2012 the Israeli government retroactively authorized three outposts -- Rehelim, Sansana and Bruchin.

Israeli forces demolish house in East Jerusalem

Israeli forces demolished a house in East Jerusalem on Tuesday on the pretext that it was being built without a permit, a local official said.

Fakhri Abu Diab, head of the Committee for the Defense of Silwan, told official news agency Wafa that Israeli bulldozers arrived early Tuesday and destroyed the home, which was under construction at the time. 

The house, located in the Silwan neighborhood south of Jerusalem's Old City, was uninhabited at the time.

Rights groups concerned by Gaza death in custody

The death of a Palestinian man while in the custody of the Gaza government in recent weeks must be thoroughly and transparently investigated, human rights groups say.

Atef Khamis Derbas, 52, was being held in the central Ansar prison in Gaza City for unpaid debts, before he died on Dec. 27.

His family told the Al-Haq human rights group they had informed prison authorities of his pre-existing medical problems, and that he was suffering in jail due to cold conditions and not taking his medication regularly.

Israel to market disputed East Jerusalem housing project before election

 

The Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality are hard at work on the goal of offering for sale 1,500 housing units in the capital's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, the focus of international censure, before the January 22 elections. Plans for the project, which is over the Green Line, were approved last month by the National Planning and Building Council, causing tension between Jerusalem and the West.

Rap Musicians Censored in Gaza

 

Mohammad Antar [18] is a 26-year-old rapper. For over a year, Mohammed has been practicing the songs he has written in front of the mirror. He will be lucky if he even gets a chance to perform them during an "underground" concert, with only his friends as the audience.

Right-wing millionaire is Israel campaign's surprise star

 

A right-wing millionaire who says a Palestinian state would be suicide for Israel has emerged as the surprise success story of the country's election campaign.

The Arab elephant in the Knesset

 

Back to the Road Map?

The Israeli-Palestinian horizon is getting so dark there is almost no hope left. The complete diplomatic stalemate, the deteriorating economic situation, the weakening of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas' growing power (to some extent as a result of intentional Israeli activity) – all of these have brought the Palestinians back to the streets and intensified the rioting and acts of violence.

White House changed the rules

You would have to be deaf, a fool and a minor – as it says in the Talmud – not to understand the message relayed this week from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington to the residents of Kaplan 3 Street in Jerusalem: The people in the White House changed the rules of the game and have informed Benjamin Netanyahu of the change.

Why are Israel’s critics trying to kill two-state solution?

The two-state solution apparently has seen better days. Indeed, according to The Atlantic’s Robert Wright the two-state solution is on its “deathbed,” while the Daily Beast’s Andrew Sullivan has already lost all hope in the prospects of an independent Palestinian state.

What makes Chuck Hagel a true friend of Israel

 

Chuck Hagel Failure May Haunt Hawks

 

Hawkish groups that sought to pre-emptively sink Chuck Hagel’s candidacy for secretary of defense may have been trying to teach President Obama and his supporters a lesson — but it seems they’re the ones who may look back at this episode as a cautionary tale.

The confessions of Hamas are a message to the Islamists

 

Speaking before the Islamists and Democratic Governance Conference a few months ago, Khaled Mishal, head of the Hamas political bureau, acknowledged there was a difference between opposition and governance, between imagination and reality, and between being a critic and a practitioner. He concluded that the Islamists in general had to admit that governance was harder than they had first imagined, and this applies to Hamas as well.

Iran Top Backer of Palestinian Islamic Jihad

 

As far as the Al-Quds Brigades [28], the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are concerned, 2012 was their golden year. For the first time, it managed to use qualitative weapons that seemingly altered the pace of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ahmad Tibi: No Apologies For Being a 'Palestinian Patriot'

"I’m a Palestinian patriot whether you like it or not. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be Ahmad Tibi.” That’s how the Arab Knesset member who has spent fourteen years on the opposition benches of Israel’s parliament, describes himself in a special interview with Al-Monitor.

The Three-State Solution

 

---

---