January 22, 2013

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: PM Netanyahu is expected to win today's election in Israel. A candidate from the right wing "Jewish Home" party generates controversy with comments imagining "blowing up" Muslim holy sites in occupied East Jerusalem. The Arab League urges Palestinian citizens of Israel to vote. Palestinians say they see no hope for peace in Israel's election. UK FM Hague says without progress this year, "people will increasingly conclude that a two state solution has become impossible." The Malaysian PM is visiting Gaza. Three protesters are injured by Palestinian security services during a disturbance at a refugee camp near Ramallah. Netanyahu's relationship with Obama is expected to remain tense. The UN says trauma and PTSD have more than doubled in Gaza since the November conflict. The Economist looks at a new film about the looting of Palestinian libraries in 1948. COMMENTARY: The Washington Post urges the Obama administration to press Netanyahu to form a centrist coalition. Bernard Avishai and Sam Bahour say the parties desperately need American leadership and the second Obama term provides a huge opportunity. Sefi Rachlevsky says it's pointless voting for Netanyahu. Eitan Haber says Israelis must look for "the best of a bad lot." Gershon Baskin says Israelis are celebrating their democracy. Aluf Benn says the biggest beneficiary will probably be political newcomer Yair Lapid. Douglas Feith argues that Israelis aren't turning to the right, they're just recognizing there is no Palestinian peace partner, while Linda Heard sees Israelis as preferring aggressive policies over peace. Hussein Ibish says superficial Palestinian "unity" deals shouldn't come at the expense of vital institution-building policies.

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Israel Votes in Election Likely to Retain Netanyahu

 

Rightist Israeli Candidate’s Remarks Cause Stir

 

Arab League official urges Arab Israelis to vote

 

 

Palestinians see no hope for peace in Israeli polls

 

 Palestinians evinced weary indifference on Tuesday as Israelis voted in an election set to produce a hardline government keener to expand Jewish settlements on occupied land than seek peace.

UK says two-state solution almost dead

Britain said on Tuesday prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are almost dead because of expanding Jewish settlement in occupied territory, and warned Israel it was losing international support.

Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke as Israelis voted in an election likely to yield a hardline rightist government keener to thicken settlement on land where Palestinians want to establish statehood than seek peace.

Malaysian premier arrives in Gaza Strip

The prime minister of Malaysia arrived in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the first visit of its kind in diplomatic relations between both governments.

Prime Minister Muhammad Najib Abdul Razak arrived in Gaza via the Rafah crossing, accompanied by his wife, and was welcomed by a Hamas delegation led by Gaza premier Ismail Haniyeh.

The Malaysian premier held a brief press conference, praising the Palestinian people for enduring Israel's oppression and urging Palestinian factions to unite.

3 shot, injured by PA security in Ramallah camp

Three Palestinian youth were shot and injured Sunday evening in clashes with Palestinian security forces in the al-Amari refugee camp near Ramallah. 

The men were wounded by live ammunition in the legs, Palestinian medics said.

Clashes broke out after a group of youth closed the main road between Ramallah and Jerusalem during a demonstration in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

PA police officers and national security forces deployed to reopen the road, and protesters pelted them with stones.

Obama's dysfunctional relationship with Netanyahu likely to trundle on

 

UN: Psychological trauma 'doubled' in Gaza since war

Incidence of psychological trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder have more than doubled in Gaza since Israel's November war in the enclave, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees says.

Since Israel's eight-day bombardment of Gaza, which ended on Nov. 21, 42 percent of patients treated by UNRWA for psychological trauma have been under the age of nine, the agency says. 

Looting books from Palestinian libraries: Dark stories

 

Following the elections in Israel, a reset

 

U.S. Inaction, Mideast Cataclysm?

 

A wasted vote is a vote for Bibi

 

Best of a bad lot

Years ago an American defense secretary told an Israeli defense minister over lunch: "We send our finest attorneys to handle the billion-dollar deals with Israel [20] – such as the plane acquisitions - and who do you, the Israelis, send? A few clerks."

Our celebration of democracy

Today is the holiest day in the calendar of democracy.

It is also the holiest day in the calendar year for the future of Israel. On this day we stand before ourselves, our values in hand, our world views and visions for our shared future, and we add our voice to those of millions of our countrymen and women in determining what will happen here over the next years.

While you all were busy with Bennett

 

Missing Peace

 

Israelis prefer swords to doves

The days when Israelis tuned into the Voice of Peace radio, broadcast from an offshore cargo vessel, and threw their support behind the Peace Now movement are long gone.

Dumping Fayyad for phoney 'unity' would be wrong

 

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