Armed settlers enter West Bank village, spark clashes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 14, 2009 - 12:00am

Violent clashes between Israeli settlers and Palestinians erupted in the village of Burin south of the West Bank city of Nablus erupted Sunday evening. Ghassan Daghlas, Palestinian official following Israeli settlement activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that “dozens of heavily armed settlers from the nearby illegal Israeli settlement of Yitzhar attacked Palestinians in Burin after failing to steal dozens of sheep from a Palestinian shepherd who was in the area,” he explained.

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The 9/11 Anniversary: An Opportunity to Reconsider Mistaken Policies
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Raghida Dergham - (Opinion) September 14, 2009 - 12:00am

As we reach the eighth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 events, pressures increase on US President Barack Obama to take the necessary steps to combat what he calls “violent extremism” – a term that replaces the expression “war on terror” adopted by his predecessor George W. Bush, who had made the Iraq war his first step to taking revenge for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

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What Carter Missed in the Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Elliott Abrams - (Editorial) September 8, 2009 - 12:00am

In an op-ed on Sunday ["The Elders' View of the Middle East"], former president Jimmy Carter, speaking on behalf of a self-appointed group of "Elders," described a rapacious Israel facing long-suffering, blameless Palestinians, who are contemplating a "nonviolent civil rights struggle" in which "their examples would be Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela."

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The rise of Israel's military rabbis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Katya Adler - September 8, 2009 - 12:00am

Military rabbis are becoming more powerful. Trained in warfare as well as religion, new army regulations mean they are now part of a military elite. They graduate from officer's school and operate closely with military commanders. One of their main duties is to boost soldiers' morale and drive, even on the front line. This has caused quite some controversy in Israel. Should military motivation come from men of God, or from a belief in the state of Israel and keeping it safe? The military rabbis rose to prominence during Israel's invasion of Gaza earlier this year.

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Palestinians pay the price for Israel's illegal settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Katherine Butler - August 27, 2009 - 12:00am

On a still, hot, August afternoon you can only hear the bleating of the lambs and the occasional bark of a dog. There are few places more exposed and isolated in the West Bank than the cluster of tents and caves that is home to Khalil Nawaja, his wife Tamam, their two sons and their 50 sheep.

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Religious fundamentalism in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ahram
by Stephen Lendman - August 24, 2009 - 12:00am

In the book Jewish History, Jewish Religion, by Israel Shahak (1933-2001), it is argued that while Islamic fundamentalism is vilified in the West, comparable Jewish extremism is largely ignored. In the book's foreword, Edward Said wrote: "... Shahak's mode of telling the truth has always been rigorous and uncompromising. There is nothing seductive about it, no attempt made to put it 'nicely,' no effort expended on making the truth palatable... For Shahak killing is murder is killing is murder: his manner is to repeat.

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“Jihad” Against Hamas and Sheikh Sharif
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Mshari Al-Zaydi - (Opinion) August 20, 2009 - 12:00am

It was a surprise hearing the Defence Minister of Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed’s government in Somalia and the Spokesman for the Hamas Interior Ministry in Gaza calling for people to embrace “moderate” Islam and branding those who fight against their governments as ideologically deviant and far away from understanding real Islam. They are also described as “brainwashed,” a western term that is used excessively insinuating that they themselves are pure!

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Into the Abyss
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Hussein Shobokshi - (Opinion) August 20, 2009 - 12:00am

As if the Palestinians needed a new chapter to be added to their sad story! It seems, however, that the road is still full of sadness, shocks, and unpleasant surprises. How else can one explain the harsh bloody clashes between the "government" of the Hamas organization in the Gaza Strip and the new "alien" faction called Jund Ansar Allah? These clashes led to the killing of scores of people, including Dr. Abdul Latif Al Mousa, the obscure and controversial leader of this faction who is also known by his code name of Abu Noor al-Maqdisi.

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Gaza's radical Islamists: Hamas serves the Jewish usurpers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - August 20, 2009 - 12:00am

A number of al-Qaida-affiliated groups on Thursday condemned Hamas as an apostate movement that serves the interests of Israel by cracking down on their supporters in the Gaza Strip. The groups appealed to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, to issue public condemnations of Hamas, whose security forces last weekend killed and wounded dozens of fundamentalists belonging to Jund Ansar Allah in Rafah.

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Al-Qaida-style Islamism comes to Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Jonathan Spyer - August 19, 2009 - 12:00am

Quiet has now returned to the Gaza Strip after the weekend violence which claimed the lives of 28 people. The last of the funerals of the Jund Ansar Allah fighters killed in the suppression of the organization by Hamas authorities has taken place. This episode demonstrated the tight hold which Hamas maintains on the Gaza Strip.

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