Life in Jerusalem's city of three faiths
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Heather Sharp - (Analysis) November 21, 2009 - 1:00am

Jerusalem's Old City is a district containing a number of holy sites venerated by Muslims, Christians and Jews. The BBC's Heather Sharp, who moved into a home within its walls last year, reports on daily life in a dense tangle of narrow, winding alleyways. Our first night was a disaster. We had finally got the keys to our new home. A wiry teenager had wheeled our bed on a handcart through the narrow, carless streets. But as we turned out the light, Arabic pop music, cheers and whistles blasted in through the window of our new flat as neighbours celebrated a wedding.

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A state for all its citizens, not a state of all the Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Alan Philps - (Opinion) November 20, 2009 - 1:00am

It is not often that an Israeli history book is translated into Arabic with a view to finding a mass readership. And it is even rarer when that book is to be translated into two other major languages of the Islamic world, Turkish and Indonesian, not to mention Japanese, Russian, German, Italian and Portuguese.

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To two faiths, a holy patch of land; to the world, a powder keg
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - November 17, 2009 - 1:00am

It is one of the most watched pieces of real estate in the world, 35 acres where an under-the-breath prayer or a whiff of a rumor can rouse warnings of war. In both Judaism and Islam, the area known respectively as the Temple Mount and the Noble Sanctuary is considered a formative location. Jews believe it to be the site of Solomon's Temple and key biblical events. Muslims regard it as the spot where Muhammad was brought by the angel Gabriel before embarking on a trip to heaven to visit the other prophets.

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IDF Chief Rabbi: Troops who show mercy to enemy will be 'damned'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Anshel Pfeffer - November 16, 2009 - 1:00am

The Israel Defense Forces' chief rabbi told students in a pre-army yeshiva program last week that soldiers who "show mercy" toward the enemy in wartime will be "damned." Brig. Gen. Avichai Rontzki also told the yeshiva students that religious individuals made better combat troops.

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Unusual Partners Study Divisive Jerusalem Site
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - November 15, 2009 - 1:00am

At the heart of this contested city, the holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, has become, for many, the epicenter of the conflict between Israel, the Palestinians and the wider Muslim world. The mere mention of the place stirs passions and memories of centuries of bloodshed. Its alternative names evoke the depth of religious devotion and the competing claims.

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MIDEAST: The 'Unknown' Fight the Illegal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Jerrold Kessel, Pierre Klochendler - November 12, 2009 - 1:00am

"Make sure your father gets this," the municipal inspector tells a ten-year-old boy at the gate of the concrete house in an alleyway in the Al-Bustan quarter of Silwan, a Palestinian neighbourhood right under the shadow of the walled Old City. "This" is a court-approved demolition notice, "No. 59". It's for a house under imminent threat of being torn down by the Israeli authorities because it does not have the requisite building permit. The demolition notice is headed: "To Unknown Addressee".

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Yesh Din: Settlers build fences to keep Palestinian landowners off their own land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Dan Izenberg - November 11, 2009 - 1:00am

Settlers have prevented Palestinians from cultivating almost 400 dunams of their farmland by fencing off the area and the authorities have done nothing to stop them, two Palestinian farmers charged Wednesday in a High Court petition filed by the Yesh Din human rights organization.

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West Bank rabbi: Jews can kill Gentiles who threaten Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
November 9, 2009 - 1:00am

Just weeks after the arrest of alleged Jewish terrorist, Yaakov Teitel, a West Bank rabbi on Monday released a book giving Jews permission to kill Gentiles who threaten Israel. Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, who heads the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in the Yitzhar settlement, wrote in his book "The King's Torah" that even babies and children can be killed if they pose a threat to the nation. Shapiro based the majority of his teachings on passages quoted from the Bible, to which he adds his opinions and beliefs.

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Farouk Shami: Palestinian Immigrant, Entrepreneur and Texas Gubernatorial Candidate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Felice Friedson - (Interview) November 8, 2009 - 1:00am

FAROUK SHAMI is Palestinian-American immigrant who invented an ammonia-free line of hair care products which he parlayed into a fortune. Passionate about his adopted United States, Shami recently made news by turning his Farouk Systems into an all-American operation, building a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Houston, Texas, creating thousands of jobs for the local community. Shami is running for the office of Governor of the State of Texas. He was interviewed by The Media Line’s Felice Friedson. ***

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On Campus, a Divide Over ‘Pro-Israel’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Josh Nathan-Kazis - November 5, 2009 - 1:00am

When an Israeli student at Carleton College complained that the school’s Jewish organization had made no official statement recognizing Israel’s right to exist, Jewish student leaders at the small liberal arts school in Minnesota found themselves stuck between two poles. They wanted to make the Israeli student feel comfortable, but they didn’t want didn’t want to alienate community members by presenting them with deep misgivings about the Jewish state.

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