Implications of a Shalit Deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Council On Foreign Relations
by Robert Danin - (Opinion) October 11, 2011 - 12:00am

As of this posting, the Israeli cabinet is still meeting in an emergency session to discuss a deal aimed at securing the release of Gilad Shalit, abducted by Hamas in June of 2006 on the Israeli-Gaza border. Details remain scant. Initial reports suggest more than 1,000 Palestinians, currently held by Israel, would be exchanged in return for Corporal Shalit. While it is early to speculate too widely with so little still known, I will nonetheless venture a few initial conclusions on what such a deal would mean.

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Fayyad rallies support for prisoners' hunger strike
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 10, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Monday called for the UN to support Palestinian prisoners' rights in Israel, as he visited sit-in tents in solidarity with a detainees' hunger strike. Fayyad, chief of the Ramallah-based government, expressed sympathy for strikers, saying their refusal of food since Sept. 27 was "means to express their rejection to the practices of the occupation that denies them basic human rights," a government press statement said.

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A new Palestinian Intifada?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Wendy Pearlman - October 10, 2011 - 12:00am

Mahmoud Abbas captured the world's attention with his controversial bid for U.N. recognition of Palestinian statehood. As the world awaits the outcome of that diplomatic contest, one of the key wild cards is the potential for mass nonviolent protest in the Palestinian territories. Some fear the failure of the bid will spark massive unrest and even the collapse of the Palestinian Authority. Others hope that Palestinians will rally en masse behind Abu Mazen's strategy, using non-violent protest on the ground to supplement official Palestinian pressure on Israel at the United Nations.

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Palestinian killed in Gaza blast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Josef Federman - October 9, 2011 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Palestinian officials in the Gaza Strip say at least one person has been killed in an explosion along the northern border with Israel. The cause of the blast is unclear, and medical teams are removing the remains of the dead. The Israeli army says it was not involved in Monday's incident. Army officials say they believe the blast was set off by two militants who were trying to plant a bomb. Israeli troops frequently clash with Palestinian militants in the border area.


Top Israeli defense official arrives in Egypt to discuss border security
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jack Khoury - October 9, 2011 - 12:00am

A top Israeli security official is visiting Cairo, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Sunday, amid recent tensions between Israel and Egypt over security arrangements in the Sinai. Relations between Israel and Egypt took a turn to the worse in August, when eight Israelis were killed on a desert border road by gunmen who Israel has said infiltrated from the Gaza Strip via Egypt's Sinai desert.

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Israel Is Under Attack
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Gilad Sharon - (Opinion) October 9, 2011 - 12:00am

The word “spring” is a symbol of blossoming and renewal. But right now the Arab world is filled with demonstrations, shootings, and the replacement of one dictatorship for another. (Except for Saudi Arabia which has announced it will allow women to “vote” and drive by the year 2015!) And, most significantly for Israel, there is a PLO petition for statehood at the United Nations.

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Ties Between Israel and Arab Allies Fray Over Mosque Burning
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - October 7, 2011 - 12:00am

The founders of this Bedouin Arab village in the Israeli countryside tied their fate to that of their Jewish neighbors even before the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948. Israeli police officers fired tear gas at residents of the village protesting the arson attack.

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PA official: IDF protects settlers who attack Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - October 7, 2011 - 12:00am

The IDF dismissed accusations by the Palestinian Authority that it was protecting settlers who attack Palestinians and/or their property in the West Bank as ridiculous on Thursday. “It is both baseless and ridiculous to say the IDF is supporting such activity,” an army source said. “The IDF together with other law enforcement bodies constantly work to prevent and investigate unlawful activities in the West Bank, whether they are perpetuated by Palestinians or Israelis,” the sources said.

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Palestinians say Israeli prison hunger strike grows
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Alertnet
by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ali Sawafta - (Analysis) October 5, 2011 - 12:00am

Hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli jails have joined a hunger strike to protest against worsening prison conditions, the Palestinian minister for prisoner affairs said on Monday. Issa Qaraqea told Reuters that some 500 prisoners in Israeli jails were refusing to eat, rapidly swelling the ranks of the protest which began last week. The strike was called after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toughened restrictions on Palestinian prisoners as part of an effort to force the Islamist group Hamas to free a kidnapped Israeli soldier.

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Panetta Says Israel Is Risking Isolation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
October 3, 2011 - 12:00am

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta warned on Sunday that Israel was becoming increasingly isolated in the Middle East, and said Israeli leaders must restart negotiations with the Palestinians and work to restore relations with Egypt and Turkey.

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