Settlements Not an Obstacle to Peace? Get Serious
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Lara Friedman - (Opinion) January 11, 2012 - 1:00am

Today, Peace Now released a new report entitled "Torpedoing the Two State Solution -- The Strategy of the Netanyahu Government," detailing a number of trends in settlement expansion that directly, and it seems, deliberately, undermine the viability of the two-state solution.

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IDF transfer of information to settlers is nothing new
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) January 11, 2012 - 1:00am

Who has better information: the Israel Defense Forces, which didn't know that a group of right-wing activists planned to cross the border into Jordan last month, or the band of thugs living on West Bank hilltops, who know when the IDF plans to destroy every last hut? The IDF and the Shin Bet security service, which have been unable to determine who is behind the torching of mosques, or those same Jewish terrorists, who get information directly from officers, soldiers and Knesset members about plans for IDF operations against illegal settlement outposts?

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Palestinian Leaders Outraged Over West Bank Construction Data
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Los Angeles Times
by Maher Abukhater - January 11, 2012 - 1:00am

Palestinian leaders voiced outrage Tuesday over a new report that Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank rose 20% last year. The report released by the Peace Now group also says that building on East Jerusalem land seized during the 1967 Middle East War was at the highest level in a decade.

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Peace Now: Israel began building 1,850 new houses in West Bank in 2011
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA)
January 10, 2012 - 1:00am

Israel started construction work on 1,850 new housing units in the West Bank in 2011, a 19 percent rise from a year earlier, an Israeli settlement watchdog said Tuesday. Peace Now attributed the rise to a partial, 10-month moratorium on new constructions in the West Bank that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed in 2010 to spur peace talks with the Palestinians.

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Peace Now: Settlement Construction Soared in 2011
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yair Altman - January 10, 2012 - 1:00am

The past year has seen a 20% rise in construction starts in the West Bank settlements, Peace Now said in a report published Tuesday. According to data by the settlement watchdog, Jewish construction in the West Bank peaked in 2011. It said Israel started construction work on 1,850 new housing units in the West Bank in 2011, a 19% increase from the previous year. The report, entitled "Torpedoing the Two-State Solution," Israel authorized 1,850 building starts for West Bank housing units and said construction continued on another 3,500 West Bank units over the course of 2011.

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Israel Charges 5 Settlers in West Bank Army Base Clash
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - January 8, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Israeli prosecutors on Sunday charged five radical Jewish settlers with tracking troop movements in the West Bank and organizing a raid on an Israeli Army base there last month. The indictment was the first sign of a promised crackdown on settlers whose increasingly provocative actions have been described by some Israeli officials as homegrown terrorism.

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Year of the relocated illegal West Bank outpost
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) January 4, 2012 - 1:00am

Creativity knows no bounds, as is reflected in the new idea that illegal West Bank outposts can be relocated from one illegal location to another. This would move them from privately-owned Palestinian land to Palestinian land "owned" by the government, from one space under occupation to another, as if this made it legal.

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Region changes but Israel won't stop land grabs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) January 4, 2012 - 1:00am

Expectations were low yesterday as Palestinian and Israeli envoys prepared to meet in Amman, at the request of Jordan's King Abdullah, for their first face-to-face talks in 16 months. The well-intentioned Quartet (US, UN, EU and Russia) had asked the two sides to be prepared to discuss security arrangements and borders. But all sides seemed to expect only "talks about talks", a going-through-the-motions exercise rather than a real prelude to meatier negotiations any time soon.

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230 more colonist homes to be built in occupied Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Nasouh Nazzal - January 3, 2012 - 1:00am

Ramallah: Israeli authorities announced the construction of 230 new colonist homes in occupied East Jerusalem. 117 homes will be built in Gabal Abu Ghunaim area close to Al Aqsa compound and the second tender of 113 homes will be built in two colonies of Gosh Etzion south of Occupied East Jerusalem. The building of more illegal Jewish homes are expected to be announced in the coming weeks which will be expanding the colonies of Gifat Hazat and Har Adar.

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Israel’s modern tragedy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe
by H.D.S. Greenway - (Opinion) January 3, 2012 - 1:00am

IN THE last days of the dying year, Israel’s foreign office issued a sharp rebuke to the European nations on the UN Security Council, accusing them of “interfering with Israel’s domestic affairs.’’ Britain, France, Germany, and Portugal had pointed to the upsurge in violence against the Palestinians by Israeli settlers in the occupied territories, and called upon Israel to reverse its settlement policies. The Europeans are part of the “quartet’’ of peacemakers, made up of the United States, Europe, Russia, and the UN.

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