Daily News Issue Date: 
September 16, 2008

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet Tuesday with outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, amid doubt of the possibility of a breakthrough (1). South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu issues a report to the United Nations challenging Israel?s shelling of Gaza (2). A Palestinian high school in Jerusalem starts a girls? basketball team, challenging some community norms (3). The European Union condemns the recent violent activity of West Bank settlers (4). As Ehud Olmert?s Kadima party looks to upcoming elections, the race appears to be between Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz (6).

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Abbas and Olmert to meet amid doubts of a deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Wafa Amr - September 15, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday in a last-minute bid to clinch an agreement a day before his Kadima party holds an election to replace him. "Olmert will make a last-ditch effort to reach a deal, but I doubt they can finalize anything in tonight's meeting," an Israeli political source said. Senior Abbas aides said the Palestinians had rejected Israeli proposals to sign a "shelf" deal, which would not go into effect until Abbas regained control of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

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Israel's Gaza shelling may be war crime - Tutu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
September 15, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel's deadly shelling in the Gaza Strip in November 2006 may constitute a war crime, South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in a report to the United Nations released on Monday. Tutu, who serves as an independent UN human rights envoy, said Israel must be held accountable for its strike that hit two homes in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, killing 18 people.

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The game that changed their world
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Chicago Tribune
by Joel Greenberg - September 15, 2008 - 8:00pm

Mai Abdo, an assistant principal and teacher in Jabal Mukabar, a Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem, had a dream for the teenage girls in her school that rankled some people in her religiously conservative community. It sounded like a simple proposition: start a girls basketball program to promote fitness and build self-confidence.

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EU firmly condemns Israeli settler violence in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)
September 15, 2008 - 8:00pm

The Presidency of the European Union, currently held by France, on Tuesday severely rebuked extremist Israeli settlers for violence they carried out last weekend and strongly condemned an operation that terrorized several areas in the Occupied West Bank, where one Palestinian and several injured. "The Presidency of the European Union Council firmly condemns the violence perpetrated by the Israeli settlers, notably the fires, vandalism and aggressions that took place Saturday night near Nablus," a statement from the EU said.

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The Issue of Five Million Palestinian Refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed - September 15, 2008 - 8:00pm

Talking to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz last week, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas admitted that the refugees represent the main obstacle preventing a peace agreement with Israel. He said that matters are not yet clear; every issue has complicated details for those who would return to the West Bank and Gaza Strip and those whom Israel would agree to return to their land which is today's Israel.

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Crucial Israeli vote now two-person race
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Star
by Oakland Ross - September 15, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel's notoriously turbulent political climate could become even stormier after members of the ruling Kadima party cast their ballots tomorrow to select a new leader. Depending on a welter of variables, the winner in tomorrow's party primary might ? or might not ? become the country's new prime minister. If the winner does become prime minister, he ? or she ? would replace the outgoing Ehud Olmert, who has been brought low by a series of financial scandals. But events could play out in a variety of different ways and, right now, no one knows which of them is most likely.

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12 dead as Hamas, clan battle in Gaza City
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - September 15, 2008 - 8:00pm

Twelve Palestinians were killed Tuesday as Hamas security police clashed with gunmen in the Gaza Strip, a Hamas security source said. Among those injured in the exchanges of fire was Army of Islam leader Mumtaz Doghmush, who was involved in kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. His brother was killed. The fighting between the Islamist Hamas security forces and members of the Doghmosh clan was the worst among Palestinians in the coastal territory since clashes in July in which more than a dozen died.

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'Terrorists planning Sinai kidnapping'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz - September 14, 2008 - 8:00pm

Palestinian and Hizbullah terrorists are in the advanced stages of plotting to kidnap Israeli tourists from Sinai beaches and transfer them secretly to the Gaza Strip, the Counter-Terrorism Bureau announced on Monday. The warning came amid growing concern in Israel that Palestinian terrorists have recently infiltrated Egypt via tunnels connecting Gaza and Sinai and are planning attacks against Israeli tourists there. Hizbullah, officials said, also sought to kidnap Israelis in retaliation for the February assassination of arch-terrorist Imad Mughniyeh.

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How Much For That West Bank Home?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Week
by Joshua Mitnick - September 9, 2008 - 8:00pm

The Web site of the Jewish settlement here, near Ben-Gurion Airport, boasts ?private homes, spectacular views, fresh air, space, and peace of mind.? The idyllic mountain vistas from Na?aleh are indeed stunning, but whatever peace of mind the 9,000 residents absorb from the rural Judean hills has been ruptured by the nagging reality that their settlement is separated from the rest of Israel by a checkpoint and the West Bank security barrier.

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American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017