October 6, 2008 | The American Task Force on Palestine

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October 6, 2008

Tzipi Livni, Israeli Prime Minister-delegate, warns that time is running out for a peace agreement as extremists continue to gain strength (1). Amira Hass analyzes how the fractured Palestinian leadership is complicating prospects for a peace agreement with Israel (2). An op-ed by Danny Rothschild in Ynet News criticizes Tzipi Livni’s pledge to take Jerusalem off the negotiating table (4). The IDF works with the Palestinian Authority to coordinate security for Palestinians during the olive harvest (5). Five Palestinian farmers sue Israel for breaking a commitment to evacuate a settlement built on their land (8).

Time running out on Israel-Palestinian Deal : Livni
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Mark Lavie - December 31, 1969 - 8:00pm

Israeli Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni warned Sunday that time is running out for a peace agreement with the Palestinians, with extremists gaining strength as negotiations stumble. In her first foreign policy speech since her appointment to form a new government, Livni said Israel must press ahead with peace talks because 'doing nothing has its own price.'

Palestinians: Divided We Fall
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Le Monde Diplomatique
by Amira Hass - December 31, 1969 - 8:00pm

At the beginning of July, people in the West Bank and Gaza were relieved to hear that high-school graduation results in both of the occupied territories were to be made public at the same time – there had been a rumour that Gaza’s ministry of education would publish its own results a day early. That shows the anxiety that has existed since June 2007 when Palestinian self-rule became dual – with one administration run by Fatah in Ramallah in the West Bank, and another by Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli group is Breaking the Silence over Hebron
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Cherrie Heywood - October 3, 2008 - 8:00pm

An Israeli police commander has called them "provocateurs," "militants," and "lawbreakers." Earlier in the year the Israeli Army decided that their presence in the flashpoint city of Hebron, 30 kilometers south of Occupied Jerusalem in the Occupied West Bank, constituted a security threat and banned them from the city, stating that any member of the organization caught there would be expelled forthwith.

Livni’s First Mistake
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Danny Rothschild - (Opinion) October 4, 2008 - 8:00pm

Tzipi Livni was elected to lead Kadima and is the party’s candidate for prime minister. We should congratulate her and wish her success – after all, her success is our success. However, Livni started her maneuvers with a grave strategic mistake, by obligating, in her talks with Shas, that the Jerusalem question will not be on the agenda vis-à-vis the Palestinians and that talks regarding the capital’s future will be postponed to an unknown date.

IDF, PA coordinate security for olive harvest
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - October 5, 2008 - 8:00pm

IDF officials have met figures in the Palestinian Authority to coordinate passage of Palestinian farmers through the security barrier so that they can harvest their olive trees located on the Israeli side. "As part of these preparations, meetings have been held between Civil Administration personnel and their Palestinian colleagues," the IDF said in a statement. "The meetings included representatives of the various villages in the region, as well as important figures from the PA including [officials from] the Olive Oil Department."

In praise of a brave woman
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ray Hanania - September 24, 2008 - 8:00pm

In the backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that dominates everyone's attention and the news, another fight for the protection of children, families and Christian education is taking place in the Middle East. It is being waged by an Arab-Israeli woman named Nadia Hilou who has bucked the systems in Israel and in the Palestinian community to do what some thought impossible. A long time advocate of children and family rights, Hilou is a citizen of Israel and ran for the Israeli Knesset so she could advocate for the rights of all people in Israel, Arab and Jewish.

The Balkans have arrived
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - October 4, 2008 - 8:00pm

It is difficult to imagine that a veteran political hack and smart lawyer like Ehud Olmert did not understand that once Israel's prime minister loudly set the bar for an agreement with the Palestinians at the 1967 borders, no Palestinian leader will settle for less. Like the heiress apparent, Tzipi Livni, Olmert knows that there is no point in continuing to bargain. Both have concluded that the old game of the endless peace process that leads nowhere has reached its end.

Palestinians sue Israel for not evacuating West Bank outpost
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
October 5, 2008 - 8:00pm

Five Palestinian farmers are suing the state for not evacuating the illegal West Bank outpost of Migron, which is built upon land they own. The plaintiffs are seeking NIS 1.5 million for damage caused to their livelihoods by the outpost, which the government committed to evacuate over a year ago. The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din filed the lawsuit at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Sunday on behalf of the plaintiffs. The organization described the lawsuit brought as the first of its kind involving an illegal outpost.

PA forces foil suicide bombing bid by Hebron terrorists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - October 5, 2008 - 8:00pm

Palestinian security forces have thwarted an attempted suicide bombing within the Green Line, Palestinian sources told Haaretz recently. The security service in the West Bank arrested two senior wanted members of Hamas' military wing in Hebron, who were found in possession of weapons and an explosives belt, the sources said. The suspects, who were arrested three weeks ago, were also in possession of a great deal of cash, which they were thought to be planning to use in carrying out the attack.

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