Middle East News: World Press Roundup

Fatah extends its party congress for at least another day, as rival factions remain divided over the issue of a new voting process. While several articles address the challenges facing Fatah's efforts to conciliate the 'old guard' of the party with the reform camp. The Christian Science Monitor looks at how control over East Jerusalem has evolved over time. A former Israeli military commander tells the BBC that Palestinian youths are routinely ill-treated by the IDF while in custody. Special Mideast Envoy George Mitchell reportedly asks the Israeli leadership for commitment to a one year freeze on settlement construction. Controversy continues over the recent evictions of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem. Columnists in Israeli and Arab newspapers exchange accusations that the Arab states and Israel respectively are not willing to take steps needed for movement on Middle East peace.

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Fatah extends stormy conference ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News August 6, 2009 - 12:00am Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction's first party congress for 20 years has been extended amid rows between rival camps. The meeting, which was originally scheduled to last three days, will go on for at least an extra day. Participants are divided over the process for voting in new members of its powerful central committee. Younger members want to wrest more control from older leaders seen as corrupt and ineffective. Nabil Amr, a spokesman for the conference, told local media the second day, Wednesday, was "stormy". » Read more

'Stormy' start to Fatah's historic summit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - August 6, 2009 - 12:00am The first Fatah conference in two decades was off on Wednesday to what a senior Palestinian official acknowledged was a "stormy" start as some 2,200 party delegates wrangled over a variety of issues and showed reluctance to accept top-down decisions from the party's elite. Foremost among these was a directive to accept the 51-page text of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's speech – which he took two hours to deliver at the opening of the conference on Tuesday – as the report of record explaining Fatah's progress to its Central Committee since they last met in 1989. » Read more

How East Jerusalem went from Jordanian to Israeli to disputed control ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Dan Murphy - August 5, 2009 - 12:00am Ilene Prusher’s story Tuesday explored the symbolic and emotional dispute over control of East Jerusalem by telling the story of the Hanoun family, who were evicted from the home they’d occupied for 50 years by Israeli forces over the weekend – and immediately replaced with Jewish settlers. The eviction was legal under Israeli law, but Israel’s decision to do so will at minimum slow the Obama administration’s efforts to restart Middle East peace talks. » Read more

Old guard "hijacks" Fatah congress, say reformers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Mohammed Assadi - August 6, 2009 - 12:00am The first congress in 20 years of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah has been "hijacked" by an older generation, reformers said, threatening to blunt their efforts to rejuvenate the movement. Younger members, seeking a more transparent Fatah ahead of elections due in early 2010, said on Wednesday that the "old guard" had packed the congress with delegates loyal to them in a bid to maintain the status quo. » Read more

Israeli troops 'ill-treat kids' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News August 6, 2009 - 12:00am A former Israeli military commander has told the BBC that Palestinian youngsters are routinely ill-treated by Israeli soldiers while in custody, reports the BBC' s Katya Adler from Jerusalem and the West Bank. "You take the kid, you blindfold him, you handcuff him, he's really shaking... Sometimes you cuff his legs too. Sometimes it cuts off the circulation. "He doesn't understand a word of what's going on around him. He doesn't know what you're going to do with him. He just knows we are soldiers with guns. That we kill people. Maybe they think we're going to kill him. » Read more

From ‘Jew Boy’ To ‘Self-Hater’: U.S. Jewish Officials Hear From Israelis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - August 5, 2009 - 12:00am A report stating that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had denounced two top aides to President Obama as “self-hating Jews” brought back less-than-fond memories to veteran Jewish officials from previous administrations — even as Netanyahu belatedly denied the latest alleged instance of this long tradition of targeting Jewish administration officials. For Martin Indyk, former ambassador to Israel, it was the image of the late Cabinet minister Rehavam Zeevi calling him “Yehudon” — translated loosely to “Jew boy” — that came to mind. » Read more

Fatah needs new political options ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Francis Matthew - (Opinion) August 5, 2009 - 12:00am This week's Fatah Congress was based on the hope that the Palestinians can find a successful political way forward, but there is the all-too-real dreadful possibility that the Palestinians will fail and the Israelis will continue their decades of occupation and domination. At the Congress, Fatah did not debate what political and social alternatives there might be for the Palestinians if the two-state solution turns out to be unworkable. And it is all too easy to see Israel refusing to withdraw from its colonies and safe corridors on the West Bank. » Read more

US stands to lose if peace process stalls ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - August 5, 2009 - 12:00am Barack Obama is in a bit of a bind. Unlike any of his predecessors, this American president chose, admirably, to attempt to tackle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict shortly after taking office, realising that this long-festering issue has seriously damaged the US image in the Middle East. His first step, his choice of former Senate leader George J. Mitchell as his special envoy to manage the peace negotiations, was widely hailed as Mitchell played a key role in settling the Irish conflict. » Read more

Fatah must reinvent itself for Palestine ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) August 5, 2009 - 12:00am In the 20 years since Fatah last held its general congress, much has changed about the Palestinian question. The 1993 Olso Agreement was an undeniable achievement but it failed to bring either good governance or statehood to the Palestinian people. The Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority has obtained too few concessions from Israel, which perpetuates the violent and oppresive occupation of the Palestinian territories. As a result, it finds itself weakened and embattled in a civil war with its Islamist rival Hamas. » Read more

No normalisation without withdrawal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Michael Jansen - (Opinion) August 6, 2009 - 12:00am The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday that the Obama administration would be tabling its Middle East peace plan “in a matter of weeks,” quoting State Department spokesman Philip Crowley. The paper said the US is “seeking a complete freeze on Israeli settlements in exchange for Palestinian security reforms and Arab [normalisation] gestures towards Israel.” Once these items have been agreed, Washington will convene an international peace conference. » Read more

New guard replaces old in Fateh ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) August 6, 2009 - 12:00am It has taken 20 years, but the Palestinian Liberation Movement (Fateh) has finally held its sixth general conference allowing for a much-needed influx of new blood into the movement. The conference, which opened in Bethlehem on August 4, registers many historic firsts. It is the first conference of a liberation movement to be held within an area it is hoping to liberate from a foreign occupying force. It is also the first time that Fateh holds a conference on Palestinian territory. » Read more

U.S. asks Israel for one-year settlement freeze ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - August 6, 2009 - 12:00am American Middle East envoy George Mitchell has asked Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak for a "deposit," an advance commitment of a one-year freeze on construction in West Bank settlements. Mitchell raised the idea in his talks with Netanyahu and Barak in Israel last week. He argued that the Arab states will not make gestures toward normalization with Israel without a guarantee of an end to building in the settlements. Mitchell said an Israeli agreement to temporarily freeze construction would facilitate concessions from the Arab states. » Read more

J Street, ADL launch war of words over Obama Israel policy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Natasha Mozgovaya - August 6, 2009 - 12:00am Nearly seven months after the inauguration of Barack Obama, feuding among major U.S. Jews organizations is taking place behind closed doors and could be reaching its worst point in recent memory. Left-wing U.S. Jewish organizations have been buoyed by the election of Obama, and according to some Jewish Democrats in Washington, tensions have been worsened by the lessening of right-wing Jews' access to senior White House officials, in contrast to the near-monopoly they had on access to Bush administration officials for the past eight years. » Read more

From Sheikh Jarrah to Sheikh Munis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) August 6, 2009 - 12:00am At the top of the hill, a few dozen meters from where a house now stands, there used to be an irrigation pool for the village citrus groves. I swim every morning at the municipal swimming pool built on the ruins of the village irrigation pool. Palestinian Jaffa oranges grew in the now-vanished groves. My house stands there now. The land was "redeemed," as land acquisition was called in Zionist propaganda. » Read more

Fatah: Israel behind Arafat's death ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ali Waked - August 6, 2009 - 12:00am The Fatah Congress on Thursday unanimously concluded that Israel was behind the death of former PA President Yasser Arafat. The congress decided to set up a Palestinian inquiry commission to probe the matter. The congress also called for an international commission to investigate the circumstances of Arafat's death. Arafat died in the end of 2004. In October of that year his physical condition dramatically deteriorated, and shortly afterwards – with Israel's authorization – he was transferred to a French military hospital » Read more

'Economic peace no replacement for a political solution' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Ron Friedman - August 5, 2009 - 12:00am A new study published by the Peres Center for Peace argues that economic peace, though a helpful tool, cannot replace a political solution with the Palestinians. The study was released last week at a special conference on the topic at Tel Aviv University, following a meeting between Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom and Palestinian National Economy Minister Bassim Khoury. » Read more

Sheikh Jarrah really says it all ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) August 5, 2009 - 12:00am If the Obama administration goes all the way in its demand for a total settlement freeze, if it stands firm against Israeli emotional blackmail, we may have this week's debacle in Sheikh Jarrah to thank. The eviction of two Palestinian families from their homes in Arab east Jerusalem where they'd lived for over 50 years, and the takeover of the houses by Israeli zealots intent on "re-Judaizing" the neighborhood, revealed our settlement policy in all its glory. It reminded everyone that the issue isn't houses and zoning, it's justice and decency - or, rather, injustice and indecency. » Read more

American and Israeli delusions of peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) August 5, 2009 - 12:00am No wonder the State Department is known as the Fudge Factory. Not once but twice in three days, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stood by smiling while getting verbal slaps in the face from two of our closest Arab allies. The Jordanian and Saudi foreign ministers publicly declared they have no intention of offering the administration more than gratuitous advice on resuscitating the Arab-Israeli peace process. » Read more

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