Middle East News: World Press Roundup

The Fatah conference votes another term for President Mahmoud Abbas as party chief, and embraces the strategic goal of peace based on two states, further distancing itself from rival party Hamas. Israeli jets bomb a tunnel on the Gaza-Egypt border. Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai calls for continued settlement construction in the controversial “E-1 corridor” in occupied East Jerusalem. Palestinian sources report that progress has been made on the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Prime Minister Netanyahu calls the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from Gaza “a mistake,” and vows not to remove settlers from the West Bank. Thomas Friedman produces a second article about Palestinian economic development in the West Bank, this time focusing on the new security services.

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Palestinians Elect Leader, Unopposed, as Party Chief ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - August 8, 2009 - 12:00am Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, will retain control of his Fatah party after an election on Saturday in which he ran unopposed. More than 2,000 delegates, a nearly unanimous majority, voted for him in a show of hands at a party conference in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Fatah’s first such gathering in 20 years. Mr. Abbas succeeded Yasir Arafat as the leader of Fatah, a mainstream nationalist movement, after Mr. Arafat, the Palestinian leader who founded it, died in 2004. » Read more

Israeli Raid Strikes Tunnel Into Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters August 10, 2009 - 12:00am Israeli warplanes bombed a tunnel along the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt on Monday, the Israeli military, Hamas officials and witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the pre-dawn raid in the Palestinian coastal territory, which is governed by the Islamist Hamas movement. The raid was launched in response to recent mortar and rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel, an Israeli military spokeswoman said. » Read more

Young Israeli settlers go hippie? Far out, man! ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - August 9, 2009 - 12:00am Situated just outside this contoversial Jewish settlement in the West Bank, the hilltop stage was dominated Thursday by a Star of David, an olive tree, and musicians who mix blues licks, reggae rhythms, and messianic refrains from Jewish liturgy. The annual "End of Days" festival – which bills itself as a "place of light and unity, inspiration and calm" – has become something of a mini-Woodstock in the settlements, with meditation groups, religious study sessions, and a crowd dressed in colorful flowing clothes. » Read more

Fatah backs two-state solution, sharpening rift with Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press August 10, 2009 - 12:00am Fatah on Sunday endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, underlining its ideological conflict with the Islamist Hamas and drawing political battle lines for their next election showdown. The movement adopted the program at its convention - Fatah's first in 20 years - that also tried to finesse the key principle of violent resistance against Israel, calling it a right but preferring measures like civil disobedience. » Read more

Fatah concludes elections ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press August 10, 2009 - 12:00am Members of the Palestinian Fatah organisation have finished voting in an election marking the movement’s first convention in 20 years. The new members of the organisation’s powerful central committee are to be announced this afternoon. The results will show whether Fatah has succeeded in reinvigorating the movement by bringing new faces into its ageing leadership. » Read more

Abbas re-elected chairman by deeply divided Fatah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Irish Times by Michael Jansen - August 10, 2009 - 12:00am Fatah's first general congress in 20 years yesterday delayed until this evening the vote for representatives on two key decision-making bodies. By postponing elections for a third time, Fatah revealed that it remains deeply divided between the “old guard” who have controlled the movement since its founding half a century ago and the “young guard” who seek to initiate wide-ranging reforms. » Read more

Yishai: U.S. can't stop settlement expansion ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Nir Hasson - August 10, 2009 - 12:00am Interior Minister Eli Yishai said on Monday that Israel must go ahead with plans to expand a settlement enclave near Jerusalem despite U.S. objections. While touring the E-1 corridor, Yishai called for continued construction in the contentious corridor between the Ma'aleh Adumim settlement and Jerusalem, and said he hoped Israel would succeed in convincing the U.S. to approve construction. » Read more

Lieberman urges Boston consul to resign for rebuking Israel policy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - August 10, 2009 - 12:00am Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Monday called on Israel's Consul-General in Boston Nadav Tamir to resign his post over a confidential memo in which he criticized the government for harming ties with the U.S. last week. "Any official who can't abide by policy dictated by the elected government - must resign," Lieberman declared at a Foreign Ministry meeting. » Read more

Yishai: If need be we will build without US approval ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ronen Medzini - August 10, 2009 - 12:00am Interior Minister Eli Yishai, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin and Maale Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel visited the E1 area between the city and Jerusalem on Monday with a clear message that this area should be built up, with or without American approval. The tour took place near a police station, the only Israeli building in E1. "At some point, we will have to build, even if we don't manage to convince the Americans, at least in the settlement blocks," Yishai said. » Read more

Palestinian Report: progress made in Shalit talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Roee Nahmias - August 9, 2009 - 12:00am Israel and Hamas are holding intensive Egyptian-mediated talks behind the scenes in an attempt to finalize a prisoner exchange deal, a Palestinian website affiliated with the Islamic Jihad reported Sunday. The report quotes the website's "commentator on Israeli affairs" as saying that an agreement securing the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit is about to be finalized and may even be executed before Eid al-Fitr – the holiday marking the end of the Islamic month of Ramadan – in about a month and a half. » Read more

Netanyahu calls Gaza withdrawal ‘a mistake’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Emile Hokayem - August 9, 2009 - 12:00am Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, yesterday said the withdrawal of nearly 9,000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip four years ago was a mistake, bringing mixed reaction from Middle East experts on the significance of his comments to relations with the United States and the peace process. » Read more

Green Shoots in Palestine II ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Thomas L. Friedman - August 8, 2009 - 12:00am Ever since the collapse of the Oslo peace accords in 2000, and the horror-show violence that followed, there has been only one thing to say about the West Bank: Nothing ever changes here, except for the worst. That is just not the case anymore — much to my surprise. » Read more

The push for Mideast peace hinges on Benjamin Netanyahu 2.0 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Daily News by David Makovsky - (Opinion) August 10, 2009 - 12:00am As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently passed his first 100 days in office, there are early signs that the Israeli leader has evolved since he held the post a decade ago. This could mean - on the Israeli side at least - a real commitment to a durable peace. » Read more

Losing Patience with Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Atlantic by Robert Kaplan - August 10, 2009 - 12:00am Not since the days of Henry Kissinger’s Mid-East shuttle diplomacy in the 1970s has America’s foreign policy toward Israel been characterized by such an attitude of unsentimental realism. After eight years of fighting, the stalemate in Afghanistan and the loss of 4,000 American troops in Iraq – not to mention the deaths of perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iraqis – has rendered the search for stability, rather than democracy, paramount, and created a climate in which interests are to be valued far more than friends. » Read more

March 14 and Fatah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat by Walid Choucair - (Opinion) August 10, 2009 - 12:00am It is no coincidence that King Abdel-Aziz of Saudi Arabia has recently sent a letter to the Fatah conference in Bethlehem, urging Palestinians to unite “because if the entire world agrees on a Palestinian state, it will not be established if your house is divided,” and dispatched his minister of culture and information, Abdel-Aziz Khoja, to Beirut to help halt the deterioration in relations among the March 14 coalition, and specifically between Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri and Walid Jumblatt, the head of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP). » Read more

Israel continues to oppose peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Adel Safty - (Opinion) August 10, 2009 - 12:00am The Obama administration continues to pursue a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict "actively and aggressively", as Obama himself vowed in the first days of his mandate. Central to this pursuit is the issue of a total freeze on Israeli colony construction - an obligation mandated by the road map for peace, which Israeli leaders refuse to honour. » Read more

Sheikh Jarrah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Nermeen Murad - (Opinion) August 18, 2009 - 12:00am I went to Jerusalem for the first time in my life in the early 1970s, and I retain many memories from that first trip. The West Bank was under complete Israeli occupation and the only way in was through the King Hussein Bridge. The crossing was arduous, long, hot and dirty. Flies buzzed over children’s heads and the whole atmosphere was tense. » Read more

Jordan favors Fatah, but without optimism for success ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Oraib Al-Rantawi - August 10, 2009 - 12:00am Nearly two years ago, Jordan opened its doors to the attempt by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to restore and awaken the Fatah movement. Fatah is the backbone of the Palestinian national movement and the main Palestinian partner in the peace process to which Jordan attaches special attention. The rise of the Hamas movement and its landslide victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections played a major role in encouraging Jordan to move away from its usual caution and provide all possible facilities for holding the Fatah congress and rebuilding the movement. » Read more

Is the pro-Israel lobby panicking? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Rami Khouri - August 10, 2009 - 12:00am Is the Israeli lobby in the United States in panic mode? The Obama administration hit the ground running when it took office in January, quickly appointing George Mitchell as a special envoy to Arab-Israeli peacemaking, and making it clear that President Barack Obama himself would devote time and energy to the goal of a comprehensive peace. » Read more

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