Middle East News: World Press Roundup

PM Fayyad says Palestinians are working with Special Envoy Mitchell to ensure conditions are right for negotiations. Israel cracks down on nonviolent protesters in the occupied West Bank. The film Avatar stirs controversy in Israel. Human Rights Watch disputes Hamas' claim that it did not target civilians. Hamas demands Palestinian unity before peace talks with Israel. Pres. Obama says the US supports Israel but is sympathetic to the Palestinians. A survey chooses the Palestinian best of 2009. Hamas claims one of its operatives was assassinated by Israel in Dubai. Palestinians object to a new Israeli light rail service in occupied East Jerusalem. A Ha'aretz commentary says a binational state is impossible, and another says Israel must investigate its conduct in the Gaza war. PM Netanyahu promises confidence-building measures with the PA. Historians say Israel destroyed tens of thousands of Palestinian books after its establishment. An Israeli court protects the right to protest. A former PA official says corruption will allow Hamas to seize power in the West Bank. Israel has stolen billions in Palestinian workers' insurance money. Eyad El-Sarraj describes the suffering in Gaza.

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Palestinians working with Mitchell toward talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press January 28, 2010 - 1:00am Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says conditions aren't yet right to return to peace talks with Israel but that the Palestinians are working with U.S. envoy George Mitchell on ways to break the deadlock. Fayyad, in an interview with The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum, said Mitchell and the Palestinians "are working on trying to get talks restarted." » Read more

Israel Signals Tougher Line on West Bank Protests ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - January 28, 2010 - 1:00am For more than a year, this village has been a focus of weekly protests against the Israeli security barrier, which cuts through its lands. Now, the village appears to be at the center of an intensifying Israeli arrest campaign. Apparently concerned that the protests could spread, the Israeli Army and security forces have recently begun clamping down, arresting scores of local organizers and activists here and conducting nighttime raids on the homes of others. » Read more

'Avatar' and the Palestinian blues ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Batsheva Sobelman - (Blog) January 28, 2010 - 1:00am "Avatar" may be rocking the box office, but it's rocking the casbah too, getting people to ask who's who with the blues and who exactly are the meanies in Israel. This week, a screening of "Avatar" erupted into a small ruckus in a suburb when one moviegoer loudly announced that the Palestinians should learn from this movie what to do to the Jews, causing a commotion and angering others in the audience. » Read more

Why Hamas is denying it targeted civilians in Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Erin Cunningham - January 28, 2010 - 1:00am Ahead of a looming deadline for Israel and Hamas to respond to war crimes charges in the UN-sponsored Goldstone report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) hit back today at a claim made by Hamas earlier this week that its fighters did not commit war crimes in its three-week war with Israel last winter. Instead, said Hamas, its fighters struck civilian areas in Israel “by mistake” when launching rockets at the country’s military installations. » Read more

Hamas: PA must return to unity talks before Israel peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency January 29, 2010 - 1:00am Hamas warned of "dangerous consequences" if Palestinian Authority officials return to peace talks with Israel, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told reporters Friday. President Mahmoud Abbas was the explicit target of the warning, and was told of the danger of returning to peace talks with Israel before Palestinian unity is achieved, as US pressure to return to negotiations mounts. Hamas distributed the statement to journalists on Friday, saying the party considered negotiations with Israel as a dangerous confiscation of Palestinian rights and a denial of justice for the people. » Read more

Obama: US backs Israel, sympathizes with Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency January 29, 2010 - 1:00am US President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the United States would always ensure Israel's security but that Washington must also pay attention to the plight of the Palestinians. The president, speaking at a town-hall meeting on various issues, was responding to a question about why, if the US truly supports human rights, it has not called out Israel and Egypt for abuses against Palestinians, apparently in reference to the blockade of Gaza. » Read more

Best of 2009 unveiled in Ramallah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency January 27, 2010 - 1:00am Results of Ma'an Network's annual poll on leading figures and organizations were announced at a celebration attended by political, factional, social, public and media figures in Ramallah on Wednesday evening. Ma'an general director Raed Othman thanked attendees and those who voted. He said an estimated 32 percent of Internet users in the occupied Palestinian territories participated in the poll, the largest such survey ever conducted. Results » Read more

Hamas: Israel assassinated operative in Dubai ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Albert Aji - January 29, 2010 - 1:00am Hamas accused Israeli agents on Friday of assassinating a veteran operative of the Palestinian militant group, saying he was electrocuted last week in a Dubai hotel room. Hamas' top leader, Khaled Mashaal, vowed to retaliate. The militant group identified the man as Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing that has been responsible for hundreds of deadly attacks and suicide bombings targeting Israelis since the 1980s. It said he was 50 years old. » Read more

Palestinians irate over new Jerusalem tram ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Karin Laub - January 29, 2010 - 1:00am Jerusalem's first light rail starts test runs this spring, with its sleek silver cars gliding across the city and promising to relieve the perpetual congestion. But Palestinians see no reason to celebrate. They hope to derail the $1 billion tram because they fear it will further entrench Israeli control over east Jerusalem, the part of the city they want as a capital. They've asked a French court to force two French multinationals, Veolia and Alstom, out of the project and are urging Arab countries to cancel contracts with the two companies. » Read more

A binational state? Here? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Alexander Yakobson - (Opinion) January 29, 2010 - 1:00am Since the division of the land into two viable states is no longer possible, there is no choice - for anyone who believes in equality - but to support a democratic binational state from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, claims Meron Benvenisti (Haaretz, January 22). » Read more

Menachem Mazuz: Israel must probe Gaza war to counter Goldstone ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Ari Shavit - January 29, 2010 - 1:00am The Goldstone report is a serious threat to Israel that will "continue to haunt us and take away our legitimacy," outgoing told Haaretz in an interview. » Read more

Netanyahu to U.S.: I'll free Fatah prisoners to boost Abbas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - January 29, 2010 - 1:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to the release of hundreds of Fatah prisoners as part of efforts backed by the United States and Egypt to jump-start the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu expressed a willingness to release prisoners as a goodwill gesture in talks with the special U.S. Mideast envoy, George Mitchell. Under the plan, Israel would also embark on low-level negotiations with U.S. mediation. » Read more

Researcher: Israel destroyed Palestinian books ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews January 28, 2010 - 1:00am Israel plundered and destroyed tens of thousands of Palestinian books in the years after the State's establishment, according to a doctoral thesis to be submitted next month by a Ben-Gurion University researcher. In an interview with the researcher published on al-Jazeera's website Thursday, he claimed that Israel destroyed the Palestinian books in the framework of its plan to "Judaize the country" and cut off its Arab residents from their nation and culture. » Read more

Court rules Sheikh Jarrah protests legal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ronen Medzini - January 28, 2010 - 1:00am The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court ruled Thursday that leftist demonstrations in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah are not illegal as claimed by the police. The ruling was issued during a court hearing to discuss the indictments filed against 18 protestors who were arrested in Sheikh Jarrah last Friday, after demonstrating against Jewish settlers who took over houses in the Arab neighborhood. » Read more

‘Corruption will let Hamas take W. Bank' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Khaled Abu Toameh - January 29, 2010 - 1:00am Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has surrounded himself with many of the corrupt officials who used to work for his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, and that’s why Hamas will one day take control of the West Bank, Fahmi Shabaneh, who was appointed by Abbas four years ago to root out corruption in the Palestinian Authority, said on Thursday. » Read more

‘State siphoned off Palestinian workers’ insurance money’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Benjamin L. Hartman - January 29, 2010 - 1:00am The government of Israel has siphoned over a billion shekels in money taken from Palestinian laborers for national insurance between 1970-1994, a report released on Wednesday states. » Read more

Goldstone report keeps Israel on tenterhooks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Craig Nelson - (Analysis) January 29, 2010 - 1:00am From Israel’s point of view, the UN report accusing its military of possible war crimes and crimes against humanity during its invasion last winter of the Gaza Strip might be subtitled “The Report That Won’t Go Away”. » Read more

Israel’s silent war ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Ahmad Majdoubeh - (Opinion) January 29, 2010 - 1:00am If you ask Middle Easterners, and many others in the world, about Israel’s contribution to the region, the answer will automatically be: war, violence, dispossession and destruction. » Read more

Gaza's Agony ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Eyad El-Sarraj - (Opinion) January 28, 2010 - 1:00am On the night Barack Obama won the U.S. presidency, he announced: "To all those ... who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world ... a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you.... The true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope." Obama's words made the world shiver with anticipation. » Read more

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