Middle East News: World Press Roundup

Palestinians say a Palestinian killed by Israeli forces near a West Bank settlement was unarmed. Gaza flotilla organizers continue planning campaigns. Israel continues to jail a leader of Palestinian nonviolent protests. Eight Palestinian buildings near Ramallah are destroyed by Israeli forces. Pres. Abbas signals he will resist pressure for direct talks. Israeli shelling kills two Gaza militants, injures six other people. PM Fayyad continues to plan a cabinet reshuffle. Israel's approach to civilian casualties appears to be changing following the Gaza war. More doubts surface about Israel's new anti-rocket system. US officials say final status issues will only be discussed in direct negotiations. A Palestinian man is severely beaten for talking with a Jewish girl in Israel. D. Bloomfield says trust is the missing element for peace. The Forward looks at controversies over Caterpillar. Felice Friedson of the Media Line says if Israel doesn't make its policies clear the UN will decide for it. Michael Jansen says arming Israel is not the path to peace.

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Dispute Over Killing in the West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - July 22, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli forces shot to death a Palestinian man early on Thursday at the edge of a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank, the Israeli military and Palestinian officials said. The Palestinian Authority government condemned the killing and said the dead man was not armed. The Israeli military said soldiers spotted two Palestinians approaching the settlement of Barkan before dawn, suspected that one of them was armed and opened fire. One was killed, and the other man fled. » Read more

High on success, pro-Palestinian group that organized Gaza flotilla attracts more volunteers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Diaa Hadid - July 22, 2010 - 12:00am The stream of ships heading to Gaza in defiance of Israel's blockade reflects the success of a pro-Palestinian group that's been creatively confronting Israel for years. High on victory, they are flush with new volunteers. Activists of the International Solidarity Movement first sailed to Gaza in summer 2008 to challenge Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory. Most recently in May, it organized a Gaza-bound flotilla that led to a botched Israeli raid that killed nine activists, sparked an international outcry and forced Israel to ease its 3-year-old blockade. » Read more

Palestinian shot dead near settlement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 22, 2010 - 12:00am A Palestinian man was killed and a second injured by Israeli gunfire in the occupied West Bank on Thursday morning, Palestinian security officials said. They told Ma’an that an Israeli force opened fire on the two at 4:30 a.m. at the entrance of the illegal Barqan settlement in the Salfit district, killing one man while the second was injured. » Read more

Israel sentences popular struggle leader ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 22, 2010 - 12:00am A Palestinian protest organizer detained in 2005 and put on trial was sentenced Wednesday with a second trial pending, popular committee officials in Bil'in said. A statement said Abdallah Abu Rahmah was sentenced to two months of imprisonment and a six-month suspended sentence while a five-year trial on a litany of charges including "activity against the public order," "obstructing a soldier in the line of duty," and "incitement." A verdict in Abu Rahmah's main case for which he is already in jail since December is expected soon, organizers added. » Read more

Israeli forces demolish Palestinian homes, shops ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 22, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli authorities have demolished eight structures belonging to Palestinians in a residential area northwest of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Al-Gharbi mayor Ghassan Abu Salem said more than a dozen military vehicles carrying armed soldiers arrived mid-morning Wednesday with military equipment to carry out the demolitions. "They immediately began tearing down the structures," Abu Salem said. "They were homes and shops right on the main street, but the army said they were illegally built in 'Area C'," which falls under Israeli control. » Read more

Abbas signals will resist U.S. pressure for talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters July 22, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has indicated he will resist U.S. pressure for face-to-face peace talks with Israel for now, saying indirect negotiations must make progress first. Abbas has said he wants the indirect negotiations to produce results on the issues of the security and borders of a future Palestinian state to be founded alongside Israel on land it occupied in 1967. » Read more

Israeli shelling kills 2 Gaza militants, wounds 6 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Allyn Fisher-Ilan - July 22, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli shellfire killed two Palestinian militants and wounded six people, including a 10-year-old girl, in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Palestinian medical workers and an official with a militant group said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said soldiers opened fire on militants suspected of preparing to fire a rocket at them. A security source said the troops fired a tank shell. Officials with a militant group active in Gaza said the dead men, one of whom was pronounced dead soon after the incident and the other of whom died later, were both among their members. » Read more

Palestinian PM to reshuffle government ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua July 22, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will reshuffle the government in the West Bank soon, an official from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party said Wednesday. "President Abbas has started discussions to do the reshuffle that may take place within the coming 10 days," said Amin Maqboul, a member of the Fatah Central Committee. Maqboul added that Fayyad would continue leading the government and he would carry out the reshuffle "because he is not a subject of big controversy" for Fatah. » Read more

MESS Report / Gaza war probes are changing Israel's defiant ways ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amos Harel - July 22, 2010 - 12:00am Israel's policy on how to deal with violations of the laws of war during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip has undergone a radical change during the year and half since the fighting ended. In the meantime, it seems, Israel has paid the full price for its original position without managing to reap any significant profits from its turnabout. » Read more

Iron Dome may not be as effective as the IDF thinks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Yossi Melman - (Analysis) July 22, 2010 - 12:00am Everything about the last test of the Iron Dome missile defense system, created to intercept all manner of launched projectile within a 40 kilometer radius, came up smelling like roses. » Read more

U.S. official: Final status issues to be discussed only in direct Mideast peace talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Natasha Mozgovaya, Barak Ravid - July 22, 2010 - 12:00am Final status issues, including the borders of a future Palestinian state, can only be addressed during direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, a top U.S. official said Wednesday. The comment by State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley came after reports surfaced earlier Wednesday, according to which Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has vowed to resist U.S. pressure to open direct peace talks with Israel, unless he receives less "vague" guarantees on the issues of Israeli settlement construction and the borders of a future Palestinian state. » Read more

'Arab man attacked for talking to Jewish girl' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ahiya Raved - July 22, 2010 - 12:00am A 23-year-old Arab man sustained serious injuries after being attacked in Tiberias, allegedly for talking to a young Jewish woman. Police are still searching for the suspected assailant, a 19-year-old who fled the scene. According to police, it is not yet clear whether the attack was nationalistically motivated and whether there was any connection between the suspect and the young woman. » Read more

The missing link in the peace process: Trust ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) July 22, 2010 - 12:00am About the only thing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have in common these days is a conviction that the other is bluffing when he says he is ready to make peace. But so far neither has shown the courage to call the other’s bluff. » Read more

Caterpillar Caught in Web Of Middle East Politics ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Josh Nathan-Kazis - July 21, 2010 - 12:00am At first glance, the contention that a construction equipment company in Peoria, Ill., is implicated in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems strange. But earlier in July, the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States adopted a resolution that strongly criticized Caterpillar Inc., the manufacturer whose tractors, bulldozers and mining equipment help build and farm America, for its role in Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands. » Read more

One-State or Two-State: If Israel Doesn’t Decide, the UN Will ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Felice Friedson - July 22, 2010 - 12:00am It is conceivable within the course of realpolitik that despite obfuscation; political filibustering; dancing the diplomatic two-step (direct, indirect); wading through a plethora of plans, initiatives, think-tank reports, white papers and expert opinions (from Madrid to Oslo to Allon to Arab to Faya’d); it appears increasingly likely that all might boil down to a single resolution enacted by the United Nations Security Council. » Read more

Discussions, not war ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Michael Jansen - July 22, 2010 - 12:00am Following Israel's 1948 war of establishment, the Truman administration warned the leaders of the new state that the US would not send in the cavalry for protection, but provide military hardware so it could defend itself. President Harry Truman argued that US voters would support Israel as long as the blood of US soldiers was not being shed to preserve it. » Read more

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