Middle East News: World Press Roundup

Israeli right-wingers create their own tea parties. There are more signs of revival in Nablus. Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups accuse Israel of abusing Palestinian prisoners. Israel bans PM Fayyad from Jerusalem ceremonies. Fateh and Hamas officials will meet soon in Damascus. Egypt is reportedly pressing Palestinians to present a comprehensive peace plan. Amir Oren says the US is subtlety linking settlements and Israel¹s nuclear arsenal for the first time. Deputy PM Meridor cancels a UK trip for fear of arrest. PM Netanyahu says the settlement issue is on hold. Israel pressures the PA to prosecute Palestinian suspects. Gaza businesses are suffering due to an export ban. The Forward looks at controversy over Ahava cosmetics manufactured in the occupied territories. Hassan Barari concludes that prospects for a peace agreement are bleak.

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Likud Wing Plays Tea Party Over Israeli Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - November 1, 2010 - 12:00am TEL AVIV — There were plenty of tea bags around: Wissotzky, the Israeli brand. But the inaugural event of the Israeli version of the Tea Party, organized by the right flank of Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative Likud Party in this Mediterranean city on Sunday night, felt less like the start of a popular rebellion and more like a tepid political stunt. » Read more

Stability in West Bank Transforms a City of Chaos ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - November 1, 2010 - 12:00am NABLUS, West Bank — A mass wedding that took place here one recent balmy evening was the latest step toward the rebranding of this Palestinian city from a focus of chaos and violence to a model of stability in the West Bank. A wedding of 47 couples last month in Nablus, a city once a focus of violence, was part of an effort to change the city’s image. The 47 couples on the stage had not come together as a group before, and they were complete strangers to most of the 10,000 or so Palestinian revelers crowded into the amphitheater in the municipal park. » Read more

State-sanctioned torture in Israeli detention ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 2, 2010 - 12:00am RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Qaraqe released new information Monday revealing cases of child torture under Israeli interrogation. The announcement came one day ahead of the release of an Israeli rights group document charging Israel with "state sanctioned ill-treatment of interrogees" in at least one detention facility in Petah Tikva, in central Israel. » Read more

Netanyahu bans Fayyad from Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 2, 2010 - 12:00am TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday ordered security forces to prevent his Palestinian Authority counterpart from attending scheduled events in Jerusalem, Israeli press reported. Netanyahu issued the order a day before PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was due in the city to celebrate the PA-sponsored rebuilding of two schools in occupied East Jerusalem. The instructions came after Israel's Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch signed a warrant banning all PA events inside Israel, the Israeli news site Ynet reported. » Read more

Palestinian PM stakes claim to east Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Mohammed Daraghmeh - November 2, 2010 - 12:00am DAHIAT AL-BARID, WEST BANK — Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday staked a claim to Israeli-controlled east Jerusalem, announcing that his government quietly helped fund the renovation of 14 schools in what the Palestinians hope will be their capital. However, Fayyad stopped short of a full-fledged confrontation with Israel. He heeded an Israeli warning not to set foot in Jerusalem for the announcement and instead chose a West Bank school on the edge of the city as a venue. » Read more

Fatah, Hamas agree to meet in Damascus next week ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua November 2, 2010 - 12:00am GAZA/RAMALLAH, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Islamic Hamas movement and its rival Fatah party said Monday that they agreed to hold their second round of reconciliation meeting in Syria's capital of Damascus next week. Ayman Taha, Gaza-based Hamas spokesman told Xinhua on telephone that the two movements agreed to hold their meeting over finalizing reconciliation in Damascus on Nov. 9. The meeting will be attended by two delegations of the two movements, and it will include experts in security affairs, he said, adding that Hamas representatives from Gaza may also join the meeting. » Read more

New Palestinian peace plan may force Israel into action ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Akiva Eldar - November 2, 2010 - 12:00am Benjamin Netanyahu has adopted the worn-out tactic of soccer coaches: the best defense is a good offense. Instead of offering reasons for his refusal to freeze construction in the settlements, the prime minister is attacking the Palestinians for deciding to end negotiations. The story goes as follows. A few days ago we reported that Netanyahu's representative to talks with the Palestinians and Americans, Isaac Molho, refused to accept a Palestinian position paper on core issues - including the division of Jerusalem - from the head of the Palestinian delegation, Saeb Erekat. » Read more

Obama's message to Israel: Freeze settlements or get rid of Dimona ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amir Oren - (Opinion) November 2, 2010 - 12:00am Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz will retire from his post as deputy chief of staff at the end of the month and begin his demobilization leave. It is hard to believe he will be offered another senior defense post. In the view of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, his strategic approach is too moderate, just like that of his boss, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. The chief of staff and his deputy failed to volunteer grave security assessments and enthusiastic recommendations for operations to their political superiors. » Read more

Meridor cancels UK visit for fear of arrest ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Attila Somfalvi - November 1, 2010 - 12:00am Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor has canceled a scheduled trip to the UK for fear he would be arrested upon his arrival, Ynet reported Monday evening. Meridor, who was due to speak at a fund-raising dinner organized by the Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre instead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called off the trip after officials in the justice and foreign ministries warned that he may be arrested because the UK has yet to pass legislation preventing the arrest of senior Israeli officials over lawsuits filed by local political elements. » Read more

PM: Settlement freeze issue on hold ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Attila Somfalvi - November 1, 2010 - 12:00am There is no concrete American proposal regarding the renewal of a settlement construction freeze in the West Bank and the issue is on hold for the time being, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Likud faction meeting on Monday. Asked by Knesset Member Tzipi Hotovely about the possibility that the Palestinian Authority would declare statehood without Israel's consent, Netanyahu said such a unilateral measure would "exact a price from both sides" and would not advance a solution to the conflict. » Read more

IDF waits to see PA’s treatment of terror suspects ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Katz - November 1, 2010 - 12:00am In what some view as a test of the Palestinian Authority’s newly reformed legal system, the IDF is waiting to see what charges the PA brings against the alleged perpetrators of a recent shooting in the West Bank. Rabbi Moshe and Shira Moreno were wounded on September 8 as they drove near the Rimonim junction, halfway between Ramallah and Jericho and about 15 minutes north of the capital. The attack came a day after four Israelis were killed in a drive-by shooting near the Beit Hagai settlement in the South Hebron Hills. » Read more

Gaza businesses boxed in by Israeli export ban ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News November 2, 2010 - 12:00am Manal Hassan is a little short of breath as she walks me though the gloomy deserted production lines at the Al Awda biscuit factory in central Gaza. She has a lot on her plate at the moment. She is eight and half months pregnant, and the business she manages looks on the verge of going under. "It's very sad," Ms Hassan says, looking close to tears. "You can't imagine how it is when the factory is working. It's completely alive and full of people. Now it is like death." » Read more

Price of Beauty: Boycotts and ‘Buycotts’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Joy Resmovits - November 27, 2010 - 1:00am The Middle East conflict has inflamed college campuses, bedeviled political campaigns and sparked street demonstrations. But cosmetics stores are the latest, and perhaps least likely, sites so far to bear witness to the sprawling nature of this ever deepening dispute. » Read more

Bleak future for the Mideast ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Hassan Barari - November 2, 2010 - 12:00am Few could forget the fourth of November 1995 when Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin delivered his last speech. Some 400,000 - of the once vibrant peace camp - had gathered to express their support for his policies of peace with the Palestinians. Few moments after, a zealot student from Bar Ilan University shot him dead. » Read more

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