Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: Sec. Clinton says Israeli-Palestinian peace talks must resume, but this no longer seems to be a priority for American foreign policy. Palestinian journalists are angered by Israeli efforts to strip search them before attending a press conference with Clinton. Israel was reportedly hoping for guidance from Clinton regarding the new Egyptian government. PM Fayyad asks the US to help alleviate the PA financial crisis, as he meets with Clinton in Jerusalem. Israel is preventing Palestinian medical graduates from working in occupied East Jerusalem. Christians in Gaza stage a rare protest after what they claim are forced conversions to Islam. Hamas executes three Gaza residents for murder. PA police are launching a campaign against child labor in the West Bank. The Israeli military hires an architect to resume construction at an “unauthorized” settlement outpost. Settler leaders are expected to declare that a school in the settlement of Ariel is a “university.” Peace Now's Settlement Watch Director is again threatened by right-wing extremists. Israel claims it has thwarted more than 10 terrorist attacks emanating from the Sinai Peninsula. Israel's governing coalition may break up over the question of national service. Israel's “social justice” protest movement is divided over the question of the occupation. COMMENTARY: Christiane Amanpour interviews Fayyad. Aaron David Miller lists five reasons why the two-state solution "will never die." Bradley Burston says American politicians should understand that "pro-Israel" does not mean anti-peace. Mira Sucharov says BDS supporters need to decide what it is they are fighting for. David Newman says Israelis must understand the Palestinians are in the land to stay. Ethan Felson looks at the boycott vote recently taken by the US Presbyterian Church. Walid Khadduri says Palestinians must begin to develop their West Bank oilfields before Israel seizes them.

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Peace Talks Must Resume, Clinton Says in Israel Visit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Jodi Rudoren - July 16, 2012 - 12:00am Visiting Israel for the first time in nearly two years, with the Palestinian peace process seemingly on perpetual hold, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that “the status quo is unsustainable” and urged leaders from both sides back to negotiations. » Read more

Mideast peace slips to second billing for US ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Josef Federman - July 17, 2012 - 12:00am Mideast peace, America's defining issue for decades of dealings with Israel and its Arab neighbors, was just a postscript Monday as Hillary Rodham Clinton made perhaps her final visit to the region as secretary of state. Three years after President Barack Obama declared the plight of the Palestinians "intolerable," his administration no longer sees the failing Arab-Israeli peace efforts with the same immediacy. U.S. interests are focused now on Iran and Syria, though the deep differences between Israel and the Palestinians are not ignored. » Read more

Palestinian journalists balk at strip search ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press July 16, 2012 - 12:00am A Palestinian journalist says he and three colleagues trying to cover U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's news conference walked away after being asked to drop their pants in an Israeli security check. The Palestinian journalists were invited to Monday's event by the U.S. consulate, which sent a staffer to guide them through security. Mohammed Abu Khdeir of the Al Quds newspaper says Israeli and foreign journalists were not asked to strip. » Read more

Israel to Clinton: Tell us what Egypt is thinking ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - July 16, 2012 - 12:00am US secretaries of state usually devote their visits to the region shuttling between the Israelis and Palestinians, but as Hillary Clinton began her one-day stopover today, the focus is on two countries needing US mediation: Israel and Egypt. » Read more

Palestinian PM asks U.S. help to overcome fiscal crisis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua July 17, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Monday asked U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for help to overcome the fiscal crisis the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is going through. Omer al-Ghoul, an aid to Fayyad, told Xinhua that Fayyad urged Clinton to intervention in the donor countries to fulfill their financial commitments pledged to the PNA, adding that "Clinton gave positive promises in this respect." » Read more

Fayyad meets with Clinton in Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 17, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Jerusalem on Monday, and discussed prospects for a return to negotiations with Israel, officials said. The meeting was set to follow-up Clinton's meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris ten days ago, when Abbas asked the US official to communicate to Israel his demands before going ahead with talks, presidential advisor Nimir Hamad told Ma'an. » Read more

Premier Palestinian medical school graduates struggle to work in Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Joel Greenberg - July 16, 2012 - 12:00am Basel Nassar, a young Palestinian doctor from this city, is not allowed to practice medicine here. So he flew to Houston last week to take the last phase of a licensing exam that will qualify him to work in the United States. “I am forced to do this,” Nassar, 33, said on the eve of his departure. “Israel is so close, but it is making trouble for us for some trivial reason. I can’t work 15 minutes from my house, where they accepted me in a specialty I was dreaming to get. I simply can’t understand it.” » Read more

Gaza Christians protest 'forcible conversions' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Diaa Hadid - July 16, 2012 - 12:00am Dozens of Gaza Christians staged a rare public protest Monday, claiming two congregants were forcibly converted to Islam and were being held against their will. The small but noisy demonstration showed the increasingly desperate situation facing the tiny minority. Protesters banged on a church bell and chanted, "With our spirit, with our blood we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Jesus." » Read more

Hamas executes three Gaza men for murder ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters July 17, 2012 - 12:00am Three men convicted of murder were hanged in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the territory's interior ministry said. A total of 14 Palestinians have now been executed since the Islamist group Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in 2007 from Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. No details of the murder cases were given and the Hamas-run ministry identified the executed men only by their initials. » Read more

Police launch campaign against child labor ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 17, 2012 - 12:00am Police took to the streets of Tulkarem on Tuesday to raise awareness about a campaign to stop child labor and begging, a statement said. Accompanied by a committee set up to fight child labor, police toured Tulkarem's markets and main streets. Sixteen children aged between 11-16 were taken to the police station for questioning, and their parents were called to explain that child labor is illegal. » Read more

Defense Ministry hires architect to resume construction of illegal West Bank outpost ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Chaim Levinson - July 17, 2012 - 12:00am The government is stepping up construction in the West Bank settlements and acting to legitimize at least one illegal outpost it has pledged to demolish, Haaretz has learned. The Defense Ministry recently contracted an architect to resume construction of the Givat Sal'it outpost in the Jordan Valley, in what is seen as a step toward legitimizing the outpost. Givat Sal'it is one of 26 communities the Sharon government had promised the United States it would tear down nearly 10 years ago. » Read more

Ariel academic center in West Bank expected to be named university in disputed vote ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Talia Nesher - July 17, 2012 - 12:00am The Judea and Samaria Council for Higher Education is to meet this afternoon at Bar-Ilan University to vote on whether to recognize the Ariel University Center as a full-fledged university. The planning and budget committee of the state's Council for Higher Education had recommended against it at this time. » Read more

'You're dead' daubed near Peace Now activist's flat ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Noam Dvir - July 16, 2012 - 12:00am The words "Hagit, you're dead" and "Kahane was right" were daubed near the apartment of Hagit Ofran, the director of Peace Now's Settlement Watch project. Police have launched an investigation into the incident, which marks the third time hate slogans were spray-painted near Ofran's apartment in Jerusalem. » Read more

MI chief: Over 10 recent Sinai attacks thwarted ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Lahav Harkov - July 17, 2012 - 12:00am IDF Military Intelligence head Aviv Kochavi said that more than 10 recent planned terror attacks emanating from the Egyptian side of the Sinai border have been thwarted during remarks before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Kochavi said that upheaval in Egypt is expected to continue for a long time, and that the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi in the presidential election has ushered in an age of political Islam. » Read more

'Mofaz mulling departure from coalition today' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gil Hoffman - July 17, 2012 - 12:00am Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz will remove his party from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition as early as Tuesday if gaps between Likud and Kadima on how to equalize the burden of IDF service are not bridged, sources close to Mofaz said Monday. » Read more

Occupation Divides Israeli Protest Movement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Jeffay - July 15, 2012 - 12:00am One year after Israel’s social protest movement was born, activists are battling over its soul. Throughout June, protestors once again started to flow into the streets of Tel Aviv on Saturday nights. They all claimed to be reviving the demonstrations held weekly last summer, when tent cities proliferated all over the country. But it quickly became evident that this time, there were very different ideas among the protestors about what their demands should be. » Read more

The Palestinian Authority under pressure ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNN by Lucky Gold - (Opinion) July 16, 2012 - 12:00am We have been facing serious financial difficulties for more than two years CNN – Can the stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority be revived by the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the region? On Monday, Christiane Amanpour sat down with Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Prime Minister, in his Ramallah office on the West Bank, where he expressed serious doubts – not only about the peace talks but about the very existence of the Palestinian Authority he represents: » Read more

Five Reasons Why the Two-State Solution Just Won't Die ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) July 16, 2012 - 12:00am By all accounts it's time to say a kaddish -- the traditional Jewish prayer for the dead -- over the idea of a Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel. » Read more

Romney, Condi, and the meme that pro-Israel must be anti-peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) July 17, 2012 - 12:00am Studies have shown that among American voters, Israel as an issue does not figure significantly in decision-making at the ballot box – even for Jews. It shouldn't matter, but it could. One step down the wrong slippery slope - a cross-border war, perhaps, or a spiral of civilian deaths in terrorism and air strikes, or, in the nightmare scenario, a conflagration involving Iran – and Israel could become very much an American campaign issue. » Read more

BDS supporters can’t decide on what the endgame is ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Mira Sucharov - (Opinion) July 13, 2012 - 12:00am On the heels of new semantic murkiness about what is and is not Israeli occupation, one could be forgiven for being a tad confused about how to oppose whatever-it-is-we-should-now-call-it. » Read more

Borderline Views: To occupy or not to occupy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by David Newman - (Opinion) July 16, 2012 - 12:00am So what have we achieved by the publication of a political report, under the guise of a legal opinion, which arrived at a conclusion that the occupied territories are not occupied, that the illegal settlements are not illegal, and that everything Israel has done in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) during the past 45 years is really okay? » Read more

Op-Ed: Look between the headlines to understand the Presbyterians’ vote ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ethan Felson - (Opinion) July 16, 2012 - 12:00am NEW YORK (JTA) -- The Presbyterian Church (USA)’s 220th General Assembly had just cast its first vote on an anti-Israel divestment resolution when the spin began. Major news outlets and activists on each side could hardly wait for the debate to finish the next day before declaring winners and losers.  This was my fourth GA and one thing I’ve learned is that reality lies somewhere between the headlines. Here are some reality checks on the GA. * The defeat of divestment was narrow -- and it wasn’t.  » Read more

Israel and the West Bank’s Oil ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Hayat by Walid Khadduri - (Opinion) July 15, 2012 - 12:00am On July 10, 2012, the English-language website of the BBC published an article by journalist Alex Rowell, who recently visited the West Bank. The article mentioned that Givot Olam Oil Ltd, an Israeli company, is producing oil from the Meged field located in Israeli territories “on the edge of the West Bank”, “raising concern that it might also draw from untapped Palestinian reserves”. » Read more

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