Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: Israel's Supreme Court delays by three weeks the court-ordered evacuation of an “unauthorized” settlement outpost. Palestinian refugees in Syria are being sucked into the conflict there, as most factions retain a presence in that country. The PA Finance Minister says its fiscal crisis is growing more acute. Pres. Morsy meets Hamas leader Hanniyeh in Cairo. US counterterrorism chief Brennan is visiting Israel. Hamas claims that the Arab uprisings have not spread to the West Bank because of Israel. A PA investigation into violence against protesters in Ramallah says police chiefs should be questioned about the incident. Pres. Obama authorizes expanded military cooperation with Israel. Israel bans 5 Palestinian woman from Gaza from studying in the West Bank. An advisor to Pres. Abbas visits Auschwitz. Gaza Christians and Hamas are at odds over purported forced conversions to Islam. Some Palestinian protests are focusing on Abbas, not Israel. COMMENTARY: Hussein Ibish says both Israelis and Palestinians are avoiding their urgent national debates. Ha'aretz interviews Mitt Romney. Hirsh Goodman says Israeli society is now divided between unilateralists and annexationists, neither of whom have a workable long-term vision. Jay Bushinski says it's only the occupation that's keeping the Israeli right in power. Rachel Cohen compares her very different trips to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories under the Birthright program and J Street U. Michael Sharnoff interviews Mohammed Dajani. Lara Friedman responds to Dani Dayan's recent New York Times commentary. A new book outlines the bureaucracy of Israel's occupation. CNN interviews a survivor of the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The Economist asks what would happen to Hebron in a two-state solution.

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Israel's top court delays evacuation of settlement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press July 27, 2012 - 12:00am Israel's Supreme Court on Friday delayed by at least three weeks the scheduled evacuation of an unauthorized West Bank settlement outpost that has become a symbol of settler defiance. The court said it has scheduled another hearing for the state to argue its case against the evacuation on Aug. 21, after previously ordering the Migron outpost be dismantled by Aug. 1. » Read more

Palestinians in Syria get pulled into civil war ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Ben Hubbard - July 27, 2012 - 12:00am Like other communities sucked into Syria's widening civil war, the Yarmouk neighborhood in Damascus has seen death and destruction. Soldiers and snipers have gunned down demonstrators. Some protesters have taken up arms to fight back. But there's one key difference: Most of Yarmouk's residents are not Syrian citizens. They are Palestinian refugees. » Read more

Factions maintain presence in Syria ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 27, 2012 - 12:00am Most Palestinian factions have remained in Syria, with the exception of Hamas whose leaders have relocated, officials in Syria said Thursday. Most Hamas leaders have fled Syria despite the movement's insistence that it was not seeking to move its politburo from Damascus. Only some local Hamas leaders in refugee camps remain, local officials told Ma'an. Meanwhile, leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Fatah and Islamic Jihad stayed in Syria amid the bloody 16-month uprising against President Bashar Assad, the officials say. » Read more

Palestinian cash crisis getting worse: minister ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Karin Laub - July 26, 2012 - 12:00am The cash-strapped Palestinian self-rule government is finding it harder each month to stay afloat, its finance minister said in an interview Thursday. The Palestinian Authority is struggling with its worst financial crisis in years, in part because key donor countries, including the U.S. and some Arab states, have so far not sent aid they promised for 2012. » Read more

In shift by Egypt, president meets Hamas leader ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal Al-Mughrabi, Tom Perry - July 26, 2012 - 12:00am Gaza Islamist leader Ismail Haniyeh met Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi on Thursday in an official visit that signalled a big shift in Cairo's stance toward the Hamas movement after the election of a Muslim Brotherhood head of state in Egypt. A Palestinian official said the head of Egyptian intelligence had promised measures to increase the flow of fuel supplied by Qatar to Gaza via Egypt and needed to ease the small Palestinian territory's power shortages. The sides had also discussed increasing the flow of Palestinians across the border. » Read more

U.S. counter-terrorism chief visits Israel to discuss Burgas terror attack, Syria ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua July 27, 2012 - 12:00am U.S. President Barak Obama's chief adviser on counter-terrorism, John O. Brennan, was in Israel to hold talks on the recent terror attack against Israelis in Bulgaria and the threat of al-Qaida involvement in the Syrian crisis, Ha'aretz daily reported on Thursday. The talks were held on Wednesday between Brennan and head of Israel's National Security Council (NSC), Brig.-Gen. (ret) Yaakov Amidror, Eitan Ben-David, head of NSC Counter-Terrorism Bureau, and senior officials of the Mossad, the Shin Bet security service and the Israel Defense Forces Intelligence Branch. » Read more

Israel prevents Arab Spring from reaching West Bank: Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua July 26, 2012 - 12:00am Popular uprisings in the Middle East could not reach the West Bank because of Israel, the head of the Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament said Thursday. "If there was no Israeli occupation in the West Bank, the uprising would have been possible," said Aziz al-Dewik, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC)'s speaker, who was released recently from an Israeli prison. Al-Dewik accused the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), led by rival Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas, of "establishing a repressive regime with the help of Israel." » Read more

Inquiry: Police chiefs should be questioned over Ramallah violence ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 27, 2012 - 12:00am An investigative committee has recommended that high-ranking officers be questioned over the use of force against protesters in Ramallah. President Mahmoud Abbas ordered an investigation after police cracked down on protesters who opposed a visit by Israel's vice premier to Ramallah for talks with the president on June 30, and again used force to shut down a protest on July 1 against police brutality. » Read more

Obama to sign Israel security bill on eve of Romney visit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 27, 2012 - 12:00am President Barack Obama will sign a bill to strengthen US-Israeli military cooperation on Friday on the eve of a visit to Israel by his Republican presidential challenger, Mitt Romney. Obama will seek to stress his commitment to Israel's security for American Jewish voters at a White House ceremony that appeared timed to upstage Romney, who has accused the president of undermining US-Israeli ties. Congress passed the legislation, the US-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act, with broad support from Obama's Democrats and Republicans last week. » Read more

Israel bans 5 Gaza women from study in West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 27, 2012 - 12:00am Israel's Defense Ministry said Thursday it would not allow five female students from Gaza to go to university in the West Bank, rights groups said. In May, Israel's Supreme Court ordered the ministry to reconsider its refusal to allow the students to travel to the West Bank, after Israel admitted there were no individual security concerns about any of the students. » Read more

Adviser to Palestinian president Abbas visits Auschwitz memorial ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press July 27, 2012 - 12:00am An adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited the memorial at the German Nazi death camp of Auschwitz to pay respect to camp victims on Friday. Ziad al-Bandak, who advises Abbas on Religious affairs, visited prisoner blocs, gas chambers and a crematorium in the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex that the Germans built and operated in southern Poland during their World War II occupation of the country. Some 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were killed in the camp from 1940-45. » Read more

Gaza Christians, Hamas at Odds Over Conversions to Islam ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Saleh Jadallah - July 27, 2012 - 12:00am The recent conversion of Palestinian Christians to Islam has sparked tensions between Hamas, the Islamist group ruling the Gaza Strip, and the Christian minority here. Both publicly traded barbs for the first time since Hamas took over Gaza Strip from its rival, Fatah, after the 2006 parliamentary elections. » Read more

Latest Target For Palestinians' Protest? Their Leader ATFP World Press Roundup Article from National Public Radio (NPR) by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro - July 26, 2012 - 12:00am The Kalandia checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah in the West Bank is best known as a flashpoint between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces. Images of masked youths throwing rocks by the painted concrete wall here are ubiquitous. Protesters gathered at Kalandia again last week, but their focus wasn't Israeli soldiers: It was Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. » Read more

Debate Aversion Therapy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) July 26, 2012 - 12:00am The one thing almost all observers agree on is that progress towards realizing a two-state solution is on indefinite hold for the foreseeable future. This means we are facing an open-ended interregnum that all parties can use to seriously debate their options and to act unilaterally to either promote or obstruct peace. » Read more

What Romney said: Highlights from Haaretz's interview with Obama's adversary ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Interview) July 27, 2012 - 12:00am On the eve of his visit to Israel, Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican candidate for U.S. President spoke to Haaretz about Iran, Syria and Benjamin Netanyahu, but declined to comment on his opponent, U.S. President Barack Obama, adhering to the American political tradition of refraining from criticism of the president while "on foreign soil." In the same vein, he begged off commenting on Israel's settlement policy, saying it would demonstrate his "distance" from the president's policy. » Read more

A win-lose situation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Hirsh Goodman - (Opinion) July 27, 2012 - 12:00am There are situations – the best – win-win, where both sides get something they want out of a deal. Then there is the win-lose situation where you think you have won, but in fact are destined to pay a heavy price, sort of like winning second prize in a lottery that sends you a resort in Albania for a month. » Read more

West Bank stalemate keeps the Right in power ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jay Bushinsky - (Opinion) July 26, 2012 - 12:00am Under normal circumstances, the rash of suicides and attempted suicides by veteran Israelis unable to cope with their financial problems would be a powerful catalyst for change. » Read more

Birthright’s triumphs and flaws ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Rachel Cohen - (Opinion) July 25, 2012 - 12:00am After being privileged last year to go on a Taglit-Birthright trip with 40 students from Johns Hopkins University, last month I traveled with 12 other student leaders to Israel and the West Bank with J Street U. Since then I’ve been reflecting a great deal on these two very different experiences. » Read more

Give Palestinian Third Parties a Chance ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Michael Sharnoff - (Opinion) July 26, 2012 - 12:00am No, Dani Dayan, the status quo in the West Bank cannot continue.  » Read more

Lara Friedman Responds to Dani Dayan ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Lara Friedman - (Opinion) July 26, 2012 - 12:00am Today’s New York Times features an op-ed by Dani Dayan, the head of the Yesha Council (the group that represents settlers and their interests). » Read more

Probing the bureaucracy of occupation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Vered Lee - (Book Review) July 26, 2012 - 12:00am "The Bureaucracy of Occupation: The Permit Regime in the West Bank 2000–2006," by Yael Berda, allows us to peek “over the shoulder of the military bureaucrat,” as Max Weber, one of the founders of modern sociology, put it. Berda, a practicing lawyer, specializes in administrative and constitutional law and is a research student at Princeton University. » Read more

The Munich massacre: A survivor's story ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNN by James Montague - (Interview) July 27, 2012 - 12:00am Professor Shaul Ladany has a busy schedule to keep these days but lays down one important condition before agreeing to speak to CNN. "Every morning I roll up the carpet and do my exercises," he explains. » Read more

Not so easy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist (Editorial) July 28, 2012 - 12:00am EVEN if an Israeli government were determined to remove Jewish settlements in the West Bank in order to make way for a Palestinian state, it would now be exceptionally hard to remove Jews living in the settlement of Kiryat Arba and in the nearby ancient city of Hebron, which has sites that are holy both to Jews and Muslims. » Read more

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