Middle East News: World Press Roundup

NEWS: Egyptian troops are moving to restore order in Sinai, testing a key provision of the peace treaty with Israel: demilitarization of the peninsula. Human rights activists say Israeli forces are entering Egyptian territory in the Sinai Peninsula to intercept would-be African migrants. Hamas says Egypt temporarily lifted its closure of the Gaza crossing point, but only to let people back into Gaza. Residents of an Israeli settlement slated for court-ordered eviction are raising funds in an effort to buy the land from its Palestinian owners. Israel frees a hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner. Israeli occupation authorities in East Jerusalem ordered the demolition of 2 trailers provided to displaced Palestinians by the UN. Pres. Abbas forms a committee to study women's rights. Palestinians say they're going to raise their VAT in September. The PA Finance Minister says most public-sector employees will be paid next Monday. An Israeli military tribunal convicts a Palestinian man in the death of an Israeli soldier in 2000. Israel's largest newspaper says PM Netanyahu and DM Barak are mulling a fall strike against Iran. Palestinian refugees in Syria are fleeing to Lebanon. A report into alleged anti-Semitism on UC campuses draws controversy. COMMENTARY: ATFP Pres. Ziad J. Asali gives his take on Palestinian culture. Zahi Khouri challenges Mitt Romney's account of Palestinian circumstances. Ha'aretz says Israel should cooperate with Egypt in every way it can so as to restore order in Sinai. Hussein Shabokshi says Egypt has to change the way it deals with Sinai altogether. Ofer Shelah says following the Sinai attack, Israel must reprioritize its security concerns. Amir Oren says Israel should be extremely concerned about the consequences of an attack on Iran that is not coordinated with the United States. Brent Sasley says the Israeli left is growing more pragmatic. Kathleen Peratis calls plans for the forced eviction of Palestinian villagers in the occupied West Bank a "human rights calamity.”

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Sinai buildup shifts tenet of Egypt-Israel peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Hamza Hendawi - August 10, 2012 - 12:00am Egyptian troops, light tanks, armored vehicles and attack helicopters are pouring into the Sinai desert to root out increasingly aggressive Islamic militants in the most significant easing to date of a key provision in the landmark 1979 peace treaty with Israel: The demilitarization of the peninsula. » Read more

Activists: Israeli forces enter Egypt for migrants ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Mark Lavie - August 10, 2012 - 12:00am Israel has been sending soldiers into Egypt's Sinai desert to stop African migrants before they reach the border, handing them over to Egyptian forces, human rights groups charged in a report released Friday. » Read more

Hamas: Egypt briefly reopens border with Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press August 10, 2012 - 12:00am A Hamas official says Egypt has temporarily reopened its border with Gaza but only to allow the passage of Palestinians back to the coastal territory. » Read more

West Bank settlers raise fund to purchase Palestinian land ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua August 9, 2012 - 12:00am Residents of a West Bank outpost slated for demolition on Thursday launched a fundraising campaign aimed at purchasing the land on which their community was built. » Read more

Israel frees Palestinian prisoner after 78-day hunger strike ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua August 9, 2012 - 12:00am Israel on Thursday freed a Palestinian prisoner who has been on a hunger strike for more than two months, the fifth similar case this year. » Read more

UN agency, Jerusalem officials lock horns over trailers for homeless Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua August 9, 2012 - 12:00am Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has signed demolition papers for two trailers in east Jerusalem erected by the United Nation's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Israeli media reported Thursday. » Read more

Abbas forms committee as violence against women rises ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency August 9, 2012 - 12:00am President Mahmoud Abbas is forming a committee to study personal status laws to protect women, following a rise in violent attacks against women in the West Bank, state media reported. » Read more

VAT tax rise to be implemented in September ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency August 5, 2012 - 12:00am The Palestinian Authority will put into effect a recently approved decision to raise Value Added Tax by 1 percent by the beginning of September, a VAT official said Sunday. » Read more

Minister: Most public sector salaries to be paid Monday ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency August 9, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinian Authority Minister of Finance Nabil Qassis said Thursday that most public sector salaries will be paid next Monday. » Read more

IDF court convicts Palestinian of lynching Israeli soldier in 2000 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Chaim Levinson - August 10, 2012 - 12:00am The military appeals court last week convicted Wisam Radi of murdering a soldier during the 2000 Ramallah lynching, overturning a lower court's decision to acquit him. » Read more

'Netanyahu, Barak mulling fall strike on Iran' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews August 10, 2012 - 12:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak advocate an attack of Iran's nuclear facilities in the upcoming fall, Yedioth Ahronoth's senior commentators Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer reported Friday.  » Read more

Syria's Palestinians flee to Lebanon, but for how long? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from USA Today by Stephen Starr - August 10, 2012 - 12:00am At the edge of a sprawling Palestinian camp in south Beirut, Syrian volunteers unload two dozen boxes from the trunk of a taxi. Young boys help carry them into the dark, narrow alleyways where families peer out from underground houses that were bomb shelters during Lebanon's past civil wars. » Read more

UC report on anti-Semitism draws ire ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The San Francisco Chronicle by Nanette Asimov - August 9, 2012 - 12:00am Katherine Orr had just started her freshman year at UC Berkeley last August when she was stunned to see five students in military fatigues carrying what looked like rifles and stopping students at Sather Gate.   » Read more

Another Look at Palestinian Culture ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post by Ziad Asali - (Blog) August 9, 2012 - 12:00am Given the current conversation about issue of Palestinian culture and its relationship to politics and economics, I feel it's appropriate for me to add my own Palestinian-American perspective. » Read more

The Palestine Romney doesn’t know ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Zahi Khouri - (Opinion) August 9, 2012 - 12:00am I am a proud American. I am a hardworking businessman and job creator. I am a faithful Christian. And I am Palestinian. Much as my multiple identities might drive Mitt Romney to head scratching, it is he who needs a lesson in, to borrow his recent words, “culture and a few other things.” » Read more

A crucial alliance ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) August 10, 2012 - 12:00am "Peace between the two countries has been, and still is, an interest common to both peoples," read the condolence message from Israel's Foreign Ministry to Egypt after the attack on the border this week. Indeed, we have a key common interest in rooting out terror from the Sinai. This week's tragedy has led to what neither Israel nor Egypt dreamed would happen since the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978. » Read more

Who killed the Egyptian soldiers? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Hussein Shabokshi - (Opinion) August 10, 2012 - 12:00am The recent terrorist incident that took place in Sinai, and led to the deaths of a large number of Egyptian soldiers, was a huge shock to the people of Egypt. They were stunned by the extent of the attack and the resultant victims, and the sheer aggression of the perpetrators. » Read more

Since Sinai Attack, Israel Must Re-Prioritize ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'ariv by Ofer Shelah - (Opinion) August 9, 2012 - 12:00am The foiled terror attack near the Kerem Shalom border crossing [on the Israel-Egypt-Gaza border] on August 5 is no doubt exceptional in terms of the method of operation implemented, the daring displayed and above all, the target chosen for the attack, which was aimed not only against Israel but also directly against Egyptian forces. » Read more

An Israeli strike on Iran nuclear facilities could endanger Israel's Dimona reactor ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amir Oren - (Opinion) August 10, 2012 - 12:00am A foul wind is blowing over Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, with weekend gusts toward Caesarea. A wind of pugnacity. Before the eyes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and in the spirit of the chants of which he is so fond ("They are frightened"; "There's no free lunch" ) - it's as if a new sign has been raised high, bearing the words: "Strike now!" » Read more

The Israeli left’s growing pragmatism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Brent Sasley - (Opinion) August 8, 2012 - 12:00am It’s often said these days that the left in Israel not only is decimated, but it continues to cling to long outdated idealism about how to solve the conflict with the Palestinians and withdraw from the West Bank. Also that it’s out of touch with Israelis’ current preoccupations and the settlers’ successes. Avraham Burg’s latest editorial in The New York Times is taken as illustrative of this. » Read more

Susiya: A Human Rights Calamity ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Kathleen Peratis - (Opinion) August 9, 2012 - 12:00am In 2004, Ha'aretz ran the following story: "Last week, the High Court of Justice postponed for four months the state's request to destroy the structures and tents in Susiya, a village of caves in the southern part of the Hebron Hills.” » Read more

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