October 3rd

Image makers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Larry Derfner - October 1, 2008 - 8:00pm

The settlers from Yitzhar had left their mark on the "Suleiman" house: Stars of David spray-painted in black on the walls. They'd come down the hill into the Suleimans' village, Asira al-Kibliyeh, on Saturday morning, September 13, after a Palestinian burned down an empty Yitzhar bungalow, stabbed a nine-year-old boy and fled into the village. (The young victim, Tuvia Shtatman, suffered two superficial wounds, one of which required stitches, and spent a day in the hospital.)

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Egypt to host ME summit in November
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Mohammed Mar’i - October 2, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israel, the Palestinians and the Middle East Quartet will meet in November to review progress in US-backed peace talks launched nearly a year ago, according to a senior Israeli official. The official told the Israeli daily Haaretz that the Israeli and Palestine Authority participants would brief the Quartet over progress made in the ongoing peace talks.

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Israeli settlers, anti-occupation activists, clashes near Hebron
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA)
October 2, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israeli settlers clashed Friday at an olive grove near Hebron with activists protesting the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, police said. According to settlers, the fracas broke out when one of the activists pushed the wife of settler leader Itamar Ben-Gvir. The activists, however, said the settlers attacked them first. One anti-occupation activist was detained by police, a police spokesman, Chief Inspector Mickey Rosenfeld, said.

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Breaking the Silence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Cherrie Heywood - October 2, 2008 - 8:00pm

An Israeli police commander has called them "provocateurs", "militants", and, "lawbreakers". Earlier in the year the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) decided that their presence in the city of Hebron, 30km south of Jerusalem in the Palestinian West Bank, constituted a security threat and banned them from the city, stating that any member of the organisation caught there would be expelled forthwith.

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Jewish settlers, rabbis clash over West Bank olives
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
October 2, 2008 - 8:00pm

Militant Jewish settlers clashed with activists of the Rabbis for Human Rights movement near the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday as they protected Palestinians beginning the annual olive harvest. Israeli police and soldiers grappled with settlers who tried to drive off local Palestinians and international supporters of Palestinian rights in the Israel-occupied territories. "This is just the beginning of the olive harvest which will be going on for the next two months," said the executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, Arik Ascherman.

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Jewish terrorism threatens Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Telegraph
by Tim Butcher - October 2, 2008 - 8:00pm

Professor Zeev Sternhell knows as much as anyone about the current threat from Jewish terrorism. His right leg is recovering from shrapnel caused when a bomb, believed to have been the work of right-wing Jewish extremists, exploded outside the front door of his Jerusalem apartment last week. While Arab-Jewish violence is common, the attack on the 73-year-old historian has shocked public opinion in Israel because all the evidence points to it being intra-Jewish. "I consider it an act of Jewish terrorism," he said in an interview from the modest apartment where the bomb exploded.

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Israel’s top general in the West Bank acknowledges that ‘hundreds’ of settlers in the area have engaged in violence against Palestinians and Israeli soldiers (1) (5). Israeli Professor Zeev Sternhell blames “Jewish terrorists” for the recent pipe bomb attack on his home (2). Results from a new poll by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion show Palestinians continuing to favor current president Mahmoud Abbas for another term over Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh (3). The IDF evacuates a settlement in the northern West Bank (6) (9).

Egypt to host 'Annapolis 2' peace summit in November
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - October 1, 2008 - 8:00pm

An international summit is to be held in Egypt in November, with representatives from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the members of the Quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. According to a senior official in Jerusalem, the Israeli and PA participants will brief the Quartet over progress made in the ongoing peace talks.

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Settlers cleared from West Bank outpost; Palestinian olive grove set on fire
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Erfat Weiss - October 1, 2008 - 8:00pm

IDF forces and Civil Administration officials Thursday morning cleared settlers from the northern West Bank outpost of Shvut Ami, and two hours later a nearby olive grove belonging to Palestinians from the village of Kadum was set on fire. Former Kedumim Council head Daniela Weiss arrived at the scene and was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer. Investigators later reported that two suspects of the arson had been found hiding in her home. Both are 25-year-old settlers, one from Hebron and one from Adi-Ad.

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PA, Hamas mutually release prisoners
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Khaled Abu Toameh - October 1, 2008 - 8:00pm

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday ordered the release of 40 Hamas members from PA prisons in the West Bank as a "goodwill gesture" to the Islamic movement on the occasion of the Muslim feast of Id al-Fitr. Palestinian Authority... The decision came two days after Hamas released 30 Fatah members who were being held in its prisons in the Gaza Strip. The Hamas government said that move was also a "goodwill gesture" for the Muslim holiday.

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