October 1st

Israel's West Bank roadblocks increasing, says UN ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Wafa Amr - September 29, 2008 - 8:00pm Closure of the West Bank for the Jewish New Year placed further restrictions on the movement of Palestinians marking the end of Ramadan on Tuesday. Despite pledges to ease travel restrictions, Israel has increased the number of roadblocks and checkpoints over the last six months in the occupied West Bank, according to a United Nations report made public this week. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says the Israeli army erected 19 new "obstacles" since April, raising the total to 630, including 93 checkpoints controlled by soldiers. » Read more

Book ban ends rare Arab-Israeli cultural exchange ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Joseph Nasr - September 30, 2008 - 8:00pm For 15 years Israeli Saleh Abbasi has traded books between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbours, fostering a rare cultural link. But in August Israeli authorities suddenly refused to renew his trading licence because he was trading with "enemy" states Lebanon and Syria, frustrating both Abbasi's business and the Arab and Israeli readers he has helped interest in each other's literary traditions. "How can the People of the Book be against books?" Abbasi asked, evoking the Jewish Bible as the first monotheistic holy text. "Books are a bridge to peace between cultures." » Read more

Israel army buys self-destruct cluster bombs: radio ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) September 29, 2008 - 8:00pm The Israeli army is equipping itself with self-destruct cluster bombs in order to lower the number of civilian victims of this type of weapon, used in the 2006 war in Lebanon, military radio said. The army has reduced its purchases of US made cluster bombs, instead buying Israel-made M-85 cluster bombs, which contain a mechanism to destroy themselves if they fail to explode immediately on impact, according to the report. Cluster munitions spread bomblets over a wide area from a single container. » Read more

Bahrain moots reconciliation body ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News September 30, 2008 - 8:00pm Sheikh Khaled al-Khalifa's comments in a newspaper interview clarified his speech to the UN this week calling for a Mid-East body "without exception". Bahrain has no formal ties with Israel, but the sheikh said it did not matter. "Let them all sit together in one group... This is the only path to solve our problems," Sheikh Khaled said. "Why don't we all sit together even if we have differences and even if we don't recognise each other?" he was quoted saying by al-Hayat newspaper. Correspondents say few Arab governments are likely to accept a permanent regional forum with Israel. » Read more

Israeli Rights Watchdog Sets Up Shop in Washington ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - September 28, 2008 - 8:00pm A new and unusual player is joining the Israel advocacy scene in the nation?s capital. B?Tselem, Israel?s leading human rights watchdog organization, launched its Washington operation September 24, aiming to spread information regarding Israeli human rights abuses against Palestinians to the crowd of Capitol Hill policymakers and Middle East think tanks, and to the American Jewish community. » Read more

Why Israeli settlers are lashing out ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - September 29, 2008 - 8:00pm When Yaron Ezrahi was a young political science professor in 1983, his star student was Emil Grunzweig, who had just completed his thesis on free speech. Two days later, Mr. Grunzweig was killed at a peace rally here, when a right-wing activist threw a hand grenade into a crowd of people demonstrating against Israel's involvement in the war in Lebanon. » Read more

Failure Written in West Bank Stone ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Gershom Gorenberg - September 29, 2008 - 8:00pm The latest phone call came from a journalist in Denmark. Why, he asked, has Israeli settlement in the West Bank continued despite peace negotiations with the Palestinians? » Read more

Olmert's Lame-Duck Epiphany About Palestinian Peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time by Scott MacLeod - September 29, 2008 - 8:00pm He is a former leader in the rightist Likud Party who for decades staunchly believed that the West Bank and Gaza Strip belonged to the Jewish people and that the territories, along with the Golan Heights, should remain part of Greater Israel forever. Along with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert gradually came to understand that this was a fantasy. They broke away from Likud and created the centrist Kadima ("Onward") Party three years ago. » Read more