November 14th

Barak approved settlement expansion despite Road Map
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Uri Blau - November 13, 2008 - 8:00pm

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has approved dozens of construction projects in the West Bank in recent months, contradicting Israel's commitments to the Road Map, Haaretz has learned. Barak also approved the marketing of hundreds of housing units in settlements. Some of the permits for construction projects were granted in settlements to the east of the separation fence, which are beyond the areas the state defines as "settlement blocks" and it expects to retain under Israel's control following a permanent agreement with the Palestinians.

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Israel blockade leaves much of Gaza City without power
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Rushdi Abu Alouf, Richard Boudreaux - November 13, 2008 - 8:00pm

Much of Gaza City fell into darkness Thursday night after an Israeli blockade, tightened in response to Palestinian hostilities, caused the city's electricity plant to run critically low on fuel and shut down. Israel also barred 30 truckloads of relief supplies from entering the Gaza Strip, leaving a United Nations agency without food to distribute to needy families that make up half the Palestinian territory's 1.5 million people.

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Settlers Who Long to Leave the West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - November 12, 2008 - 8:00pm

Surrounded by hostility, living on land most of the world wants turned over to Palestinians for a state, they meet quietly in Jewish settlements like this one, plotting the future. But these besieged West Bank settlers, widely viewed as an obstacle to peace, want only one surprising thing: to get out. While the vast majority of settlers vow never to abandon the heart of the historic Jewish homeland — these ancient and starkly beautiful hills whose biblical names are Judea and Samaria — thousands of other settlers say they want to move back to within the pre-1967 borders of Israel.

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U.S.-Palestinian Partnership Leaders to Travel to the West Bank
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - November 12, 2008 - 1:00am

Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs James K. Glassman, together with American Task Force on Palestine President Ziad Asali and Case Foundation CEO Jean Case, will lead a delegation to the West Bank from November 15 through 18. As co-chairs of the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership (UPP), they will attend the inauguration of a youth development and resource center in the village of Beita. This is the first of four youth development and resource centers that UPP is working to expand with the support of the U.S.


November 13th

Yesterday's violence on the Gaza border again threatens the truce that has been in place since June (1) (6). The United Nations is forced to suspend food aid to 1.5 million people after Israel refuses to allow emergency supplies into Gaza (2). Israeli President Shimon Peres lauds Saudi King Abdullah's work on the Arab peace initiative (3) (9). Mayor-elect of Jerusalem, Nir Barakat, vows to keep the city "undivided" (5). Ehud Barak, Israeli defense minister and head of the Labor party, announces that Labor will not join a coalition government that is not committed to advancing peace talks with the Palestinians (7).

Peres: Arab peace plan - a serious opening for real progress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shlomo Shamir - November 12, 2008 - 8:00pm

President Shimon Peres told world leaders on Wednesday at an interfaith dialogue in New York that the Arab peace initiative must be seriously considered as "a serious opening for real progress" in Middle East peace. The proposal, initiated by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and ratified by Arab foreign ministers last year in Damascus, offers pan-Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from Arab lands c Advertisement aptured in 1967. (click here to read Peres' entire speech)

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New 'pro-Israel, pro-peace' lobby J Street hopes for Obama-era growth
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - November 12, 2008 - 8:00pm

Will the "Obama effect" that enabled Democratic candidates to ride the party's presidential candidate into Congress also contribute toward changing the map of Jewish influence on Capitol Hill? J Street, the "pro-Israel, pro-peace" lobbying group and Political Action Committee (PAC) formed just last April and seen as the left's answer to the veteran American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), is counting on it.

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Labor won't join coalition not interested in advancing peace talks, says Barak
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - November 12, 2008 - 8:00pm

Labor Party chairman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that his faction had no intention of joining a coalition government uninterested in advancing the peace process with Palestinians. The statement, issued by the Labor Party chairman's office, came after Haaretz reported that he has refused to promise that Labor would not join a government headed by Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu after the February elections.

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UN: Israel's border closures leave us with no food for Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - November 12, 2008 - 1:00am

The United Nations on Thursday warned its stocks had run so low that it would not be able to make its next delivery of food to 750,000 needy Gazans on Saturday. "We've been working here from hand to mouth for quite a long time, so these interruptions on the crossing points affect us immediately," said John Ging, director of UN Relief and Works Agency operations in Gaza.

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Mayor-elect vows to keep Jerusalem occupied
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
November 12, 2008 - 8:00pm

A secular tycoon celebrating his election as Occupied Jerusalem mayor on Wednesday vowed to turn the holy city into a world metropolis and bolster its illegal status as Israel's "undivided" capital. Nir Barkat won 52 percent of the vote in Tuesday's poll, routing an ultra-Orthodox rabbi, a scandal-plagued Russian-Israeli arms dealer and a pro-cannabis candidate. Media hailed his triumph as a secular revolution after five years under ultra-Orthodox Mayor Uri Lupolianski.

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