July 9th

Israel’s Impasse: How A Fractured Knesset Hinders Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck - July 9, 2008 - 4:31pm

As the former head of Mossad, Israel’s secret service, Danny Yatom is not a man easily ruffled.

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Palestine: Hizb Al-tahrir Flourishes Where Hope Withers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Carnegie Endowment: The Arab News Bulletin
by Omran Risheq - July 9, 2008 - 4:29pm

The failure of the Palestinian national movement and its shaken credibility in the public eye are giving strength to religious movements, which are expanding to fill a widening gap. But the movements that are gaining are not Hamas or Islamic Jihad, which gained their legitimacy more or less as other Palestinian movements did: by taking part in the liberation struggle while upholding the aspiration to establish an independent national state. Rather, there are now other Islamist parties and groups that deny the national project and are hostile toward democratic and social freedoms.

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Planning The Transition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Progress
by Ghaith Al- Omari - July 9, 2008 - 4:27pm

As the Bush administration nears the end of its term, two things are becoming obvious. First, the original objective of the Annapolis process–a peace deal by the end of 2008–is unlikely to materialize. Redefining the process both in terms of approach and public expectations has become necessary. Second, with the inability to achieve a breakthrough, there is a real risk that, the Annapolis process may not be able to withstand the loss of U.S. leadership while the United States is looking inwards during the transition period.

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In an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun Professor Shibley Telhami analyzes data from public opinion surveys regarding Palestine conducted in six Middle Eastern countries (1). Tension mounts in East and West Jerusalem as a result of recent attacks (2). Violations of the Gaza ceasefire continue from both sides (3). Residents in the West Bank town of Ni?lin protest an ongoing IDF imposed curfew (6). Israel announces plans to shut down Hamas-affiliated organizations in the West Bank (7).

In an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun Professor Shibley Telhami analyzes data from public opinion surveys regarding Palestine conducted in six Middle Eastern countries (1). Tension mounts in East and West Jerusalem as a result of recent attacks (2). Violations of the Gaza ceasefire continue from both sides (3). Residents in the West Bank town of Ni?lin protest an ongoing IDF imposed curfew (6). Israel announces plans to shut down Hamas-affiliated organizations in the West Bank (7).

July 8th

Rumors Of Peace Amid Rumors Of War
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Times
by Claude Salhani - (Opinion) July 8, 2008 - 3:55pm

There has been much talk lately behind the long hallways of power in the U.S. capital of an impending move toward peace and reconciliation in the Middle East. To become a reality the many pieces that make up the Middle East's complicated geopolitical jigsaw puzzle have to come together at the right time to fit in correctly.

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*the Challenge Of Development Under Occupation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-ayyam
by Hassan Al-battal - July 8, 2008 - 3:54pm

I gently pressured my colleague, Abd Al-Naser Al-Najjar, to continue the third part of his field investigation into the realities and problems of the Jordan Valley, and the ways to solve them. His excuse is that he's busy as an editor in chief, a weekly columnist with additional editing duties during the summer time, and, soon, the director of the Media Center at Birzeit University.  

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Paralyzed Palestinian Girl Fights To Stay In Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
July 8, 2008 - 3:51pm

Paralyzed from the neck down in an Israeli strike on the Islamic Jihad in Gaza, six-year-old Palestinian Maria Amin is fighting an order to move her from a rehabilitation centre in Israel to the West Bank.

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Fayyad Suggests Foreign Troops For Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
July 8, 2008 - 3:48pm

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Monday he was proposing ideas that include the temporary deployment of Arab security forces in Gaza to help reunite Hamas-run Gaza with the West Bank. Fayyad said his ideas, proposed in meetings with foreign Arab and Western officials, complemented an initiative by President Mahmoud Abbas last month to offer a national dialogue to end the rift between the secular factions of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and their Islamist rival Hamas.

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Israeli Troops Raid Girls' School And Medical Centre In West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
July 8, 2008 - 3:45pm

Israeli troops in jeeps swooped down on the West Bank city of Nablus early on Monday, shutting down a girls' school, a medical centre and two other facilities of a Hamas-affiliated charity, witnesses said. Computers, documents, cash and furniture were seized, the witnesses said. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the Palestinian reports. But the raid appears to have been part of an intensified crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank by Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

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