July 14th

Official: Obama To Visit West Bank, Meet Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
July 14, 2008 - 1:32pm

PARIS (AP) — A Palestinian official says Barack Obama will visit the West Bank and meet the Palestinian president during a swing through the Middle East next week. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat says the Democratic presidential candidate will travel to Ramallah on July 23. He says Obama is scheduled to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Erekat says if Obama is elected, the Palestinians hope "he will stay the course between Israel and the Palestinians in reaching peace."

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July 13th

Coverage of Democratic Presidential nominee Barak Obama’s upcoming visit to Israel and the West Bank (1, 3). Fateh and Hamas officials express views on forming a Palestinian unity government (7, 10). Prime Minister Olmert continues diplomatic efforts (5, 6), while the corruption investigation is now involving his family members (8). More coverage of the prisoner swap negotiations (4, 11). Omar Karmi in the National reports on Middle East tensions in cyberspace (9), while Mohammad Omer reports on daily life in Gaza (2).

July 11th

Strengthening Israel’s Moral Center
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Week
by Jessica Montell And Mitchell Plitnick - July 11, 2008 - 2:51pm

Muhammad Abu Ayesha remembers his Jewish neighbors in Hebron fondly. They celebrated weddings together, and they comforted each other during times of mourning. In 1929 when some Arabs came to massacre the Jewish community, Muhammad's father sheltered Jews. His name has a place of pride in the "Book of Hebron," produced to commemorate the Jewish community.

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4 Israelis Arrested For Allegedly Selling Weapons To Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jack Khoury - July 11, 2008 - 2:49pm

Security forces last month arrested four Israeli citizens suspected of selling weapons to Palestinians, a gag order lifted on Friday revealed. The Shin Bet security service and the Galilee District Police arrested three residents of the northern village of Kafr Makr and a resident of Acre for allegedly carrying out the crime. The official complaint was lodged against the suspects on Friday, ahead of the indictment.

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High Court Ruling Keeps Palestinian Village In Limbo
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Dan Izenberg - July 11, 2008 - 2:47pm

The 200 Palestinians living in El-Nu'man, a village in the extreme southeast corner of Jerusalem, will continue to live in their never-never land, trapped without status between the West Bank and Jerusalem, in the wake of a High Court of Justice decision handed down earlier this week.

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Israeli Soldiers Kill Unarmed Palestinian Lad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Hisham Abu Taha - July 11, 2008 - 2:45pm

A 17-year-old boy who crossed into Israel in search of work was killed by Israeli troops yesterday. Mouawiya Hassnin, a Health Ministry official, told Arab News that the teenager, identified as Salem Hamedi, was wearing a T-shirt and jeans and had sustained bullet wounds to the stomach and shoulder.

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U.s., Syria Should Talk (about Everything)
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Times
by Theodore H. Kattouf - (Opinion) July 11, 2008 - 2:44pm

The recent compromise on power sharing in Lebanon spares the country further bloodshed and allows its people to return to a modicum of normalcy. However, the underlying causes of the conflict remain, and Lebanon continues to be an arena where external powers play out their rivalries. Unless and until Syria and the United States reach a grand bargain, the Lebanese will continue to pay the price.

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Hamas Arrests Fighters After Rockets Are Fired Into Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
July 11, 2008 - 2:42pm

Hamas has arrested three fighters who fired cross-border rockets into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip  on Thursday. It is the first such detentions since the Islamists and Israel agreed a truce last month, fighters said. An official with the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a militant faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, said Hamas security forces arrested three of its members who were involved in firing two rockets at Israel. "They chased them after they fired the rockets and abducted them," the official said.

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Israeli Troops Kill Gunman In West Bank Clash
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Ali Daraghmeh And Diaa Hadid - July 11, 2008 - 2:40pm

West Bank (AP) -- Israeli troops killed a Palestinian gunman who opened fire on an Israeli civilian driving in the West Bank early Friday, the military and Palestinian officials said. An Israeli officer was also wounded in the nighttime clash, the military said. The gunman opened fire on the civilian driving near the Palestinian town of Qalqilya just after midnight, lightly wounding him, the military said, and then shot at troops who arrived on the scene.

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Fayyad Calls On Palestinians To Defy Israeli Army
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
July 11, 2008 - 2:35pm

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad called on Palestinians on Thursday to defy an Israeli army attempt to shut down a major commercial center in Nablus. In a striking intervention in an affair that Israel says is aimed at disrupting funding for Fayyad's Islamist opponents in Hamas, the Western-backed premier visited the modern complex which rises above the center of the West Bank city and urged businesses to reopen there despite an Israeli raid on Tuesday.

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