October 9th

Along Gaza, a Quiet (but Still Tense) Life
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

At the last stop of the artists’ tour through this hazardous semi-desert, Yaron Bob fashions roses out of pieces of Qassam rockets fired out of Gaza at residents in the area. Mr. Bob repeatedly heats a metal band sawed from a rocket until it glows orange and pounds it with a hammer, working it into a slim stem and petals. He chose to make roses, he said, because he was “looking for a new symbol of peace, and an answer to death.”

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Jerusalem's grand mufti: Israel wrong to block Al-Aqsa Mosque
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

As grand mufti of Jerusalem and orator of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Mohammed Ahmad Hussein has the power to sway millions of Muslims. But in his three years since being appointed mufti – a title that dates to the British Mandate and bestows guardianship over the Islamic holy places here – Sheikh Hussein has been relatively reserved. He chooses his words carefully, stays above the political fray, and, despite his ability to issue fatwas, has not made any Islamic rulings that have engendered controversy.

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October 8th

Fears of third intifada as tension grows in Israel
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In The Telegraph - October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

fter two weeks of mounting tension and sporadic clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters, a showdown is expected when Friday prayers are called at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's old city. Thousands of Israeli soldiers and policemen are being deployed around the site after the Palestinian Authority called a one-day general strike and a leading Islamic cleric in Egypt urged the Arab world to rise up in "a day of anger".

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The UN Security Council will debate the Goldstone report on the Gaza war, with the support of the PA, on October 14. Israel's Foreign Minister Lieberman reportedly dismisses the idea of a peace agreement in the near future, but Jordan's King Abdullah warns that there is no future without two states. International promises to rebuild Gaza remain unfulfilled, and Gaza residents may have lost up to $500 million in fraudulent tunnel schemes. Arab commentaries assess the political damage to the PA from the Goldstone affair. Hussein Ibish argues that only a determined de-escalation of tensions can prevent an explosion in the occupied territories, especially East Jerusalem.

'Fayyadism' tests the narrative of Palestinian dispossession
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Shlomo Ben-Ami - (Opinion) October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

The forthcoming United Nation’s conference commemorating the 60th anniversary of UNRWA (The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) could not come at a better moment. The restitution of lands occupied in 1967 will obviously continue to be indispensable to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it is the legacy of the 1948 war that both parties to the conflict have now put at the center of the debate.

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The dragons of 'progressive' delusion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Michael Young - (Opinion) October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

By coincidence, I happened to pick up another book while reading Hussein Ibish’s excellent, precise dismantling of the agenda for a single Jewish-Arab state in the area of historical Palestine.

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Lessons from the Goldstone issue
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

The angry political and public reaction to the decision by the Palestinian leadership to postpone discussions of the Goldstone war crimes report requires a sober look at the reasons and lessons that need to be learned to avoid repetition.

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The Palestinian Authority and the Battle of Position and legitimacy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Abdullah Iskandar - (Opinion) October 7, 2009 - 12:00am

What would have happened if the Human Rights Council had voted in favor of referring Goldstone's report to the Security Council? Certainly, the United States would have practiced its veto power to prevent the completion of the report which accuses Israel and Hamas of committing "war crimes" during the aggression on the Gaza Strip. In other words, the result would have been the same if the Palestinian Authority had not requested to delay the voting until next March.

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UN body to debate Gaza 'crimes'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

Arab states say the 14 October debate must tackle a report which criticised Israel, after the US argued against a emergency session dedicated to it. The UN Human Rights Council delayed its debate on the findings of the Goldstone report following a Palestinian request. Libya's envoy to the Security Council said its aim was to "keep momentum". Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has come under sharp criticism at home for requesting the UNHRC delay, which followed intense pressure from the US.

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Palestinian U-turn on Gaza report
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
October 7, 2009 - 12:00am

The UN Security Council is set to discuss whether to hold an emergency session on the Goldstone report, which accuses Israel and Hamas of war crimes. A senior PA politician has said last week's request to defer discussion of the report was a "mistake". The PA decision sparked an outcry among Palestinians. Libya, the only Arab state on the 15-member body, will request the UN session in a closed-door meeting.

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