December 8th

Trust the settlers to lose the West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) December 7, 2009 - 1:00am

Barack Obama cannot and will not compel Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and free up land for a Palestinian state. Neither will the international community as a whole, nor Hamas, and certainly not the Palestinian Authority, nor what remains of the Israeli left. Trust the settlers, though. They alone will make it possible. Sooner or later, they'll lose the West Bank all by themselves.

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J'lem banning foreign leaders from Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's government has an undeclared, but de facto policy, of not letting senior political figures, such as foreign ministers, enter the Gaza Strip from Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned. According to government officials, the reasoning is twofold: to deny Hamas legitimacy that would come of such visits, and as a way of trying to apply pressure over kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit. The policy has come to light after Irish Foreign Minister Michael Martin told a parliamentary committee last week that Israel had banned a visit he had hoped to make to Gaza.

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Shalit mediator asks Hamas to stop press leaks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

The German mediator in talks for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit has asked Hamas to refrain from leaking details of the prisoner swap deal to the Arab press, a Palestinian source in Gaza told Ynet Tuesday. He said the mediator personally relayed this message to senior Hamas official Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar and asked him to tell members of the organization to stop mentioning the names of Palestinian prisoners who may be released to the press.

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Akiva Eldar / Israel may have frozen settlements, but does it want peace?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Analysis) December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

On the eve of signing the settlement construction freeze order, Avigdor Lieberman told reporters that the settlements had never been an obstacle to peace. The proof, the foreign minister explained, is that the Jewish settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria did not stop Egypt and Jordan from signing peace agreements with Israel.

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Justice Minister: Jewish law should be binding law in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yair Ettinger - December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman on Monday said he believes Jewish law (Halakha) should be the binding law in Israel, Army Radio reported. "Step by step, we will bestow upon the citizens of Israel the laws of the Torah and we will turn Halakha into the binding law of the nation," said Neeman at a Jewish law convention at the Regency hotel in Jerusalem, in the presence of many rabbis and rabbinical judges. "We must bring back the heritage of our fathers to the nation of Israel," Neeman said. "The Torah has the complete solution to all of the questions we are dealing with," he added.

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Report: Netanyahu okays Israel-Egypt border wall
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved the construction of a wall along the border between Israel and Egypt, Israeli media reported on Tuesday. The decision came, according to Israeli daily Ma’ariv, after consultations involving security, political, and financial officials in Israel. Netanyahu believes construction of a barrier will stop smuggling and the migration of Africans seeking work or asylum in Israel. The decision, according to Ma’ariv, was made as a result of an increase in the number of African immigrants crossing into Israel.

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Hamas to reap prisoner swap reward
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck - December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

Less than a year ago, Hamas was cowering under an Israeli military onslaught that pulverised much of its political and military infrastructure. Now, in a reversal of fortune that must surprise even its leaders, Hamas is poised for a political triumph with the potential to transform its standing and Palestinian politics for years to come. The Islamist group, according to several officials, is closing in on a deal that would see hundreds of Palestinians released from Israeli jails.

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Popular Fatah Leader Complicates Prisoner Swap
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Charles Levinson - December 8, 2009 - 1:00am

Marwan Barghouti, the popular imprisoned Palestinian leader, embodies the promise and the peril Israel faces as it negotiates with Hamas to trade hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for a long-held Israeli soldier. Islamist Hamas says Mr. Barghouti tops the list of approximately 1,000 prisoners it is demanding Israel free in exchange for Sgt. Gilad Shalit, who Hamas has held captive in Gaza for more than three years.

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Edward Sanders dies at 87; advisor to President Carter on the Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
December 7, 2009 - 1:00am

Edward Sanders, an attorney and leader in the Jewish community who served President Carter as a special advisor on Mideast policy, died Monday at his Los Angeles home. He was 87. The cause was cancer, according to his son-in-law, Stanley Witkow. Sanders gained prominence during the 1973 energy crisis when, as president of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, he challenged a letter from Standard Oil Co. to 300,000 stockholders that appeared to support a pro-Arab Mideast policy. He later became president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

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December 7th

The Washington Post says the PA government state building plan could provide the key to peace, the Arab News points out that no one has any better ideas, and the World Bank is donating $64 million toward the effort. Israel closes the only oil and gas terminal on the Gaza border. AFP profiles the plight of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Egypt says Israel is stalling on a prisoner exchange with Hamas, and may offer a new plan for Palestinian reconciliation. Jordan's Foreign Minister confirms his country's interest in the creation of a Palestinian state. Israel is ignoring 400 Palestinian home demolition appeals. A commentary in Ha'aretz says the settlement moratorium is part of a "masquerade," and the paper also interviews an extremist Jewish settler. Israeli diplomats are preparing to combat a Swedish EU initiative to recognize occupied East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital. The Media Line profiles the new Palestinian "planned" city in the West Bank, and some Zionists around the world express outrage at the Jewish National Fund decision to donate 3,000 trees to the project. Ir Amim explains the dangers of new settlement construction in occupied East Jerusalem. The Daily Star reviews Joe Sacco's new graphic novel "Footnotes in Gaza."

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