April 3rd

Livni: Lieberman ruined years of peace efforts in just 20 minutes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
April 3, 2009 - 12:00am

Opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Friday accused Foreign Minister Avigdor Liebermanas having "erased in 20 minutes years of efforts to advance the peace process" when he declared that Israel was not bound by commitments it made at a 2007 summit in Annapolis to pursue creation of a Palestinian state In an interview with Israel Radio, the Kadima chairwoman said she had expected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to announce that he did not share Lieberman's expressed sentiments, and was disappointed that such clarification was not made.

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Lieberman: Take 3
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - April 2, 2009 - 12:00am

Ami, who after all is my boss, thinks the media (including JTA) missed the lede on Avigdor Lieberman's maiden speech ("Avigdor Lieberman" and "maiden" in the same sentence - the mind boggles) as foreign minister: Lieberman accepts the "road map" (and by implication a two-state solution). His rejection of the more recent Annapolis conference was secondary, Ami says. I did not write our initial brief emphasizing Annapolis, but Ami asked me to rewrite the brief with the roadmap in the lede, and I dutifully did so.

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Report: Israel demolished 19,000 Palestinian homes since 1967
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 2, 2009 - 12:00am

At least 19,000 Palestinian homes have been destroyed by Israel, Limes magazine, the Italian geopolitical review publication, reported on Tuesday. The bi-monthly periodical ran a several-page feature on the current upsurge in home demolitions ordered by the Israeli government. The article begins with a look into the Al-Kurd family, who were evicted from their Sheikh Jarrah home. The father of the family was critically ill at the time, and the article describes him as “abandoned at the door of his neighbors.”

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Bat Ayin rabbi: We're not seeking revenge
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
April 3, 2009 - 12:00am

srael Defense Forces soldiers on Thursday night continued searching for the terrorist who murdered 13-year-old Shlomo Nativ in the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin in the Gush Etzion communities. While the forces went from house to house in the Palestinian villages adjacent to the settlement, the residents of Bat Ayin gathered Thursday evening for a meeting with the community's rabbi, Daniel Cohen, in an attempt to deal with their pain.

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New Israeli Foreign Minister Questioned by Police
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - April 3, 2009 - 12:00am

Avigdor Lieberman, the new foreign minister of Israel, was questioned by the national fraud squad for more than seven hours on Thursday, according to a police spokesman, as part of a longstanding investigation into suspicions of bribery, money laundering and breach of trust. Also Thursday, a Palestinian wielding a pickax killed an Israeli boy, 13, and wounded another, 7, in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank before fleeing, witnesses and the Israeli authorities said.

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Working out a response
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel - April 3, 2009 - 12:00am

Attempted and actual terror attacks in the last month seem random, with no obvious pattern. There was an abortive bulldozer rampage in Jerusalem (the third in a year), two policemen were murdered in the Jordan Valley, a booby-trapped car was left at a Haifa mall, and the most horrific of all came yesterday with the ax-murder of a child in the Bat Ayin settlement.

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A Ripe Opportunity for Obama to Intervene in the Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Raghida Dergham - April 3, 2009 - 12:00am

The Arab Summit in Doha obliterated its chances of putting forth serious stances before the G-20 Summit - which brings together the world's twenty largest economies - and did not formulate any sensible strategies that could be taken into consideration. Indeed, the summit of "reconciliations" took pride in defying the International Criminal Court (ICC) and demanding the annulment of the warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, allying itself with one accused of committing war crimes in Darfur and dealing with international justice as if it was the new enemy.

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US Affairs: Unsettling buzz
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In The Jerusalem Post - April 3, 2009 - 12:00am



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April 2nd

In his first official speech as Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman declares that Israel is not bound to the understandings reached at the 2007 Annapolis Conference (1). A Palestinian man wielding an ax kills an Israeli teenager in the West Bank (2). A series of articles discuss how the new Netanyahu-led Israeli government may handle the peace process (4) (5) (6). The new Israeli government is also warned that a refusal to continue with serious peace negotiations could result in the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority (8). Hamas pledges to continue weapons smuggling into Gaza (11).

Palestinian Authority warns on dissolution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Financial Times
by Tobias Buck, Roula Khalaf - April 1, 2009 - 12:00am

The new Israeli government was warned on Wednesday that a refusal to continue serious peace negotiations intended to establish a Palestinian state could force the Palestinian Authority to dissolve itself. The warning, by a senior PA official, came only a day after Israel’s new rightwing government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister, took office. It also came as Israel’s new foreign minister said the government did not feel obligated by the commitments made during the US-sponsored Annapolis peace initiative.

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