Encountering Peace: Oh no, Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) July 21, 2009 - 12:00am


Israel Radio reported that the Obama administration has demanded an immediate halt to the construction of a Jewish housing project in an east Jerusalem neighborhood. The report said that Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren was summoned to the State Department and told that the project, which is being developed by an American citizen, must stop.


Palestinian killed on Gaza border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
July 20, 2009 - 12:00am


One Palestinian was killed and two were injured in incidents on the Israel-Gaza border on Sunday, Israeli officials and Palestinian medics have said. The man died in hospital in Israel after he was shot while approaching the border fence. The Israeli military said he did not heed warning shots. Separately, two Palestinians were hurt by Israeli tank fire, Gaza medics said. Israel's military said troops returned fire after a border patrol was targeted with a rocket-propelled grenade. But a pro-Hamas website said militants had been retaliating against Israeli fire.


Outgoing envoy: Conflict with US could hurt peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yael Levy - July 21, 2009 - 12:00am


Outgoing Israeli ambassador to the US, Sallai Meridor warned this week that direct confrontation with the United States over Israeli construction in the West Bank could prove detrimental to Israel's interests. In a conversation with Ynet, the man, who until Monday was in charge of Israel's ties with its closest ally, also criticizes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's policy on the matter.


Netanyahu draws red line on settlement freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - July 20, 2009 - 12:00am


Tensions between the United States and Israel over settlement expansion in the West Bank escalated this weekend over a tinderbox issue: Israeli building in East Jerusalem, a predominantly Arab area that Israel claims as part of its "undivided and eternal capital."


Most Arabs can't buy most homes in West Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nir Hasson - July 21, 2009 - 12:00am


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed this week that Jerusalem is an "open city" that permits all its inhabitants, Jewish and Palestinian, to purchase homes in both its eastern and western parts. "Our policy is that Jerusalem residents can purchase apartments anywhere in the city. There is no ban on Arabs buying apartments in the west of the city, and there is no ban on Jews building or buying in the city's east," Netanyahu said in response to the U.S. request to halt a Jewish construction project in East Jerusalem.


Israel's war with itself
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Cohen - (Opinion) July 21, 2009 - 12:00am


Afew years ago, while walking through Mea Shearim, the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem, I came across a strange poster. It pictured the Second Temple, the center of the world before the world was smashed in AD 70 by Rome, over a Hebrew phrase that means something like, "Jews! Watch what you say! For The Holy of Holies was destroyed not by Roman soldiers, nor by the Divine will, but by the gossip of the people."


Israel weighs confiscation of more Palestinian land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - July 21, 2009 - 12:00am


The government is considering confiscating privately-owned Palestinian land near the West Bank settlement of Ofra, contrary to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pledge during his Bar-Ilan speech not to take such actions. This announcement was made by the state prosecutor, in response to a High Court petition filed by a resident of the West Bank town Ein Yabrud and the human rights association Yesh Din. The parties were seeking the demolition of a sewage treatment plant built illegally on the town's land by the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council.


IDF: No plans for lightning evacuation of outposts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Hilla Medalia - July 21, 2009 - 12:00am


The Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday that it had received no orders from the political echelons for a lightning evacuation of West Bank outposts, and denied having begun preparatory operations for such a move. Amid the increased tension between the United States and Israel surrounding construction in the settlements, Haaretz learned that the Israel Defense Forces was drafting a plan to evacuate 23 illegal outposts in one day.



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