Israel is going forward with a bill that would require a referendum for some withdrawals of occupied territory. Palestinians denounce the move. Pres. Obama faces a tough audience in the Middle East. Nablus' governor speaks about an alleged Hamas assassination plot against him. Right wing settlers are trying to force a Palestinian family out of their home in occupied East Jerusalem. Akiva Eldar says US will not allow Israel to build in Jerusalem flashpoints. Ha'aretz says settlers are turning water sources in the West Bank into tourist sites. A leader of Palestinian nonviolent protests is held in Israeli prison after completing his sentence. A Jaffa imam is released from jail. Larry Derfner looks at the treatment of Palestinians by the Israeli legal system. Gershon Baskin says time is running out for Israel to make peace. The Israeli military prepares for more settler violence. Oliver Miles looks at the difficulties in applying international law to the conflict. The Independent profiles an Israeli-Palestinian marriage. The campaign to free convicted spy Jonathan Pollard continues. Mary Robinson and Lakhdar Brahimi say the Gaza blockade harms women. Ghassan Khatib says settlements make Israel less secure. Yossi Alpher says the US should promote Palestinian state building rather than focus on settlements.

Fortifying Palestinian state-building
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Blog) November 22, 2010 - 1:00am

In the eyes of many knowledgeable Israeli observers, improved security in the West Bank and the role played therein by Palestinian security forces is the most important aspect of the Palestinian Authority's successful state-building program of recent years. We pay far less attention to the other aspects: creating judicial, financial and administrative institutions that work and are relatively uncorrupt. We don't particularly care whether the Palestinians have a national bar code system. Only a few Israelis have become involved in the renascent West Bank economy.

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Settlements make Israel less secure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Blog) November 22, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel presents security as its main concern and a major component of negotiations with Palestinians. It uses security to rationalize both justifiable and unjustifiable positions and acts. Palestinians, who live under Israel's military occupation in the least secure conditions imaginable, believe that in most cases, Israel uses the issue of security as a pretext for doing things that the world might not accept otherwise.

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Gaza’s blockade silences women voice
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Lakhdar Brahimi, Mary Robinson - (Analysis) November 23, 2010 - 1:00am

We have just visited Gaza Strip where we met many courageous people trying to live relatively normal lives despite the crippling effects of the illegal Israeli blockade. The blockade was imposed to punish the Hamas-led government, but it is women and children who are paying the highest price. In our conversations with a range of women, we learned that despite the apparent “easing” of restrictions by Israel and Egypt, important socio-economic indicators such as poverty, malnutrition, unemployment and family violence are getting worse.

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Timing, noodging advance new push for Jonathan Pollard
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - November 22, 2010 - 1:00am

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A combination of timing, diplomatic considerations and, above all, good old-fashioned noodging has culminated in the biggest push in years to free Jonathan Pollard. Insiders associated with the push, which resulted last week in a congressional letter to President Obama asking for clemency for the American Jew convicted in 1987 of spying for Israel, say the main factor was one man: David Nyer, an Orthodox activist from Monsey, N.Y.

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Gaza: A love that knows no boundaries
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - (Opinion) November 23, 2010 - 1:00am

When Nicole Hamdan, a Jewish Israeli citizen, failed to report for compulsory army service a couple years ago, the military police came knocking at the doors of her uncles in the Tel Aviv suburbs of Holon and Bat Yam.

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How international law affects the Palestine 'peace process'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Oliver Miles - (Analysis) November 22, 2010 - 1:00am

As a former professional diplomat, I regard international law, with all its shortcomings, as much better than the alternative, the law of the jungle. I have often argued this with Israeli officials in particular, but they tend to prefer the doctrine of the iron wall, which they hope their enemies are powerless to break down and behind which they may live in safety.

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IDF flights over West Bank to continue ahead of freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz - November 23, 2010 - 1:00am

The Civil Administration is continuing to conduct reconnaissance flights over Jewish settlements in the West Bank ahead of the possible implementation of a new freeze on construction in the coming weeks, senior defense officials told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. The flights over settlements were conducted during the previous 10-month moratorium that went into effect last year and expired in late September. RELATED: Poll: 51% of Israelis favor building moratorium Settlers to Netanyahu: Yes, you can say no to Obama

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Encountering Peace: Five minutes to midnight
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) November 22, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel is facing the most severe crisis in its history. Surprisingly, most of its citizens choose to ignore this reality. The growing movement to delegitimize our right to exist cannot simply be dismissed by calling it anti- Semitism. The reasons are more complex than that.

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Rattling The Cage: Face of Israel in a West Bank courtroom
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Fund
by Larry Derfner - (Analysis) November 22, 2010 - 1:00am

This was justice as I’d never seen it, as very, very few Israelis have seen it. The judge was an IDF officer in a light-green uniform and knitted kippa. The prosecutor was an IDF officer in a light-green uniform, no kippa. The defendant was a Palestinian in a brown prison jumpsuit. This was last Thursday afternoon in a bungalow that serves as military appeals court on the grounds of Ofer Prison, the towering, concretewalled monstrosity on Route 443 between Modi’in and Jerusalem. Ofer is Israel’s prison in the West Bank for Palestinians.

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