November 19th

Israeli airstrike kills 2 Palestinians in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
November 18, 2010 - 1:00am

Two Palestinians were killed and three others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a local car Wednesday evening in central Gaza City, medical sources and witnesses said. An Israeli war jet targeted a white Subaru car in central Gaza City, said witnesses, adding that ambulances arrived at the scene and evacuated the casualties to Shifa Hospital in the city. Adham Abu Selmeyah, spokesman of medical services in the health ministry of the deposed Hamas government, told Xinhua that Islam Yassin and Mohamed Yassin, who were in the targeted car, were killed.

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Israel condemns Web list of Gaza soldiers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Matti Friedman - November 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel's military on Friday condemned the publication of names and photographs of 200 Israeli soldiers on a website that called them "war criminals." Militants in Gaza, meanwhile, fired rockets at southern Israel, causing no casualties, but sparking retaliatory Israeli air strikes that wounded five. The website also published the home addresses and ID numbers of many of the Israelis. They included senior commanders and low-ranking soldiers who the site claimed participated in the three-week offensive Israel launched in Gaza in late 2008.

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Israel, U.S. struggling to conclude settlement pact
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
November 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Talks between Israeli and U.S. officials aimed at reviving Middle East peace negotiations have hit snags over incentives promised by Washington to persuade Israel to resume a freeze of Jewish settlement building. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the U.S. inducements to his cabinet last weekend and appeared hopeful the ministers would back plans for a temporary halt to building in the occupied West Bank to overcome a hurdle to the peace talks.

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US bars Palestinian statehood moves in UN agencies
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
November 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Away from the headlines, Palestinians have been trying to advance their statehood agenda in small but symbolic ways in United Nations agencies that fall off the radar for most people. But even on the outer reaches of the sprawling U.N. system, their efforts have been blocked by a United States resolved not to display the slightest tilt toward Palestinians as it tries to act as honest broker in their halting peace talks with Israel.

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After foiled assassination plot, Nablus governor tours city
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
November 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Nablus Governor Jibrin Al-Bakri toured the city's markets and congratulated shoppers and merchants on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha, days after PA forces said plot to assassinate him was foiled, and one day after Israel handed full PA security control over to the city's police. The mayor was accompanied by security forces as he made the tour, during which he reflected on the increased number of out-of-towners enjoying time in the city, and said he hoped it boded well for the next year. Al-Bakri thanked shopkeepers and his security team for keeping the atmosphere in the city calm.

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Abbas aide: Palestine won't be pretext for weapons sale
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
November 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told reporters on Friday that Palestinians would not be used as a pretext for supplying Israel with weapons. Commenting from the Jordanian capital, Abu Rudeina said the Palestinian position on the matter of the US-Israel deal for an extension to the settlement freeze was clear.

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Despite Hamas-Fatah split, Gaza's sportsmen score a truce. Game on.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Daniel Estrin - November 19, 2010 - 1:00am

The schoolboys chasing after a soccer ball at Ittihad Al-Shajayia sports club here hardly seem to notice the concrete shell nearby – all that's left of what were the club's offices before Israeli planes bombed them. And not one boy stopped to admire the large mural that depicts Israel's target: masked militants kneeling next to a rocket launcher.

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November 18th

Israel approves a plan to withdraw from Ghajar, a village on Lebanon Border and Edmund Sanders of the LA Times discusses it with Ghajar leader, Najib Khatib. The Christian Science Monitor profiles a Gazan businessman who is surviving the blockade. Northern West Bank cities see an influx of Palestinian-Israelis for Eid. Israel’s attorney general requests the eviction of settlers in East Jerusalem as the Israeli Supreme Court approves more Israeli building in Jaffa. A U.S. official says East Jerusalem must be included in a new settlement freeze and PM Netanyahu says the US and Israel are close to reaching an agreement. An Al Qaeda-linked group issues threats. An IDF officer is suspected of blocking a probe into Gaza civilian deaths.

Israel refuses to freeze Jerusalem development
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
November 18, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel insisted Thursday it would keep building homes in disputed east Jerusalem, threatening to hold up a US-proposed settlement construction moratorium designed to renew deadlocked Mideast peacemaking. The contours of the moratorium deal, as presented by Israeli officials after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from the U.S. last week, had appeared to be clearly agreed upon.

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Netanyahu says close to deal with U.S. on West Bank settlement freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
November 18, 2010 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he was close to reaching an understanding with the United States regarding a package of incentives Washington will offer in exchange for a 90-day construction freeze in the West Bank. Netanyahu's office issued a statement late Wednesday saying he hopes to conclude contacts with the U.S. soon in order to bring present the deal to his 15-member Security Cabinet - a group of senior government ministers split between pragmatists and hard-liners.

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