November 18th

How one man turned Israel's Gaza blockade into a business opportunity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Liam Stack - November 17, 2010 - 1:00am

Cairo — At the end of an alley in Gaza City’s Tofah neighborhood, an industrial ghost town full of quiet factories and unused warehouses, sits the Ramlawy Plastics Company. The factory once hummed with the activity of 45 workers turning raw Israeli plastics into bags, storage containers, bottles, and pipes. Manager Ahmed Ramlawy says that in those days they made fat profit margins of 20 percent.

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Hague's Guantanamo plea overshadows Middle East talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by David Usborne - November 18, 2010 - 1:00am

A day after announcing it was to pay millions in tax-payers' money to compensate a group of 16 men who were detained and allegedly tortured by American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, the Government last night implored the US to free the last Briton remaining there. William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, made the appeal during talks with the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, in Washington. The issue has attracted a broad mix of reactions in the US, not all of them exactly in tune with the "special relationship" that the two countries insist they enjoy.

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A village torn three ways braces for Israel's withdrawal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - (Interview) November 17, 2010 - 1:00am

Reporting from Jerusalem — The Israeli government Wednesday approved the withdrawal of troops from the northern part of an Arab village in a long-disputed region along the border with Lebanon. Israeli officials said the removal of troops from tiny Ghajar after four years of patrolling the area was approved "in principle" by the security Cabinet, a group of government ministers. The decision calls for Israel, which wants to keep Hezbollah militants out of Ghajar, to work out the details with the United Nations peacekeeping force already patrolling the border zone in southern Lebanon.

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Israel should change course
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Hanan Ashrawi - (Opinion) November 18, 2010 - 1:00am

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has reached a critical stage. For more than two decades, the two-state solution has been the basis of international efforts to make peace in the region. Yet the Israeli government's refusal to cease colony construction in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem will shortly render the creation of a territorially contiguous and viable Palestinian state impossible.

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Israel Approves Withdrawal From Part of a Village on Lebanon Border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - November 18, 2010 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel’s inner cabinet approved a plan in principle on Wednesday to withdraw from the northern part of a village straddling the border with Lebanon, addressing an American concern and a longstanding point of contention between Israel and Lebanon. Related A United Nations line placed northern Ghajar in Lebanon. But the action was unlikely to ease American pressure on Israel regarding a new moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements that is intended to get Israeli-Palestinian peace talks back on track.

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November 17th

The New York Times looks at David Grossman's new novel. Israeli officials say time is running out for peace. The Washington Post says the US needs a comprehensive peace plan. The PA says it foiled a Hamas plot to assassinate a Palestinian official. US officials will brief Palestinian leaders. Israeli authorities in occupied East Jerusalem unveil a new zoning plan. Israel demands US settlement freeze incentives in writing, and officials say they are confused by PM Netanyahu's accounts of the offer. More Israelis call for the release of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. Israel unveils its latest antimissile system. AIPAC accuses a former staffer of misconduct in a defamation lawsuit. US taxpayer funds have been used in occupation-related projects. A settler is convicted of kidnapping and abusing a Palestinian youth. David Newman says both Israel and the Palestinians must educate their people for peace. The JTA asks what the administration will do in the next 90 days. Jonathan Cook says Washington's inducement offer is the last hope for peace.

Obama's 'bribe' is last hope for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jonathan Cook - (Opinion) November 17, 2010 - 1:00am

Watching the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians drag on year after year without conclusion, it is easy to overlook the enormous changes that have taken place on the ground since the Oslo Accords were signed 17 years ago.

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AIPAC Gets Down and Dirty in Pushback Against Rosen Defamation Suit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - (Opinion) November 17, 2010 - 1:00am

The espionage case against two senior officials of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington was dropped last year. But it has not been forgotten, and is now threatening to draw the lobby into new depths of mudslinging.

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AIPAC Gets Down and Dirty in Pushback Against Rosen Defamation Suit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - (Opinion) November 17, 2010 - 1:00am

The espionage case against two senior officials of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington was dropped last year. But it has not been forgotten, and is now threatening to draw the lobby into new depths of mudslinging.

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What can Israel, the Palestinians figure out in 90 days?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - (Opinion) November 17, 2010 - 1:00am

That’s the question Middle East observers are asking as Israel and the United States move closer to a deal on a 90-day West Bank Jewish settlement freeze to lure the Palestinians back to the negotiating table and revive peace talks. A seven-hour tete-a-tete last week between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resulted in new willingness by Netanyahu to press his Cabinet to agree to another settlement freeze.

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