January 7th

U.S. urges world to help revive Mideast talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff, Natasha Mozgovaya, Barak Ravid - (Analysis) January 7, 2010 - 1:00am

Washington wants the international community to issue a joint call next week for renewed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Jerusalem officials said on Wednesday. The American administration wants the statement to be issued at the end of a meeting held in Brussels of the Quartet - the United Nations, United States, Russia and the European Union. U.S. envoy George Mitchell intends to brief the Quartet at the meeting on his talks with Israel and the Palestinian Authority in a bid to resume the negotiations between the sides.

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Following clashes, convoy enters Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Editorial) January 7, 2010 - 1:00am

Gaza – Ma’an – Medical aid and 518 activists entered Gaza Wednesday night after protests against the Egyptian government refusal to admit 400 of the group lead to clashes along the divided border town. An Egyptian soldier was shot dead during the clashes, Egyptian state television reported, and at least 12 Palestinians were injured during a a demonstration against perceived Egyptian complicity in an Israeli-led blockade called by the de facto government of the Strip as they denounced what they said were attacks on the Viva Palestina convoy.

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Reports of 14 projectiles launched into Israel as fliers warn Gazans
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Editorial) January 7, 2010 - 1:00am

Gaza – Ma’an – The Popular Resistance Committees claimed a third round of mortar launches Thursday afternoon, following two early morning barrages aimed at Israeli targets in and around the Gaza Strip, sources said. The total number of confirmed launches stood at 11 by the mid-afternoon, with three more reported after 2pm, while Israeli media sources said 10 of the mortars landed in the southern Negev. One of the projectiles landed near the Kerem Shalom crossing, prompting its closure.

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ISRAEL, GAZA: Holocaust survivor explains why she became Palestinian rights activist
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Daniel Siegal - (Analysis) January 6, 2010 - 1:00am

Hedy Epstein is what some might see as a contradiction in terms: a survivor of the Holocaust and also a staunch advocate for the Palestinian people. Born in 1924 in Freiburg, Germany, Epstein was 14 when she escaped from Nazi persecution via the Kinderstransport to England. Since her 1948 arrival in the U.S., Epstein has been an advocate for peace and human rights.

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Putting Lens on Lives in Suspended Animation in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - (Opinion) January 5, 2010 - 1:00am

GAZA — In the year since Israeli fighter jets and troops invaded this coastal Palestinian strip to stop rocket fire, time seems to have stood still. A blockade imposed by both Israel and Egypt to isolate the Hamas government bars the vast majority of goods and people from moving in or out. That means there is no reconstruction of destroyed buildings. Thousands remain homeless. Winter has arrived.

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Gunfire at Gaza Protest Near Egypt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - (Analysis) January 6, 2010 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — An anti-Egypt rally in southern Gaza turned deadly on Wednesday when demonstrators rushed the border fence and stoned Egyptian troops on the other side, leading to an exchange of gunfire and the death of an Egyptian soldier. Nine Egyptian soldiers and a dozen Palestinians were wounded from stones and gunfire, witnesses and medics said.

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January 6th

Several articles examine prospects for renewed peace negotiations. PM Fayyad pledges to remove all settlement products from the Palestinian economy. The IDF will seek legal advice during future armed conflicts. Saudi Arabia backs Egypt's plan for new negotiations. The "Popular Resistance Committee" pledges vengeance after an Israeli attack kills one of its senior leaders. The US government says Israeli settlement activity in occupied East Jerusalem is harming prospects for peace. PM Netanyahu urges the international community to pressure Palestinians to return to negotiations. Egyptian police clash with international protesters. The Forward reviews Joe Sacco's new graphic novel about an Israeli massacre of Palestinians in Gaza in the 1950s. Hamas is under popular pressure to reconcile with Fatah. Emile Hokayem says both Israel and Hezbollah are preparing for a new conflict. Tariq Alhomayed says that Saudis will judge Hamas by their deeds and not their words.

Saudi Arabia…Mishal and the Removal of Doubts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - (Opinion) January 5, 2010 - 1:00am

Did [Hamas chief] Khalid Mishal arrive in Riyadh to announce the selling of Iran, or did he come to sell us another illusion? Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal described his talks with Mishal as being "focused on removing doubts about the role that it [Hamas] is playing in our region." I liked the comment made by Mr. Turki Al Sudairi, the editor of the "al-Riyadh" newspaper when he said on the "Ekhbariya" news channel that "these doubts are equivalent to the population of the Arab world."

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For Israel, was 2009 just the calm before the storm?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Emile Hokayem - (Analysis) January 6, 2010 - 1:00am

It was a good year for Israel. Beyond the paralysis on the peace-process front in 2009, for which the hardline Israeli prime minister can claim credit, Israel has had the quietest year since the beginning of the second intifada. Its territory was kept secure and fewer Israelis were killed and injured (although more than 1,500 Palestinians lost their lives at Israeli hands in the meantime).

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Hamas holds out olive branch to Fatah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Erin Cunningham - (Opinion) January 5, 2010 - 1:00am

GAZA CITY // Hamas’s announcement this week that it is on the verge of signing a reconciliation deal with Fatah may be a reaction to rising sentiment on Gaza’s streets – and even among its own ranks – that it is time for the Islamist movement to reconcile with its secular rivals in the West Bank. The group’s political chief, Khaled Meshaal, based in Damascus, said this week in Saudi Arabia that his movement is in the final stages of reconciliation with Fatah, after three years of division split the Palestinian territories into two enclaves run by the respective movements.

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