January 28th

Palestine must be a secular state
In Print by Hussein Ibish - The Washington Post (Opinion) - January 27, 2010 - 1:00am

As Palestinians press the international community to live up to its commitment to ensuring the establishment of an independent Palestine alongside Israel, conversation is intensifying about the character of this new state. In their own interests, Palestinians should buck the regional trend towards religious politics and ensure, from the outset, that it is firmly and irrevocably a secular state.

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PA issues 2010 state-building budget
Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In Politico - January 27, 2010 - 1:00am

The Palestinian Authority has issued a 2010 budget document laying out a state-building plan. Palestine: Moving Forward: Priority Interventions for 2010, issued this week by the Palestinian Authority finance and planning ministries, is a Palestinian state and institution building program that complements the diplomatic process the Obama administration is trying to revive, the American Task Force for Palestine's Hussein Ibish told POLITICO.

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Clinton urges Israel, Palestinians to plunge into talks
Media Mention of Ziad Asali In The Los Angeles Times - January 9, 2010 - 1:00am

Reporting from Washington-- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday urged Palestinians and Israelis to plunge into negotiations over the most difficult issues dividing them as a way of breaking an impasse in peace talks. Clinton said negotiations on major issues, such as the borders of a future Palestinian state or the status of Jerusalem, would help defuse the dispute over the growth of Jewish settlements in the West Bank that has obstructed progress toward peace.

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January 27th

ATFP Welcomes, Supports Congressional Letter to Administration on Gaza
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - January 27, 2010 - 1:00am

Jan. 27, 2010, Washington DC -- The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) formally supported and welcomes a letter sent by 54 members of Congress to the administration urging immediate action to ease humanitarian suffering in Gaza. The dear colleague letter was circulated in Congress by Reps. Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) and supported by ATFP along with numerous other organizations. The full text of the letter follows and it can also be viewed in its original form here.


PA cabinet expresses 'regret' for not holding elections
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
January 27, 2010 - 1:00am

During its weekly cabinet meeting, chaired by caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad held on Monday, members said that elections could be held in June, if the Egyptian document is signed immediately. Cabinet members expressed regret for not holding presidential and legislative elections on the constitutionally set date. Members called for a swift national reconciliation that would allow for elections to be conducted, in accordance with the constitution as well as the Egyptian proposal, considering it the guarantee for protecting the Palestinian democratic system and national achievements.

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The PA issues a major new state and institution building document. The Obama administration scales back expectations on Middle East peace, but along with Israel and Egypt continues to pressure Palestinians to return to talks. Israel's partial settlement moratorium impacts Palestinian laborers. The term of the Palestinian parliament expires. PM Fayyad says Europe should be more engaged. Settlers attack Palestinians in retaliation for the demolition of an outpost settlement. The PA cabinet regrets the lack of elections. 54 House members urge the Obama administration to seek the end of the siege of Gaza. Special Envoy Mitchell may engage in "shuttle diplomacy." Another diplomatic dispute is brewing over the Goldstone report. The UN expresses frustration on Gaza rebuilding. A settler rabbi is arrested in connection to a mosque arson in the occupied West Bank. Israel plans to absorb 7,000 Indian villagers purportedly from a "lost Jewish tribe" near Myanmar. The Daily Star says anger at Israel's actions is understandable.

It's only human to rage at Israeli crimes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
(Editorial) January 27, 2010 - 1:00am

The upcoming trip by an Israeli-Arab member of the Knesset to Auschwitz is the latest chapter in the saga of seeing accusations of anti-Semitism used to smear the Arab and Muslim world. Mohammad Barakeh of the influential party Hadash will make the trek as part of an Israeli parliamentary delegation, which has predictably angered hardline Zionists who reject the idea of an Arab being allowed to participate in an official ceremony at a place with such symbolic meaning for Jews.

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Israel plans to repatriate ‘lost Jewish tribe’ in India
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Jonathan Cook - January 26, 2010 - 1:00am

The Israeli government is reported to have quietly approved the fast-track immigration of 7,000 members of a supposedly “lost Jewish” tribe, known as the Bnei Menashe, currently living in a remote area of India. Under the plan, the “lost Jews” would be brought to Israel over the next two years by right-wing and religious organisations who, critics are concerned, will seek to place them in West Bank settlements in a bid to foil Israel’s partial agreement to a temporary freeze of settlement growth.

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Rabbi arrested, suspected in West Bank mosque arson
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
January 26, 2010 - 1:00am

Israeli police have arrested a rabbi on suspicion of involvement in an arson attack on a mosque last month. Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, the head of a Jewish seminary in the settlement of Yitzhar, was arrested after he refused to co-operate, police said. Mr Shapira denies any involvement in the attack, his lawyer was quoted in the Israeli media as saying. Attackers burned the mosque's carpet and a shelf of Qurans, and wrote slogans in Hebrew on the floor.

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UN impatient as blockade stalls Gaza building
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Tim Franks - January 27, 2010 - 1:00am

There is a place of strange quiet in the cramped and crowded Gaza Strip. It looks, from the roof of a nearby United Nations school, like a film set, or perhaps an army's urban warfare training ground. Ranged across the sandy earth of Khan Younis is a large housing estate: 151 apartments, with space for a further 450. Most are three-quarters complete. All are uninhabited.

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