February 17th

New Hints of Skulduggery in Hamas Killing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Robert Worth - February 16, 2010 - 1:00am

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The murder was straight out of a cheap spy thriller. At least 11 professional assassins, some wearing wigs and fake beards, tracked a senior Hamas official to his Dubai hotel in January and killed him with cold precision, fleeing the country afterward on European passports, the Dubai police say. But even as the Dubai authorities called Tuesday for an international manhunt, questions emerged about the identities of the suspects, deepening the mystery around the killing.

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February 16th

ATFP Senior Fellow speaks at Brandeis Brown Bag Lunch
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - February 16, 2010 - 1:00am

ATFP Senior Fellow Hussein Ibish addressed a group of about 50 faculty, students and community members at a brown bag lunch at Brandeis University on Tuesday, February 9, 2010. Ibish evaluated different scenarios for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and focused a good deal of his remarks on the positive impact and serious prospects of the PA state and institution building initiative.


Palestinians seek international investment. Dubai police release photos, videos of 11 sought in the assassination of a Hamas operative, and arrest two Palestinians. The PA settles a major lawsuit. Hamas predicts progress on reconciliation. Palestinians detail how they say they have been cheated out of billions by Israel. Most Gaza police applicants want jobs, not to join Hamas. Two are killed in a refugee camp in Lebanon. FM Lieberman says Palestinians are smearing Israel, dismisses peace. Jordan's King Abdallah says peace is at a critical stage. Pres. Abbas says he still waiting for US clarification. A Palestinian police officer is arrested on suspicion of plotting assassinations. Carlo Strenger calls for a rebirth of the Israeli left and Hassan Barari calls for Arab reform. The Arab News says Israel faces a crisis of legitimacy. IPS profiles the new film "Ajami." Joel Beinin describes efforts to counter settlement expansion in occupied East Jerusalem.

Palestinians reverse on terror victim
Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In Politico - February 15, 2010 - 1:00am

In a highly unusual step likely to come as a significant relief to U.S. officials, the Palestinian Authority has quietly paid an undisclosed amount to settle a lawsuit by the widow of an American killed in Israel in 2002.

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Confronting Settlement Expansion in East Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Report
by Joel Beinin - February 14, 2010 - 1:00am

The neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, a 20-minute walk up the hill from the Damascus Gate to the Old City of Jerusalem, has become the focal point of the struggle over the expanding project of Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

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Telling Film Floats Between Art and the Actual
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Jerrold Kessel, Pierre Klochendler - February 15, 2010 - 1:00am

'Ajami' starts as a case of mistaken identity in a semi-tribal, semi-criminal feud: a kid fixing a car in the streets of Ajami, a nondescript Arab neighbourhood of the Mediterranean city of Jaffa, is killed in a drive-by shooting. Soon, a backdrop of acute poverty, crime and social decay evolves into a powerful tale of suffering, vengeance, and survival. 'Ajami' is a somehow a worst-case scenario of lives cast in tragic circumstances, a mirror image of the many conflicts that subdue the lives of Jews and Arabs within Israel/Palestine.

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Challenge to Israel’s legitimacy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Linda Heard - (Opinion) February 15, 2010 - 1:00am

The fact that Israel refuses to play according to international rules is eroding its legitimacy as a state with unofficial membership in the worldwide club of democratic nations. Israel has been somewhat of a “wild child” since its founding in terms of its flouting of international laws and norms but its doting allies have always afforded it unprecedented leeway in light of its tenuous position within a hostile neighborhood as well as a collective sense of holocaust guilt.

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It is not just corruption
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Hassan Barari - (Opinion) February 16, 2010 - 1:00am

Few, if any, were shocked by the news that senior Palestinian officials close to President Mahmoud Abbas were involved in various kinds of corruption. One report after another has revealed corruption in the Palestinian Authority (PA) unparallel anywhere else in the Middle East. Indeed, one of the reasons behind the electoral fall of the Fateh movement was the widely held perception of a highly corrupt PA under Fateh rule. As such, it is not that the phenomenon is unknown. It is about the timing for revealing the issue and the identity of the one exposing the corruption.

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The silence of Israel's liberals
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) February 16, 2010 - 1:00am

It is not a pleasant experience to look at Israel's image in the world nowadays, to put it mildly. To the extent the country makes the headlines, it is in the context of the Goldstone report on Operation Cast Lead, the latest outlandish statement of foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman or Israel's continuing occupation of large parts of the West Bank. Israel's negative image is reflected in events such as ambassador Michael Oren being heckled on University of California Irvine campus and deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon apparently being threatened during an appearance at Oxford University.

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PA officer suspected of plotting to kill Fatah officials
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - February 16, 2010 - 1:00am

Days after reports of the corruption affair in the Palestinians Authority and the suspension of President Mahmoud Abbas' chief of staff over a steamy sex tape, another scandal unravels: Ynet has learned that Mujahed Nimer, a top official in the Palestinian security apparatus, was arrested in recent days, on suspicion of heading a group of Fatah operatives who planned to assassinate officials in the PA and the movement.

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