August 3rd

ATFP Senior Fellow Joins Panel on Arab League Approval of Direct Negotiations on Al Hura
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am

On Al Hura's show Free Hour, ATFP Senior Fellow Hussein Ibish joined Israeli policy analyst Sholmo Ganor and Egyptian policy and strategy analyst Imad Jad to discuss the Arab League's approval of direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The show was taped on July 29, the day of the Arab League decision.


Economy minister: Growth contingent on donor whims
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 3, 2010 - 12:00am


The development of the Palestinian economy is dependent on donor countries, and its growth follows the political whims of the region, Palestinian Authority Minister of National Economy Hasan Abu Libda told Ma'an. "The money received from donor countries is the oxygen for Palestinian economy. However, this money is contingent on the political process, so it in effect acts as a sword hanging over our heads," Abu Libda explained during an interview on Ma'an Radio Sunday.


Israeli forces fire on Gaza workers, injuring 1
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 3, 2010 - 12:00am


A young Gaza man was injured by Israeli fire east of Beit Hanoun on Tuesday, reportedly while he was gathering cement aggregates from the border area. Medical services coordinator for the de facto government Adham Abu Salmiyeh identified the man as 22-year-old Bilal Ibrahim Obeid, saying he was hit in the shoulder and was moderately injured. Witnesses said Obeid was standing with a group of men collecting small particles of cement for use in construction and sale to the cement recycling plant in Gaza City. Israeli military officials were not immediately available for comment.


Price for a potential Israeli strike on Iran? A Palestinian state.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Robert Dujarric, Andy Zelleke - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am


Against the backdrop of new sanctions on Iran and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's upbeat Oval Office visit in July, neither Washington nor Jerusalem can be eager to add another war to the long list of hot and warm conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Korea, and Gaza. But with the American intelligence community judging Iran to be on track to have nuclear weapons within two years, a clash with Tehran may soon be deemed unavoidable – in Jerusalem, if not in Washington.


Israel allows 250 trucks into Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am


Israel facilitated the transfer of 250 trucks with supplies to the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time since the government eased up restrictions on the amount and type of merchandise allowed into the Hamas-controlled territory. In late June, Israel announced that it would ease the blockade on the Gaza Strip after it came under pressure following the naval raid on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla. The trucks made their way into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.


The audacity of not losing hope
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) August 3, 2010 - 12:00am


Direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are likely to resume in the near future. Both sides will reluctantly pay a price to enter the room even though neither side is too anxious to actually be there.


Israel makes no obligations to U.S. for start of direct talks with Palestinians: PM
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 2, 2010 - 12:00am


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet members that he made no obligations to the United States in his recent meeting with President Barack Obama for possible direct talks with the Palestinians, sources told Xinhua on Monday. Addressing his cabinet ministers at a weekly session on Sunday, he estimated that direct talks with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) could begin within two weeks.


Last kaffiyeh factory struggles to stay afloat in Palestinian territories
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am


In a rundown office to the side of a gloomy and deserted breeze-block factory, 76-year-old Yasser Hirbawi is hunched on a low couch turning his life's work over and over between his fingers. In his lap – and on his head – are specimens of what has become the internationally recognised symbol of the Palestinian national struggle, the kaffiyeh, the chequered headscarf worn by politicians and militants alike and adopted not just by their supporters but by fashionistas across the globe.


Abbas rejects U.S. request to set date for direct talks without reference
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Saud Abu Ramadan - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am


Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday rejected a U.S. request to set a date for moving to the direct peace negotiations with Israel without defining an international peace reference for it, a senior Palestinian official said. Wassel Abu Yousef, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) official, told Xinhua that David Hale, deputy of U.S. peace envoy George Mitchell, asked President Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting earlier on Monday in Ramallah about setting a date for launching the direct talks.


Rocket attacks on Israel and Jordan highlight how Hamas could use Sinai
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am


A salvo of at least five rockets, believed to have been fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, hit the Red Sea border area between Jordan and Israel on Monday morning. Three of the Katyusha rockets fell on the Israeli coastal resort area of Eilat, while the others hit outside the Intercontinental Hotel in the Jordanian resort city of Aqaba, killing one Jordanian and wounding at least three others.



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