September 21st

Could Syria become a force for peace?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by John Hughes - (Analysis) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

After decades-long hostility, Israelis and Palestinians are tiptoeing their way, at the urging of the United States, through talks toward a peace that has been as elusive as a desert mirage. The goal is to provide security for Israel and nationhood for the Palestinians, ordered by boundaries yet to be defined and agreed upon. Ironically, the wild card in all this may be the nation not even seated at the negotiating table: Syria.

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Israelis Float Settlement Deal Involving Spy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - (Analysis) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israeli officials have tried to float a trade-off in which they would extend the temporary moratorium on settlement construction in exchange for the release by the United States of Jonathan Jay Pollard, the American who pleaded guilty to spying for Israel and is serving a life term in an American jail, Israel’s Army Radio reported Monday.

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Peace Now Flight Highlights West Bank Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - (Analysis) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

TEL AVIV — Local leaders often take visitors to Jewish settlements occupying the high ground of the northern West Bank to lookout points from where, on a clear day, they can see the glass towers of Tel Aviv, the shimmering waters of the Mediterranean and the contours of Israel’s heavily populated coastal plain. The aim is to underline the strategic dangers that the leaders say would be inherent in any Israeli withdrawal from the area to make way for a Palestinian state.

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West Bank settlements can now be tracked on your iPhone
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - (Analysis) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

Want to know what's happening in the West Bank settlements in real time? In addition to 'Sudoku' and 'Street Fighter,' iPhone owners will now be able to install the "Facts on the Ground" application, which monitors the expansion of settlements in Judea and Samaria, created by Americans for Peace Now.

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Abbas: Israel can call itself whatever it wants
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
(Analysis) September 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a Monday night interview with Palestinian news source Ma'an that "Israel was free to call itself the Israeli Zionist Jewish Empire." The PA leader made cynical remarks to Maan shortly after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called upon Abbas to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.

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Quartet to urge Israel to keep settlement freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Andrew Quinn - (Analysis) September 21, 2010 - 12:00am

NEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators will on Tuesday call on Israel to extend its settlement moratorium, saying the freeze has had a positive impact as the two sides seek a peace deal within the next year, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters.

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September 20th

Sec. Clinton leads US Middle East peace efforts. Palestinian youth campaign for good governance. Israel allows the importation of 20 cars into Gaza. FM Lieberman again proposes stripping Israeli citizenship from some Palestinians. Former PM Olmert describes peace offers he claims to have made. A senior Hamas official is arrested in Egypt, and others arrested by the PA. A PA court suggests Palestinians who sell land to Israelis may face the death penalty, and Hamas imposes it on drug dealers. Hamas says it told the US it would accept a state on the 1967 borders. Ha'aretz describes the Palestinian plight in the face of settler violence and the occupation. Manuel Hassassian and Edward Edy Kaufman say Israeli-Palestinian peace may be a key to dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions. Jacqueline Rose reviews a new book by David Grossman. The Netherlands cancels a visit by Israeli mayors because some are settlement leaders. Adel Safty says peace must do justice to the Palestinians. Joel Beinin looks at the struggle over Silwan. Nathan Thrall looks at Palestinian state building and the new security forces.

Contesting Past and Present at Silwan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Report
by Joel Beinin - September 17, 2010 - 12:00am

On September 1, Elad -- a Hebrew acronym for “To the City of David” -- convened its eleventh annual archaeological conference at the “City of David National Park” in the Wadi Hilwa neighborhood of Silwan. Silwan, home to about 45,000 people, is one of 28 Palestinian villages incorporated into East Jerusalem and annexed by Israel after the June 1967 war. It lies in a valley situated a short walk beyond the Dung Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City.

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Mideast needs a peace of the brave
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adel Safty - (Opinion) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am

The late Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) used to refer to the peace process he and the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin started in the early 1990s as the "peace of the brave". This was more of a colourful description than an accurate rendition of reality.

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Netherlands nixes visit by Israeli mayors
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
September 19, 2010 - 12:00am

The Netherlands canceled a visit by Israeli mayors because the group included the leaders of West Bank settlements. Participants in the delegation, sponsored by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, included the heads of 30 small local councils, including several Arab communities. West Bank communities represented on the delegation include Kiryat Arba, Oranit, Beit El, Elkana and Efrat.

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