August 9th

Strategic acumen dictates Abbas' return to direct talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Adel Safty - August 9, 2010 - 12:00am

There is something preposterous in the question that seems to characterise the current stage of the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: To talk or not to talk directly. The final settlement of conflicts necessarily requires intense and sustained negotiations between the parties to the conflict. And this intensity and sustainability are evidently lacking in the so-called proximity talks in which the parties relay messages to each other through a third party.

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Steal This Movie
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Thomas L. Friedman - August 9, 2010 - 12:00am

I just saw a remarkable new documentary directed by Shlomi Eldar, the Gaza reporter for Israel’s Channel 10 news. Titled “Precious Life,” the film tracks the story of Mohammed Abu Mustafa, a 4-month-old Palestinian baby suffering from a rare immune deficiency. Moved by the baby’s plight, Eldar helps the infant and mother go from Gaza to Israel’s Tel Hashomer hospital for lifesaving bone-marrow treatment. The operation costs $55,000. Eldar puts out an appeal on Israel TV and within hours an Israeli Jew whose own son was killed during military service donates all the money.

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Abbas agrees on peacekeeping forces in future Palestinian state regardless of religion: aide
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
August 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agrees on deploying international peacekeeping forces in a future Palestinian state regardless of their religion, an aide to Abbas said on Saturday. Abbas' advisor Nemer Hammad denied U.S. media reports that the Palestinian leader would not agree to have any Jews among the peacekeeping forces that would be present alongside the Israeli- Palestinian borders after reaching a two-state solution. "These reports are totally baseless and untrue," Hammad was quoted by the official Palestinian Wafa news agency as saying.

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The new ghetto
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yossi Beilin - (Opinion) August 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Political Zionism led by Theodor Herzl would not have come into existence were it not for anti-Semitism in Europe, pogroms in Russia and a fear lest the emergence of the Jews from the ghetto and their integration into the economic, political, media and academic systems of the day provoke a sharp and violent reaction. There were alternative Jewish movements aimed at reaching the Land of Israel on the basis of religious motives or in order to build a new society founded on agricultural settlement and social justice. But that was not the Zionist movement as established in 1897.

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August 6th

Israeli Amb. Oren says the Middle East is at a crossroads between war and peace. A thriving Jenin, with a reopened main cinema, is an example of Palestinian progress in the West Bank. Palestinians say the economy could grow by 20% per year under peace. Hamas' military wing welcomes rocket attacks from Sinai. Palestinian-Israeli and West Bank business leaders meet in Nablus. Several recent border incidents highlight Israeli security concerns. Older Gazans remember Israeli civilians, but youths know only the Army. Three are injured in a clash between Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Hamas leaders urge the kidnapping of Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Zeev Sternhell says it's time for both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to be honest about their intentions. Former HHS Sec. Donna Shalala says she was humiliated at Ben-Gurion Airport because of her Arab heritage. Saudi Arabia is coaxing the PLO to enter direct talks. The BBC profiles child labor in Gaza. Laila El-Haddad says calling Gaza “a prison camp” is an understatement. The New Statesman interviews Palestinian MK Haneen Zoabi. Ori Nir says it's time to confront Israel's extremists. Hussein Ibish says both Arab and Israeli leaders are behaving in an undignified manner.

Israeli Amb. Oren says the Middle East is at a crossroads between war and peace. A thriving Jenin, with a reopened main cinema, is an example of Palestinian progress in the West Bank. Palestinians say the economy could grow by 20% per year under peace. Hamas' military wing welcomes rocket attacks from Sinai. Palestinian-Israeli and West Bank business leaders meet in Nablus. Several recent border incidents highlight Israeli security concerns. Older Gazans remember Israeli civilians, but youths know only the Army. Three are injured in a clash between Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Hamas leaders urge the kidnapping of Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Zeev Sternhell says it's time for both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to be honest about their intentions. Former HHS Sec. Donna Shalala says she was humiliated at Ben-Gurion Airport because of her Arab heritage. Saudi Arabia is coaxing the PLO to enter direct talks. The BBC profiles child labor in Gaza. Laila El-Haddad says calling Gaza “a prison camp” is an understatement. The New Statesman interviews Palestinian MK Haneen Zoabi. Ori Nir says it's time to confront Israel's extremists. Hussein Ibish says both Arab and Israeli leaders are behaving in an undignified manner.

Middle East leaders' undignified behavior
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog
by Hussein Ibish - August 6, 2010 - 12:00am

In the context of the Obama administration's strong push for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, the frankly undignified and needlessly complicating behavior of almost all the national leaderships in the Middle East has never been more apparent.

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The NS Interview: Haneen Zoabi
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from New Statesman
by Samira Shackle - August 6, 2010 - 12:00am

What is it like being a Palestinian in Israel? Israel did everything it could to make us forget our history: controlling education and the media, putting us in a ghetto, preventing us from having normal relations with the Arab world and visiting our families in Syria and Lebanon. Are Arab members of parliament treated differently? Of course. The state treats all Jews and Palestinians differently. Israel doesn't recognise us as the owners of this homeland. The theory is that we have equal civil rights, but the practice is very far from this. Do you endorse a two-state solution?

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Calling Gaza a prison camp is an understatement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Laila El-Haddad - August 6, 2010 - 12:00am

It's three years since I've been back to Gaza. Much has happened since my last visit. Fatah waged a failed coup and now rules only the West Bank, while Hamas is in charge of Gaza. Israel launched its deadly Cast Lead assault. Fuel shortages. Electricity crises. And so on. I needed to regain perspective. So I walked and I talked and I listened. I went to the beach where women – skinny jeans and all – were smoking water pipes, swimming and generally having a good time, irrespective of the purported Hamas ban on women smoking sheesha.

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Case studies: Child workers in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
August 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Although Israel eased its blockade in mid-June - allowing in consumer goods - little has changed for Gaza's poorest families, who cannot afford the food and clothing in the market, and rely instead on aid handouts. Unemployment runs at 40% in Gaza, which has been largely sealed off from the outside world by Israel and Egypt since 2007, when the Hamas militant movement seized power in the territory. The UK-based aid group Save the Children, working with Getty photographer Warrick Page, has spoken to some of Gaza's young breadwinners. Raed Ahmed Moussa, 14, mechanic, Gaza City

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