January 11th

Guest Post: A Capital For One State, or Two? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Council On Foreign Relations (Blog) January 10, 2011 - 1:00am The Shepherd Hotel, partially bulldozed yesterday by private Israeli builders, is located just a few hundred yards from what had been my Jerusalem office until a few months ago. For the past several years, while I was based there working for the Quartet, I would pass the fenced off property daily thinking that the slightly dilapidated structure, built in the 1930s, must have once been elegant and grand. It has been fenced off and unused while its fate was being fought out in the Israeli judicial system. » Read more

Israel hotel demolition escalates fight for East Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Christa Case Bryant - January 10, 2011 - 1:00am The demolition of an East Jerusalem hotel to make way for Jewish homes in a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood has sparked concerns from Europe to Egypt, which suggested a new intifada could break out as a result. The Shepherd Hotel project will bring only 20 Jewish homes to Sheikh Jarrah, but it is at the forefront of a broader, intensely controversial Jewish campaign to establish a foothold in Arab neighborhoods circling the heart of Jerusalem. » Read more

Five controversial Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ariel Zirulnick - January 11, 2011 - 1:00am In 2000, then-President Bill Clinton suggested that one of the thorniest issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – the division of Jerusalem to create two capitals for two states – should be decided along demographic lines. In other words, Jewish neighborhoods would be incorporated into Israel and Arab neighborhoods would become part of the future Palestinian state. » Read more

ISRAEL: Poor diplomacy strikes foreign relations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Batsheva Sobelman - (Blog) January 10, 2011 - 1:00am Israel's foreign relations are suffering these days from an outbreak of poor diplomacy. Not necessarily bad; just poor. Foreign Ministry employees say they are just that, poor. Their basic salaries have been devalued by about 40% since last being updated in the early 1990s, and many of them rely on help from welfare services, say activists from the ministry workers' union. » Read more

Bulldozers begin work for Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Joel Greenberg - January 10, 2011 - 1:00am Bulldozers began tearing down a former hotel building Sunday to make way for a Jewish housing development in an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, pushing ahead with a contentious project that has raised concerns in Washington. The work drew a rebuke from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and sharp condemnation from Palestinian officials, further souring the diplomatic atmosphere as the Obama administration works to sustain peace efforts despite a breakdown of direct talks in a dispute over Israeli building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. » Read more

Clinton asks Arabs to oppose Iran nukes, support Palestinian government ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post January 10, 2011 - 1:00am Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton lobbied Arab governments on Monday to help tighten the screws on their Iranian neighbors, saying that sanctions and other measures are hurting Tehran and undermining its ability to acquire components for its nuclear program. Clinton, in the Middle East for four days of talks, also pushed oil-rich Persian Gulf states to do more to back fragile governments in the West Bank and Iraq to create stability in a region that has so frequently veered into war. » Read more

Netanyahu rejects Clinton criticism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Joel Greenberg - January 11, 2011 - 1:00am Rebuffing U.S. criticism of a new housing project for Jews in an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office said Monday that the project was a private initiative in which the government "was not involved." Bulldozers tore down a wing of the former Shepherd Hotel on Sunday to make way for the project. That drew a rebuke from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said the action undermined peace efforts. » Read more

Gazan Reported Killed by Israeli Forces ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - January 10, 2011 - 1:00am Palestinians accused Israeli forces on Monday of shooting a 65-year-old Gazan on his farm near the border with Israel. The Israeli military said it had no knowledge of the shooting. The farmer’s son said that three gunshots were fired from an Israeli watchtower overlooking the family’s property, which is close to the security fence that marks the border, and that one of the bullets hit his father in the neck. Israeli forces, wary of Palestinian militants’ trying to come into Israel, have warned people in Gaza not to approach the fence. » Read more

January 10th

Honesty and Hypocrisy in Facing Terrorism Appears in Arabic in An-Nahar Press Release - Contact Information: Ghaith al-Omari - January 10, 2011 - 1:00am Two days after the despicable bombing attack on the Coptic Church in Alexandria, Egypt, and four days before the recent outrage in Arizona targeting Rep. Giffords and others, ATFP President Dr. Ziad J. Asali and Senior Fellow Hussein Ibish published the following commentary, “Honesty and Hypocrisy in Facing Terrorism,” which was published in English in the Huffington Post and elsewhere and in Arabic in the well-known Lebanese An-Nahar newspaper. Read more

Honesty and hypocrisy in facing terrorism In Print by Ziad Asali - The Huffington Post (Blog) - January 3, 2011 - 1:00am The murderous bomb attacks against Christian communities in Egypt and Iraq have been roundly condemned by most political and religious leaders, commentators and public opinion in the Arab world. They have also been met with an outpouring of passionate condemnation by ordinary people who have taken to the streets to express anger and demand justice. People have sensed the danger to their whole society inherent in such atrocities. » Read more