Palestinian UN Vote No Longer A Certainty
Media Mention of Ziad Asali In ATFP - July 27, 2011 - 12:00am

As the Palestinians prepare to unveil Thursday a draft of their resolution requesting United Nations’ recognition next month of an independent Palestinian state, many analysts believe such UN action is not inevitable.

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NEWS: A UN Security Council meeting may have foreshadowed events in September. Palestinian plans and a draft resolution may be unveiled on Thursday. UN officials say Palestinians are ready for independence. PM Netanyahu’s popularity in Israel is plummeting over costs of living issues. PM Fayyad says the PA urgently needs $300 million to offset a financial crisis. Israeli troops raid the “Freedom Theater” in Jenin. Hamas says it intends to gain full control over the Egyptian border. Israel sues Bedouins for the costs of repeatedly destroying their homes. Reports describe abusive treatment of Palestinian children by Israeli military courts. COMMENTARY: Oudeh Basharat says Israel needs a real opposition party. Ron Kampeas interrogates Glenn Beck’s support for Israel. Joel Brinkley says events in September will be critical to the future of the Middle East. Emily Hauser looks at Palestinian nonviolent resistance to occupation. Hussein Ibish describes his debate with an extremist Israeli settler as a contrast between modern and medieval thinking, and Gal Beckerman agrees. Hussein Ibish examines potential Palestinian UN initiatives and possible compromises.

Fayyad seeks $300 million to ease cash crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
July 27, 2011 - 12:00am

CAIRO (AFP) - Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority needed $300 million "urgently" to help ease a financial crisis. The PA "urgently needs $300 million to overcome the bottleneck and deal with the financial crisis," he told reporters in Cairo after an extraordinary meeting of Arab League representatives. The crisis stems from the fact that pledged aid has not yet come through. Fayyad said the PA had received $331 million in 2011, including $79 million from Arab countries, as well as an additional $30 million from Saudi Arabia.

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Palestinian leader wants rallies to back UN bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - July 27, 2011 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Invoking the Arab Spring, the Palestinian president on Wednesday urged his people to take to the streets for massive rallies in support of his government's bid to get the U.N. to recognize an independent Palestinian state. The call by President Mahmoud Abbas for peaceful, "popular resistance" throughout the West Bank was likely to fuel Israeli concerns that the U.N. vote in September and any large demonstrations could spark a new round of violence.

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Hamas launches plans to fully control Gaza-Egypt borders: spokesman
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
July 26, 2011 - 12:00am

GAZA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The deposed government of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip had launched a security plan to fully control the borderline area between Egypt and the coastal enclave, a Hamas official said Tuesday. Ihab al-Ghussein, spokesman of the Hamas ministry of interior told Xinhua "the ministry is exerting every possible effort to keep a full control of the borderline area between the Gaza Strip and prevent more violations of the law."

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Israel sues 34 Bedouin for costs of repeated demolitions of their homes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jack Khoury - July 27, 2011 - 12:00am

The state filed an unprecedented suit against 34 Negev Bedouin in Be'er Sheva Magistrate's Court on Tuesday, seeking NIS 1.8 million in damages for the expense repeatedly incurred in evicting the defendants from state land and demolishing their homes. The state, through the Israel Lands Administration, told the court that the defendants had built homes in the Al-Arakib area, northeast of Be'er Sheva, on what had been state land since the time of Ottoman rule.

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Palestinian children endure systematic abuse from Israel's military courts, say reports
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - July 27, 2011 - 12:00am

BEIT UMMAR, WEST BANK // Military justice came to Sami on March 8 when two-dozen Israeli commandos raided his home shortly after midnight. The 15-year-old Palestinian's family watched as soldiers bound his hands, slipped over a blindfold and arrested him without offering an explanation. Sami recounted in an interview how he was forced to walk three kilometres beyond his village, Beit Ummar, to a nearby Jewish settlement.

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Why Netanyahu is suddenly unpopular in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - July 26, 2011 - 12:00am

Tel Aviv Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been put firmly on the defensive for the first time since his election, with tens of thousands of people protesting the surging cost of housing. With his approval ratings in a double-digit dive, Mr. Netanyahu canceled a trip to Poland today to unveil a series of measures aimed at cooling off real-estate prices that have risen by more than one third since 2007.

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Israel's Foreign Ministry Borrows From the Settlers for Its Propaganda
Media Mention of Hussein Ibish In The Jewish Daily Forward - July 27, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel’s deputy foreign minister and Twitter warrior, Danny Ayalon, recently released a video over YouTube that is doing quite well — posted on July 11, it now has nearly 180,000 hits. In it, Ayalon tries to explain why he thinks the West Bank should not be referred to as “occupied” and that settlements are not in effect settlements.

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Debating an extremist Israeli settler
In Print by Hussein Ibish - NOW Lebanon (Opinion) - July 26, 2011 - 12:00am

Last week I had a fascinating debate with David Ha’ivri, an extremist Israeli settler—an event loosely connected to a conference of the pro-settler Christians United for Israel organization.

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