November 21st

The banality of a Palestinian's arrest
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - November 21, 2011 - 1:00am


1. A Palestinian is arrested - a routine matter (the routine in question took place on October 21, 2011). 2. The usual charges: "Throwing an object, including a stone, with the intention of harming a person or property," and organizing an illegal demonstration in which he participated.


Palestinian PM: Ready to leave post once new premier is chosen
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Saud Abu Ramadan - November 21, 2011 - 1:00am


RAMALLAH, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Saturday that he will quit his post as soon as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party and the Islamic Hamas movement agree on the nomination of a new premier. Fayyad said on his page on the social website of Facebook that he awaits the instructions to leave his post as the prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), adding that "I have never imposed myself on the Palestinians in any of the governments I had chaired."


Israel envoy in Egypt for first time since embassy storming
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
November 20, 2011 - 1:00am


JERUSALEM, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Israel's ambassador to Cairo has travelled to Egypt for the first time since he and his staff were evacuated from the country in September after protesters stormed the Israeli embassy, a Foreign Ministry official said on Sunday. Playing down the significance of Yitzhak Levanon's trip, the official, who asked not to be identified, said the ambassador went to Egypt on Saturday for farewell meetings with foreign and Egyptian diplomats before his retirement.


Israel delays foreign funding bill -gov't source
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Maayan Lubell - November 20, 2011 - 1:00am


JERUSALEM, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu put on hold on Sunday legislation to limit foreign funding of non-governmental organisations, a government source said, after critics denounced the bill as a bid to mute left-wing groups. A ministerial panel last week gave preliminary approval to the proposal. Supporters of the bill said it would help to prevent intervention by foreign states in Israeli politics.


Report: US envoy to meet Abbas over unity govt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
November 21, 2011 - 1:00am


JERUSALEM (AFP) -- A top US diplomat is to hold emergency talks with Palestinian and Israeli leaders over the next two days regarding plans for a Palestinian unity government, the Israeli newspaper Maariv said Sunday. A spokesman for the US consulate in Jerusalem confirmed that Deputy Secretary of State William Burns would meet President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. He was unable to provide any other details about the agenda for the talks.


Jordan’s King Abdullah II pays rare visit to West Bank, in nod to Palestinian president
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
November 21, 2011 - 1:00am


RAMALLAH, West Bank — Jordan’s King Abdullah II paid a rare visit to the West Bank on Monday to show support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as the two moderate leaders try to engage with previously shunned Islamists now on the rise in the region.


In the West Bank, a contested heritage
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg - November 20, 2011 - 1:00am


JERUSALEM — At a museum just off the desert road from Jerusalem to Jericho in the West Bank, the artifacts of a contested heritage are on display. Colorful mosaic floors from Byzantine-era churches and synagogues, inscriptions, Roman capitals and stone burial boxes — all dug up by Israeli archaeologists in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — are shown at the site, developed by Israel’s West Bank military administration with the Israeli antiquities authority.


'Price Tag' Attacks Pose Test for Israel
In Print by Ziad Asali - The Jewish Daily Forward (Opinion) - November 21, 2011 - 1:00am

Israeli society has been confronted recently by a troubling new trend: vigilante attacks by some settlers and their supporters against Palestinians in the occupied territories, Arab citizens of Israel and, increasingly, Israeli peace groups. These began as the settlers’ own form of retaliation — exacting a “price” for any Palestinian violence — but have devolved into a campaign of terror. Marauding bands of armed settlers have uprooted olive trees, burned mosques and schools, shot at cars, run over children.


November 18th

NEWS: Hamas fines banks in Gaza. A pilot program to increase exports from Gaza is faltering. Israel is increasing diplomatic outreach in East Africa. Israel annexes privately-owned Palestinian land within Israel itself. A leading settler rabbi says soldiers should prefer death to listening to a woman singing. Israeli soldiers say extremist settlers have tried to kill them. Israel's separation barrier divides a Christian community in the occupied territories. Fatah and Hamas still plan unity talks, and some experts expect them to succeed at the expense of PM Fayyad. “Price tag” attacks are now targeting Palestinian citizens of Israel. COMMENTARY: Nehemia Shtrasler says PM Rabin understood the intimate connection between peace and economics. Anshel Pfeffer says there is no need for the ultra-Orthodox in Israel to protest, because they already run the place. Yair Lapid says the Israeli right does not understand that the left can also use new oppressive laws. Uri Savir says an Obama reelection is strongly in Israel's interests. Marcus Sheff says Palestinians may be divided about the right of return to a Palestinian state. Ahmad Majdoubeh says Palestinians should continue to insist on statehood and recognition. Ronit Avni says the story of occupation in Jerusalem is not being told. Hagit Ofran says the potential eviction of a Palestinian family in Jerusalem could spark a political crisis. Paul Pillar says nonviolence is the most potent Palestinian weapon. Former Special Envoy Mitchell says the peace process is not dead and must be continued. Abdel-Moneim Said says dissolving the PA would be “the mother of all gambles.”

The mother of all gambles
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ahram
by Abdel-Moneim Said - (Opinion) November 18, 2011 - 1:00am


It is reported that in his attempt to pitch to the Palestinian leadership the Oslo Accords, which he played a key role in negotiating, Mahmoud Abbas -- Abu Mazen -- described them as a gamble. Before long it was palpable that he did not master the rules of the game that he had dragged the Palestinians into. It seems that Abu Mazen, like any skill-less gambler, was placing his hopes solely on being dealt a royal flush.



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