January 10th, 2011

Israel envoy to discuss reviving peace talks in U.S.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ori Lewis - (Blog) January 8, 2011 - 1:00am

An envoy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington next week to discuss ways to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a statement from Netanyahu's office said on Saturday. "(Netanyahu's representative) Yitzhak Molcho and a Palestinian representative will travel to Washington next week with the aim of advancing the diplomatic process," the statement said. When asked, a spokesman for Netanyahu declined to comment whether Molcho would meet his Palestinian counterpart.

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Hamas urges militant groups to stop attacking Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal al-Mughrabi - (Blog) January 9, 2011 - 1:00am

Hamas said on Sunday it has begun talks with other militant factions in the Gaza Strip to urge them to stop firing rockets at Israel, attacks that have raised Palestinian fears of a new Israeli offensive. The talks are a signal that Hamas hopes to avert any large-scale Israeli military operation in the enclave similar to a three-week campaign that ended in January 2009 and in which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

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Clinton 'concerned' about Jerusalem demolition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Blog) January 10, 2011 - 1:00am

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the Sunday demolition of a Palestinian hotel in Jerusalem a "disturbing development undermines peace efforts to achieve the two state-solution." In a statement issued the evening following the demolition, Clinton said the demolition of The Shepherd Hotel by Israeli settlement builder Irving Moskowitz "contradicts the logic of a reasonable and necessary agreement between the parties on the status of Jerusalem."

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PA: Israel demolishing chance for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Hossam Ezzedine - January 10, 2011 - 1:00am

Palestinian officials on Sunday slammed Israel's demolition of an East Jerusalem hotel to make way for settler homes, accusing Israel of destroying any chance of peace. Palestinians reacted furiously to the demolition of part of the Shepherd Hotel, which sits on a piece of land in occupied East Jerusalem where developers plan to build a complex of 20 luxury apartments for Jewish settlers. "By doing this, Israel has destroyed all the US efforts and ended any possibility of a return to negotiations," Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, said in a statement.

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Airstrikes hit two sites in Gaza, none injured
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Blog) January 10, 2011 - 1:00am

Shortly before midnight on Sunday night Israeli warplanes launched three missile strikes at areas said to be training grounds for Hamas’ military wing the Al-Qassam Brigades. The strikes, which caused no injuries according to medics in Gaza, hit east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, and in the northern Strip near Gaza City. The first hit landed in the south at 11:40 p.m. A second hit in the same area fell approximately 30 minutes later, and a third hit targeted an open area west of Gaza City shortly after 1a.m.

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WEST BANK: Fall of Jerusalem hotel brings down hopes for revival of peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) January 9, 2011 - 1:00am

As the Israeli bulldozers began to demolish Shepherd Hotel in the Palestinian Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Sunday in order to build a new Jewish settlement in its place, Palestinians warned that not only the hotel has fallen, but also the entire peace process and U.S. efforts to revive it. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, strongly reacted to the hotel demolition. Its fall, he said, “has brought down with it all U.S. efforts (to revive the peace process) and ended any possibility to return to negotiations.”

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Palestinian-American fights to buy Jerusalem housing project
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Maher Abukhater - January 10, 2011 - 1:00am

A wealthy Palestinian-American businessman is fighting to take over a troubled real estate firm that builds Jewish-only housing units in Arab-dominated East Jerusalem, but right-wing Jewish groups have vowed to kill the deal. Bashar Masri, a West Bank native who holds American citizenship, has offered to buy debt-burdened Digal Investment and Holdings Ltd., which has been building the 400-unit Nof Zion housing project overlooking the Old City.

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Israeli Demolition Begins in East Jerusalem Project
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - January 9, 2011 - 1:00am

Israeli bulldozers demolished part of a landmark building in a predominantly Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Sunday to make way for a Jewish housing project, prompting condemnation from Palestinian officials and symbolic claims to the site from both sides. Plans for development at the landmark, the Shepherd Hotel, have been in the works since the 1980s. But Jerusalem officials did not give the final go-ahead for the project until March, at the height of tensions between Israel and the Obama administration over construction in contested East Jerusalem.

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January 7th

Pres. Mubarak urges Israel to make overtures on peace. Elliott Abrams says Mohammed Dahlan was probably not planning a coup. Occupation forces kill an innocent Palestinian man in his bed during a raid in Hebron. Palestinians say settlers uproot more olive trees. Eyad El-Sarraj wins the 2010 Palme Prize. New Israeli technology is speeding up warfare. The Greek Orthodox patriarch in Jerusalem remains behind locked doors. A flurry of international diplomacy attempts to restart peace talks. Palestinians hope to bring a resolution before the Security Council against settlements next week. Ron Gerlitz says Palestinian citizens of Israel can do much to improve their conditions. Uri Avnery says freedom of speech in Israel is under grave threat. Palestinian business interests plan to takeover a struggling Israeli real estate firm. A Hamas leader makes provocative comments on the Holocaust. The death of an unarmed Palestinian protester draws new scrutiny on Israeli military tactics. Israeli diplomacy is stalled by a bureaucratic strike. Palestinians try to cope with the costs of not working in Israeli settlements.

Palestinians count cost of settlement work ban
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - January 6, 2011 - 1:00am

Although they regard Israel's settlements as a threat, tens of thousands of Palestinians such as Mohammed Ali, 26, a labourer, fear their families would starve without them. Every morning he and dozens of other informal workers huddle near the entrance of Ma'ale Adumim, one of the largest of roughly 120 rapidly expanding settlements in the West Bank. The men wait for offers to paint Jewish houses or manicure gardens. The odd jobs can pay quadruple what they would earn in nearby Palestinian communities - that is, if they can find any work there at all.

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