December 30th

Hamas's rhetoric of resistance masks new stance a year after Gaza war ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Rory McCarthy - December 28, 2009 - 1:00am When Hamas held its annual anniversary celebrations in the centre of Gaza City it looked like a defiant and celebratory show. There was a male choir in camouflage fatigues singing on the stage, a sea of green flags in the crowd and wave after wave of self-congratulatory chanting: "Far and wide, Hamas is shaking the ground." A year after Israel's devastating three-week war in Gaza, the Palestinian Islamist movement which controls the strip is still very much in charge and unbowed. » Read more

This is not humane. We need dignity ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Sami Abdel-shafi - (Opinion) December 29, 2009 - 1:00am On my way to visit a friend in the Abed Rabbo district, north of the Gaza Strip, the taxi driver handed me a small pack of biscuits for change. There are nearly no copper coins left here so cab drivers barter a half Israeli shekel for biscuits brought in from the tunnels between the southern city of Rafah and Egypt's northern Sinai. Some Gazans, who once earned a respectable living, resorted to melting coins and sold the copper for food supplies. » Read more

US administration delaying trial against PA ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yitzhak Benhorin - December 29, 2009 - 1:00am A federal judge in Washington has criticized the American administration's refusal to take a stand on a damages claim filed against the Palestinian Authority over a terror attack which left an American citizen dead. Esh Kodesh Gilmore, 25, who worked as a security guard at the National Security Institute offices in east Jerusalem, was murdered in a terror attack which took place in the area in the year 2000. His friend Itay Swissa was seriously injured. » Read more

Hamas: Israel refusing to free 4 senior prisoners ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ali Waked - December 29, 2009 - 1:00am The Hamas organization says Israel is refusing to release the "heaviest" prisoners as part of a possible prisoner exchange deal. The movement's official website on Tuesday mentioned the names of Marwan Barghouti, Ahmed Saadat, Ibrahim Hamed and Abdullah Barghouti. Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for Hamas' military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said that there was no news on the talks aimed at securing kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit's release. » Read more

Hamas: Shalit mediator to start new round of talks next week ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - December 30, 2009 - 1:00am The German mediator brokering a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit will begin a new round of talks next week, a source in the Palestinian Islamist group said Wednesday. The comments came shortly after Hamas reportedly rejected the latest offer from Israel to free hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return for its corporal, who has been held in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for more than three years. » Read more

28 kilometers of distilled apartheid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) December 30, 2009 - 1:00am This highway has told the whole story. They pave a road, expropriate Palestinian land and the High Court of Justice approves the expropriation, in its words, "provided that it is done for the sake of the local population." Afterwards they prevent the "local population" from using the road, and finally they build a wall with drawings of creeks and meadows so we don't see and don't know that we are driving on an apartheid road, that we are traveling on the axis of evil. » Read more

Israel approves new building plan for West Bank settlement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz December 30, 2009 - 1:00am In an unusual step, the state announced on Tuesday its plan to promote planning and construction in the northern West Bank settlement of Kiryat Netafim, Army Radio reported Wednesday. Left wing human rights group Peace Now petitioned the High Court of Justice recently against the construction of 14 structures that were illegally built, some of them on Palestinian land without any authorization, according to the petition. In response to the petition, the Defense Ministry approved the Kiryat Netafim construction plans, to legalize the construction of the 14 structures in question. » Read more

Israel and Egypt eye movement on peace process ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher, Liam Stack - December 29, 2009 - 1:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Cairo Tuesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in talks aimed at bringing Egyptian pressure on the Palestinians ahead of a flurry of diplomatic activity expected next week, including a visit from US Middle East envoy George Mitchell. » Read more

'Footnotes in Gaza' by Joe Sacco ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by David L. Ulin - (Book Review) December 27, 2009 - 1:00am Joe Sacco's "Footnotes in Gaza" is not a sequel to his 1996 book " Palestine," although it's tempting to read it as such. Both are works of comic-book journalism that take place in the occupied territories, and both offer a ground's-eye-view of situations that seem too big, too incomprehensible for us to wrap our minds around. But while "Palestine" is a portrait of its moment, an account of Sacco's visit to the West Bank and Gaza during the early 1990s, "Footnotes in Gaza" is a more expansive effort. » Read more

White House decries Israel's plan to build homes in East Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - December 29, 2009 - 1:00am An Israeli government plan to build nearly 700 homes for Jewish families in Palestinian-dominated East Jerusalem drew fire Monday from the Obama administration, which called the plan a hindrance to relaunching peace talks. "The United States opposes new Israeli construction in East Jerusalem," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said, calling on Israelis and Palestinians to return to U.S.-brokered talks. "Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally preempt, or appear to preempt, negotiations." » Read more