December 17th

Why the PLO extended Abbas's term
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - December 17, 2009 - 1:00am

Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority (PA), was given a green light Wednesday to stay in office beyond next January, when his term was due to expire for the second time. The Central Council of the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) voted Tuesday to extend indefinitely the tenure of Mahmoud Abbas. The decision was seen as a stop-gap measure aimed at avoiding a potential collapse of the PA.

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Babylon & Beyond
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
December 17, 2009 - 1:00am

Religion is the opiate of the masses, Karl Marx said. That might be true in some places, but in Israel, this drug induces dangerous hyperactivity. Always a scratch-of-the-surface away, religion is an emotional factor in conflict -- between Israel and the Palestinians, between Israelis and themselves. Recent days have provided one reminder after another.

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International law is clear: Israeli settlements are illegal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Iain Scobbie - (Opinion) December 17, 2009 - 1:00am

Eric Rozenman's Dec. 11 Op-Ed article, "Israeli settlements are more than legitimate," is legal nonsense that disregards history. He is correct in his observation that Article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine permitted "close settlement by Jews on the land, including state lands and waste lands not required for public purposes," but the conclusions he then draws are flatly wrong.

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A Legacy of Regret for a Saudi Diplomat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Michael Slackman - December 17, 2009 - 1:00am

The year that Prince Saud al-Faisal was appointed foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, Gerald R. Ford was president of the United States, the Vietnam War ended and Microsoft had just opened its doors.

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December 16th

The New York Times looks at the controversy over PM Netanyahu's intentions on peace. The PLO extends the terms of Pres. Abbas and the Palestinian parliament in light of Hamas'refusal to agree to new elections. Israel's Consul General to New England says his country is ready for peace. Egyptian mediators propose a reconciliation summit between Fatah and Hamas, as student groups clash in Gaza and Hamas says 80 of its members have been arrested by PA police. The EU is set to deliver €200 million to the PA over the next three years. Abbas says that peace is possible in six months if Israel agrees to complete settlement freeze, and reports suggest that the US, Egypt and France are planning to try to restart peace talks based on the 1967 borders involving a complete but unannounced freeze. The new EU foreign policy chief will be traveling to Jerusalem. Israeli police raid the home of nonviolent Palestinian protesters. Jewish extremists plan another provocative march in occupied East Jerusalem. A commentary in the Guardian says Jewish internal dialogue about Israel needs to be more civil. Rami Khouri says that it's unfair for anyone to blame the Goldstone report for the present diplomatic impasse.

Enough of blaming the Goldstone Report!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) December 16, 2009 - 1:00am

A brief news item in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) a few days ago made depressing reading. It was entitled: “State Department blames Goldstone for stalled peace talks.” “Wow!” I thought to myself, has it really come down to this? The United States and Israel, who do not hesitate to toot their horn about their democratic credentials, now blame the stalled Arab-Israeli peace process on Judge Richard Goldstone, the main author of a report on potential war crimes during the Gaza war that was issued last September by the United Nations Human Rights Council inquiry commission?

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EU's Ashton to travel to Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Irish Times
by Ruadhan MacCormaic - December 16, 2009 - 1:00am

THE EUROPEAN Union’s new foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, will travel to the Middle East early next year to press for a resumption of peace talks. Baroness Ashton, appointed last month as the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, is expected to visit Jerusalem in early February to keep pressure on Israel to halt settlement building and urge Palestinians back to negotiations. Addressing the European Parliament yesterday, she reiterated that the time was ripe for a resumption of peace talks, which have been suspended for a year.

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Civilising the debate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Keith Kahn-Harris - (Opinion) December 16, 2009 - 1:00am

Last Sunday's Observer finally broke a story about which rumours had been circulating for a while: Professor David Newman, a British-Israeli geographer at Ben Gurion University, Israel, received an astonishing couple of emails from Michael Gross, a British-Jewish businessman, philanthropist and member of the university's board of governors, threatening to "use whatever influence I have at BGU to have you thrown out" and, even more extraordinarily, saying "I hope you perish" and "the sooner you are removed from BGU and the face of the earth, the better."

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Activists planning Temple Mount ascent
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Abe Selig - December 16, 2009 - 1:00am

A group of activists dedicated to bringing Jews to the Temple Mount told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that they were hoping to see hundreds of participants take part in a planned "mass pilgrimage" to the site scheduled for Thursday morning in honor of Hannuka, which celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple after it was recovered from Hellenist Greeks more than 2,000 years ago.

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Clashes break out between Hamas, Fatah students in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - December 16, 2009 - 1:00am

Clashes broke out at the al-Azhar University in Gaza after Hamas members sought to hang Hamas flags on the site in commemoration of the organization's 22nd anniversary. The university is affiliated with Fatah. Students clashed with the Hamas members. Some of them were arrested by security forces who were dispatched to the site.



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