February 1st, 2012

Another exercise in futile diplomacy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Efraim Inbar - (Opinion) January 30, 2012 - 1:00am Few should be surprised by the failure of the Amman talks, which constituted an additional attempt by the international Quartet to restart negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. These meetings were intended to break the impasse in the peace process, after the Palestinians decided to relinquish the option of negotiations with Israel and to adopt instead a unilateral approach to attain their goals. » Read more

Hard Questions, Tough Answer with Yossi Alpher – January 30, 2012 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now (Interview) January 30, 2012 - 1:00am Alpher discusses the Israeli-Palestinian pre-negotiation talks in Amman, interim conclusions from the "Arab spring" one year after the outbreak of the revolution in Egypt and the meaning of the 2009 survey just published on Israeli attitudes towards religiosity. Q. The Israeli-Palestinian pre-negotiation talks in Amman adjourned after a meeting last Thursday without agreement to continue. What have we learned? » Read more

Deep in the Sinai, a looming Crisis Threatens Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Bradley Hope - February 1, 2012 - 1:00am CAIRO // The owner of a Sinai Peninsula holiday resort taken over by a group of armed Bedouin is refusing to pay the four million Egyptian pound (Dh2.4m) ransom the tribesmen are demanding. Hesham Nessim, proprietor of the Aqua-Sun Resort 30km south of Egypt's border with Israel, says he will wait them out or retake his property with police help. His brother Fouad says the Bedouin should expect a long stand-off. "It would be easier to go to the moon than to get that money from my brother," he told The National. » Read more

Bringing Hamas in from the cold ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Osama Al-Sharif - (Opinion) January 31, 2012 - 1:00am Most of Hamas senior officials, including Meshaal, are Jordanian citizens. Prime Minister Awn Al-Khasawneh has described their deportation to Qatar 12 years ago as “a constitutional” error. And since the former international jurist took over as premier he has been keen on mending state relations with the country’s Muslim Brotherhood (MB) leadership. Jordan’s recent rapprochement with Hamas, a powerful Palestinian faction currently ruling Gaza Strip but with special links to Jordan’s MB, ends more than a decade of cool and sometimes troubled relationship between the two. » Read more

Put Hamas-Jordan amity to a referendum ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) February 1, 2012 - 1:00am Why am I not impressed by the statement by Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal after meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Amman Sunday. Meshaal declared, “We are happy with this good new start ... With this new chapter in relations with Jordan. We hope Jordanian and Palestinian interests will be served.” » Read more

Freed Palestinian Prisoners Adapt to Qatar Exile ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Michael Buchanan - February 1, 2012 - 1:00am As part of the deal to free the captured Israeli soldier Sgt Gilad Shalit last year, more than a 1,000 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli jails. The vast majority were allowed back into the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but 40 prisoners were forced to leave the region entirely, deemed by Israel to be a continuing security threat. The releases were enormously controversial in Israel, where some of the prisoners were seen as mass murderers. A two-bed flat not far from the cornice in Qatar's capital, Doha, is now home for 47-year-old Ibrahim Shammasina from Ramallah. » Read more

Israel Replace Race as Obama Fear ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Josh Nathan-Kazis - (Analysis) February 1, 2012 - 1:00am Boca Raton, Fla. — In 2008, comedian Sarah Silverman recorded a web video urging young Jews to go to Florida and convince their grandparents to vote for Obama. If Obama lost, Silverman warned, she would “blame the Jews.” Silverman was joking, sort of. But she was also responding to rumors, then rampant among older Floridian Jews, that Obama was a Muslim — and to the widespread belief that these rumors would hurt his election bid. Obama went on to earn 78% of the Jewish vote nationally and to win Florida, including the heavily Jewish Florida counties of Broward and Palm Beach. » Read more

Hackers Target Palestinian News Sites ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency February 1, 2012 - 1:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Hackers temporarily shut down two Palestinian news websites in the occupied West Bank late Tuesday, the latest targets in a string of hacks on Mideast websites. There was no immediate indication of who was behind the attacks on Wafa, the Palestinian Authority's official news agency, and several websites affiliated with Ma'an Network including its news page. » Read more

Washington Watch: Rats deserting the sinking ship ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) January 31, 2012 - 1:00am After more than a dozen years of safe sanctuary in Syria, Hamas is pulling up stakes and looking for a new home as that country becomes engulfed in a bloody uprising. Over the past several days one door closed and another opened for Hamas. Assad & Son, a brutal enterprise with a long history of killing its own people, has given Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups protection, training camps, diplomatic cover, financing and weapons to carry out their war against Israel. They, in turn, have helped Syria retain its un-coveted status as a state sponsor of terrorism. » Read more

Palestinians, Israeli Officers Hurt in Jerusalem Clash ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency February 1, 2012 - 1:00am JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian youths sustained injuries overnight in a confrontation with Israeli soldiers and police officers in al-Isawiya in occupied East Jerusalem, a Ma'an reporter said. One young man sustained serious injuries, witnesses said. Confrontations began Tuesday afternoon in the center of al-Isawiya after Israeli forces broke into the home of Ayyoub Ubeid and detained him under the pretext that he hurled stones at Israeli soldiers in the town. » Read more