December 21st

Israel to restore clean water to Jordan River
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
December 20, 2011 - 1:00am

ALUMOT DAM, Israel — Israel has pledged to release about 1 billion cubic feet of water to restore the biblical Jordan River. Israel, Syria and Jordan have diverted nearly all of the river's fresh water. The trickle that remains is mostly raw sewage. Last year, Israel began building a $106 million complex to remove the sewage water and treat it for agricultural use. But that would have left the river dry. In a statement, Environment Minister Gilad Erdan promised to start replacing the sewage with clean water in 2013, saying it will "allow life to return to the river."

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PA sign free trade agreement with Mercosur
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 21, 2011 - 1:00am

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority signed a free trade agreement on Tuesday with South American trading bloc Mercosur. Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki signed the deal in Montevideo as Palestinian Authority representative and thanked Mercosur, composed of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay, for recognizing Palestine as an independent nation, MercoPress reported. The free trade agreement has been negotiated for the past year and represents the first such deal between Palestine and a bloc of nations outside of the Middle East.

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UN Security Council members criticize Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
December 21, 2011 - 1:00am

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- Most members of the UN Security Council voiced deep concerns on Tuesday about the impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and criticized Israel for pressing ahead with the construction of new settlements. Council members were reacting to a briefing by UN assistant secretary-general for political affairs, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, who told them the search for peace "remained elusive in a context of tensions on the ground, deep mistrust between the parties and volatile regional dynamics."

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Hamas: Factions agree on 6 reconciliation steps in Cairo
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
December 21, 2011 - 1:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Wednesday that Palestinian factions have reached agreement on six steps to be taken as part of ongoing reconciliation talks. In a statement received by Ma'an, Barhoum said that a committee composed of nine members has been formed to take charge of elections. The committee will be headed by Dr. Hanna Nasser, chairman of the Palestinian Authority's Central Elections Commission, and former president of Birzeit university.

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December 20th

NEWS: Israelis complain that Palestinians are sending anti-peace messages. Palestinians and Israelis compete for tourist foreign-exchange. A new poll suggests that very few Palestinians think national reconciliation talks will succeed. Israeli settlers vandalize a Hebron mosque. The PA says occupation forces have destroyed key roads leading to Nablus. A released Palestinian prisoner continues to assert that the rabbi he was convicted of trying to assassinate deserves to die. Egyptian Salafists pledge to maintain the peace treaty with Israel. A major Palestinian citizens of Israel poet,Salem Jubran, passes away. The BBC profiles a Palestinian long-distance runner from Gaza. COMMENTARY: Aner Shalev says Israeli leaders are also part of the “greater Israel” movement. Salman Masalha looks at early Arab efforts to understand Zionism. Gershon Baskin says I'm seeing to decide what they mean about “normalization.” James Adler says Israel needs to stop seizing land in occupied East Jerusalem. Amal Jamal says there can be no self-determination without democracy. Hussein Ibish questions how far Hamas will really go in response to the regional realignment in the Middle East. Ephraim Sneh says sanctions will accelerate the collapse of the repressive regime in Tehran.

A Warning Call
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Ephraim Sneh - (Opinion) December 19, 2011 - 1:00am

In light of the damning IAEA report released in November, showing no equivocation regarding Iranian intentions for producing nuclear weapons, it is high time that the United States and Israel abandon their current policies and adopt a new joint strategy. Since 1993 I have been calling attention to the potential of a nuclear Iran, perhaps the most dangerous development in our region. Today we all understand that if Iran achieves nuclear military power, it is only a matter of time, a few years, before Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey will reach nuclear capacity as well.

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Hamas on the move
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) December 20, 2011 - 1:00am

Hamas is on the move, both literally and figuratively, but how far it can and will go very much remains to be determined. Hamas is in an impossible position, given the regional realignments following from the Arab uprisings, and is frantically trying to adjust without paying too high a price.

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Encountering Peace: Normalizing anti-normalization
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) December 19, 2011 - 1:00am

The Al Quds al Arabi newspaper, published in London, gave voice to senior Fatah member Hatem Abdel Qader Eid from Jerusalem announcing that Fatah has decided to boycott and prevent all meetings between Palestinians and Israelis, official and non-official. Being one of the leading Israeli advocates of such meetings and someone who has organized more than 2,000 of them over the past 24 years, many people have asked my opinion of the move.

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Israel’s problem isn’t Thomas Friedman
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by James Adler - (Opinion) December 19, 2011 - 1:00am

There is a common thread linking The Jerusalem Post’s attack on Thomas Friedman last week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s refusal to write an opinion column for The New York Times and an attack on my views by Haifa resident Ella Berkovitz on the Post letters page last Thursday. In all three instances, the individuals in question showed they prefer to take the easy road of crowd-pleasingly attacking the New York Times and one of its senior columnists, without addressing the fact that similar views are held by the United States government and most Western democracies.

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Ex-Palestinian prisoner: No regrets on Yosef plot
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
December 20, 2011 - 1:00am

A Palestinian jailed by Israel for plotting to kill one of Israel's most influential rabbis said after his release on Sunday that he had no regrets about the path he had chosen. Salah Hamouri, 26, was one of 550 prisoners freed to complete a deal in which Israel released 1,027 prisoners for soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held captive in the Gaza Strip for more than five years. Many of the 450 prisoners freed on Oct. 18 under the Egyptian-brokered swap for the soldier had been serving life sentences for deadly attacks.

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