December 5th

Israeli troops evict settlers in the West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - December 5, 2008 - 1:00am HEBRON, West Bank — Israeli troops forcibly evicted about 200 hard-line Jewish settlers from a contested building in this volatile biblical city on Thursday, the first serious clash in what seems to be a spiraling confrontation between the government and defiant settlers. The operation, carried out by 600 soldiers and policemen with stealth and efficiency, took half an hour and resulted in two dozen relatively light injuries. But events did not end there. Young settlers then rampaged through Palestinian fields and neighborhoods, setting olive trees on fire and trashing houses. » Read more

Action, not words ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Karen Koning Abuzayd - (Opinion) December 5, 2008 - 1:00am As we approach the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the steadily rising death toll in Gaza highlights the painful gap between its peaceful rhetoric and the desperate reality for Palestinian people. » Read more

Obama's 'Palestinian friend' laments catastrophic U.S. policy in Mideast ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Akiva Eldar - December 5, 2008 - 1:00am No one stopped Rashid Khalidi, the Columbia University professor of Modern Arab Studies, at Ben-Gurion airport. Having just landed after the long flight from New York, the professor was anticipating the traditional reception from airport security personnel reserved for visitors with "suspicious" names. To his surprise, he entered the airport like anyone else, with no problems or delays. Perhaps word had gotten around at Ben-Gurion that he was the Palestinian friend of United States President-elect Barack Obama. » Read more

High alert in W. Bank after evacuation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Katz, Tovah Lazaroff - December 4, 2008 - 1:00am The United Nations Middle East envoy on Friday praised Israeli security forces for evacuating the Beit Hashalom house in Hebron, but condemned the violence which followed, and promised that the UN would "closely monitor" the developments. » Read more

Is an Israeli-Palestinian Confederation Feasible? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times by Rachelle Kliger - December 5, 2008 - 1:00am JERUSALEM -- With time running out on the U.S. George W. Bush administration and without a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute having been reached, as was hoped, the idea of a Palestinian-Israeli confederation is gradually replacing that of a two-state solution. The notion has been floating around for several years now, in various forms. Josef Avesar, an Israeli-born attorney now based in California, is the founder of the Israeli Palestinian Confederation committee (IPC). » Read more

Obama's New Foreign Policy Team Looks Toward Syria ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - December 4, 2008 - 1:00am Breaking with the Bush administration, the incoming foreign policy team of President-elect Barack Obama is expected to embrace Israeli–Syrian peace talks and might actively take part in negotiations that until now the Americans have shunned. This assessment is shared by Middle East experts trying to gauge the foreign policy priorities of the incoming administration based on statements from the transition team. The negotiations on an accord between Israel and Syria would run parallel to efforts to secure a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. » Read more

December 4th

Arabs need to work with Clinton ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Francis Matthew - (Editorial) December 4, 2008 - 1:00am The Arab world has reacted badly to the appointment of Hillary Clinton as Barack Obama's Secretary of State. But it would be a mistake to write her off before she has even started. » Read more

A matter of choice ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times (Editorial) December 4, 2008 - 1:00am Nothing illustrates better the “separate laws for separate people” ethos of the Israeli state than the standoff over a house in Hebron that has been taken over by Jewish extremists. The presence of a few hundred extremist Jewish settlers in the centre of Hebron has long been an outrageous provocation to the city’s 150,000 Palestinians. The settlers in Hebron, furthermore, are of the very worst kind. They are racist and anti-Muslim, and sustain a supremacist arrogance derived from their belief in divine entitlement. » Read more

An Intolerable Spot for a Museum ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Buzz Gordon - December 4, 2008 - 1:00am In the Jewish community, the name Simon Wiesenthal is sacrosanct — which is why Rabbi Marvin Hier chose to establish his West Coast empire on the bedrock of the Nazi hunter’s reputation when Hier entered the institutional Judaism vacuum of Los Angeles 30 years ago. Over the course of the past three decades, the Simon Wiesenthal Center brand has been enhanced by its Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, but recent developments in Israel have begun to tarnish the institution’s reputation. » Read more

President Obama: Go For It ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum by M.J. Rosenberg - (Opinion) December 4, 2008 - 1:00am It is impossible to get Mumbai out of my mind. I keep thinking about two-year old, Moshe, sitting in his parents’ blood, crying out to a mother and father who are gone forever. It is hard to imagine how anyone can justify terror against children but many people do. In fact, fanatics of virtually every faith and nationality justify killing kids or leaving them orphans. It is sickening. Until humanity comes to the understanding that there is no justification—none, whatsoever—for killing children or making them orphans, we remain uncivilized. » Read more