September 11th

Can an ex-convict be Jerusalem's mayor? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - September 10, 2008 - 8:00pm One of Israel's most charismatic and controversial political figures, who fell from grace when he was jailed in 2000 for bribery, is making a comeback that is quickly sowing controversy. Aryeh Deri, the former leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party, said Wednesday he would run for mayor of Jerusalem, a key office that was held by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert through much of the 1990s. » Read more

Palestinian police make a difference in Hebron ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters September 10, 2008 - 8:00pm A new chapter in the history of the biblical town of Hebron is being inscribed in a Palestinian police blotter. The record shows that in August Palestinian police arrested 139 people on suspicion of crimes ranging from murder, drug dealing and illegal arms trading. Nearly 700 traffic tickets were handed out. After years of rule by gunmen in the Palestinian side of the divided city in the occupied West Bank, some 400 pistol-toting Palestinian policemen in blue uniforms are beginning to make a difference, residents said. » Read more

West Bank settlers take over more land: report ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Ori Lewis - September 10, 2008 - 8:00pm Israeli authorities and settlers have seized large tracts of land in the occupied West Bank for security zones around Jewish settlements beyond an Israeli-built barrier, a human rights group said on Thursday. In a new report, the Israeli B'Tselem group said some 12 settlements east of the barrier had been fenced off under an official "Special Security Area" (SSA) plan, blocking Palestinian farmers from reaching their fields. » Read more

Enough of the Jerusalem Mantra ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Daniel Seidemann - (Opinion) September 10, 2008 - 8:00pm I was born American. Thirty-five years ago, I chose to become Israeli. My choice in no way reflects a lack of affection for the United States. But patriotism is monogamous: I am an Israeli patriot, and a platonic friend of the land of my birth. I have never voted in a U.S. election and I belong to no U.S. political party. I see myself as an observer of, rather than a participant in, American presidential election politics. But as a Jerusalemite, I do have a stake in the 2008 Presidential race, like it or not. » Read more

Israeli special forces kill Palestinian in West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) September 9, 2008 - 8:00pm Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian during an arrest raid in the northern West Bank city of Nablus Wednesday evening, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported. An Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv said a special army force drove into Nablus to arrest a 'wanted' militant of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement. During the incursion into the city's Ras al-Ayn neighbourhood, violent clashes erupted between the Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen and stone-throwing residents. » Read more

September 10th

B?Tselem: Israel cutting Gaza from West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews September 9, 2008 - 8:00pm Israel is taking unilateral steps in order to institutionalize a new reality of separation between the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip and the one living in the West Bank, human rights group B'Tselem stated in a new report released Wednesday. The report warns against harming Palestinians' human rights and their possibility to realize their right for self-definition. » Read more

Palestinians: Delay in IDF checkpoint led to son?s death ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ali Waked - September 9, 2008 - 8:00pm A Palestinian couple from the West Bank city of Nablus claimed Wednesday that an IDF soldier delayed them in a checkpoint when they were on their way to a local hospital, causing the woman ? who was pregnant ? to give birth to a stillborn baby. Muayed Abu Raja and his wife Nahil, of the Palestinian village of Kafr Kusra, south of Nablus, were expecting their second child, when Nahil began experiencing severe abdominal pain last Thursday. » Read more

Darwish to Peres: PA has ?no more to give? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Greer Fay Cashman - September 8, 2008 - 8:00pm Israelis and Palestinians have never been closer to making strategic decisions than they are today, and at the end of the day, each side wants to win a little more than the other, Sheikh Abdallah Nimr Darwish, founder of the Islamic Movement, told President Shimon Peres on Tuesday. "But the Palestinians have nothing left to offer Israel," he added. Darwish spoke at the traditional Iftar meal for leaders of Israel's Arab communities hosted by President Shimon Peres during Ramadan. » Read more

Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians have the same position ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) September 8, 2008 - 8:00pm The future of Jerusalem has yet again presented itself as one of the most difficult issues in final status negotiations. This is not to say that other issues are either easy or have already been resolved, but the issues of Jerusalem and refugees appear the hardest to crack. » Read more

Hamas begins stepping out from Jordan?s crosshairs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) September 9, 2008 - 8:00pm A brief perusal of headlines in the regional media would appear to confirm that, of the two main Palestinian movements, Fateh and Hamas, the latter has recently been the object of the most attention from Israel's neighbors, particularly Egypt and Jordan. » Read more