August 25th

Fayyad unveils plan for de facto state by 2011
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 25, 2009 - 12:00am


Palestinian caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad unveiled his plan to establish a de facto state within two years on Tuesday. Fayyad’s plan is to build up the apparatus of a state in the West Bank and Gaza even before Israel has withdrawn its forces from Palestinian land. He said the Palestinian Authority wants to take “positive steps … despite the occupation.” “This is on the path to freedom,” he said at a Ramallah news conference on Tuesday.


Israeli airstrike kills three in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 25, 2009 - 12:00am


sraeli airstrikes overnight on a smuggling tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah killed two Palestinians and injured nine others. According to medical sources Nael Ali Batiniji, 22, and Mansour Ali Batiniji, 32, and Ibrahim Batiniji 24, arrived dead at Abu Yousef An-Najjar Hospital in Rafah. The three were brothers. Rescue workers were still searching for more bodies in the rubble of the tunnel. The medics also said nine injured people were taken to hospitals in ambulances after the strike.


Settlement issue looms over Netanyahu's Europe trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - August 24, 2009 - 12:00am


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embarked on a four-day trip to Europe on Monday, during which he will meet in London with US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell to try to firm up an agreement for fast-tracking peace talks with the Palestinians.


Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says time is running out for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
by James Hider - August 25, 2009 - 12:00am


The Palestinian Authority intends to bypass failing peace talks and establish its own de facto state within two years, Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Prime Minister, said. Speaking on the eve of talks in London today between Binyamin Netanyahu and Gordon Brown, his Israeli and British counterparts, Mr Fayyad said that the idea was to “end the occupation, despite the occupation”. He told The Times in an interview: “After 16 years [of failed peace talks] why not change the discourse?


August 24th

Dr Erakat on plans to construct a new Israeli settlement in occupied East Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Palestine Liberation Organization
by Negotiations Affairs Department - August 24, 2009 - 12:00am


Chief Palestinian Negotiator, Dr Saeb Erakat, today said that plans to construct a new Israeli settlement in the Palestinian neighborhood of Ras al-Amud in occupied East Jerusalem provided yet another example of the obstacles Israel continues to place in the way of international efforts to restart negotiations. Submitted for approval to Israeli authorities, and reportedly to be called ‘Ma’aleh David’, plans for the new settlement include the construction of 104 new settlement units.


Israel Still Strangles the Palestinian Economy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Sam Bahour - (Opinion) August 21, 2009 - 12:00am


Palestinians are as eager as anyone to see positive economic development for their tormented country. But they know full well that real economic progress awaits their release from Israeli military occupation (West Bank, East Jerusalem) and siege (Gaza Strip).


Religious fundamentalism in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ahram
by Stephen Lendman - August 24, 2009 - 12:00am


In the book Jewish History, Jewish Religion, by Israel Shahak (1933-2001), it is argued that while Islamic fundamentalism is vilified in the West, comparable Jewish extremism is largely ignored. In the book's foreword, Edward Said wrote: "... Shahak's mode of telling the truth has always been rigorous and uncompromising. There is nothing seductive about it, no attempt made to put it 'nicely,' no effort expended on making the truth palatable... For Shahak killing is murder is killing is murder: his manner is to repeat.


Hamas branded 'too secular'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ahram
by Saleh Al-Naami - August 24, 2009 - 12:00am


In the biggest confrontation yet between the dismissed government of Ismail Haniyeh and an Islamic group, more than 30 people were killed last week, including 12 civilians and several policemen. The bloody confrontation came after Abdel-Latif Moussa -- also known as Abul-Nur Al-Maqdisi, leader of Jund Ansar Allah, or Soldiers of the Followers of God, and among the killed -- declared an Islamic emirate, or mini-state, in Rafah. Moussa, who promised to implement Islamic law, accused Hamas of being too "secular".


US must choose between the two voices of Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Amr Hamzawy - (Opinion) August 24, 2009 - 12:00am


When will President Obama abandon the Bush doctrine of isolating Hamas? During a press conference in Gaza City a few weeks ago, Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, declared: “If there is a real project that aims at resolving the Palestinian cause on establishing a Palestinian state on 1967 borders, under full Palestinian sovereignty, we will support it.” And in an interview shortly after, Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas’s political bureau, welcomed the “new language towards the region” from President Obama.


West Bank settlements: an impassable obstacle on the road to peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ian Black - (Opinion) August 24, 2009 - 12:00am


On a ridge high above the West Bank town of Nablus, a cluster of red roofs and neat white concrete homes mark the Israeli settlement of Elon Moreh, its security patrols on alert for attackers like the lone Palestinian gunman who mowed down four residents during the second intifada.



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