April 20th

Abbas to fight Israeli orders on West Bank deportations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News April 20, 2010 - 12:00am Last week it was revealed the Israeli Defence Force changed their orders broadening the definition of people they could remove from the West Bank. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said he was prepared to take the issue to the UN Security Council, reports say. He said the order that would affect West bank residents without Israel-approved IDs was "a provocation". "Israel has no right to deport any Palestinian," Mr Abbas said after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Denied » Read more

Avishai Margalit: Lift the siege! ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Steve Linde - (Interview) April 19, 2010 - 12:00am Prof. Avishai Margalit is considered to be the country’s foremost philosopher. In granting him this year’s Israel Prize for Philosophy, the prize committee described Margalit as “one of the most important philosophers in the State of Israel and one of the most valued in the world today.” Known as a clear thinker, eloquent speaker and incisive writer, he is on the left of the political spectrum and advocates what he calls a return to “the little Israel” of 1948. » Read more

Mashaal vows to capture more soldiers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press April 20, 2010 - 12:00am The leader of Hamas has vowed to capture more Israeli soldiers to use in bargaining for the release of Palestinian prisoners. Khaled Mashaal accused Israel of obstructing a deal to trade captured soldier Gilad Schalit for hundreds of jailed terrorists. Gaza militants captured Schalit in a 2006 cross-border raid. A deal brokered by Egypt and Germany for his release had appeared close in November. » Read more

In its 62nd year, Israel is in a diplomatic, security and moral limbo ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua (Editorial) April 20, 2010 - 12:00am The joy attendant on Israel's Independence Day traditionally focused on emphasizing the growing list of the young state's achievements and the sense that the country was progressing toward a better future - one of peace, enhanced physical and existential security, integration into the family of nations and the region, and a normalized existence. But the country's lifespan, which was considered a great virtue in and of itself during the first few decades, has become secondary to a far more important question: Within what dynamic is Israel operating? Is time on Israel's side? » Read more

Hamas vows to continue executions ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua April 19, 2010 - 12:00am The Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas) will continue executing collaborators and people convicted of serious crimes in the Gaza Strip, Hamas interior minister Fathi Hammad said Monday. "Executions would be carried out against anybody trying to stand on the way of the people or trying to contact the Zionist enemy and convey information to it," Hammad told a press conference in Gaza city. "The government won't step back implementing executions against those who harmed our national interests." » Read more

Palestinian PM may reshuffle West Bank government: source ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua April 19, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad may reshuffle his government which holds sway in the West Bank, a government source said on Monday. A member of the government told Xinhua on condition of anonymity that there were discussions between President Mahmoud Abbas' office and the government to conduct the reshuffle. Earlier in the day, pan-Arab al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper reported that the differences focus on the interior ministry, as members of Abbas's Fatah party wants someone from the security establishment to hold that portfolio. » Read more

Middle East Peace: So Why Have We Failed? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Yossi Beilin, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Saeb Erakat, Gamal Helal, Daniel Kurtzer, Robert Malley, Michael B. Oren, Dov Weissglas, James Wolfensohn, Anthony Zinni - (Interview) April 19, 2010 - 12:00am More than 60 years after Israel's stunning victory in the 1948 war that birthed the Jewish state, an end to the world's most exasperating conflict seems more distant than ever. U.S. President Barack Obama is trying to drag both sides kicking and screaming to the negotiating table after nearly a decade of no progress. But is there still any reason for hope? » Read more

Gazans imposed "unreasonable taxes" as Hamas passes fiscal crisis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Saud Abu Ramadan - April 20, 2010 - 12:00am A'ahed al-Shawa, a 31-year-old meat vendor, who owns a butcher shop in western Gaza City, was shocked when representatives of the Hamas-ruled municipality informed him that he has to pay annual taxes for placing his grill machine outside his shop. "They asked me to pay 1,500 Israeli new shekels (404 U.S. dollars) every year for putting my grill meat machine outside my store," al-Shawa said, adding "I have never paid such kind of new unreasonable taxes before, either to Israel or to the Palestinian (National) Authority." » Read more

Mash'al: Hamas won't recognize Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency April 20, 2010 - 12:00am Hamas leader Khalid Mash'al said Monday that Arab officials had urged the movement to accept the International Quartet's conditions and recognize Israel in exchange for amendments to the Egyptian-backed unity deal. "Whoever asks us to recognize Israel will be disappointed," Mash'al, the senior-most Hamas leader said during a speech marking a week of Prisoners Day activities in Damascus, where he has lived since his August 1999 expulsion from Jordan. » Read more

The False Religion of Mideast Peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) April 19, 2010 - 12:00am On October 18, 1991, against long odds and in front of an incredulous press corps, U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Boris Pankin announced that Arabs and Israelis were being invited to attend a peace conference in Madrid. » Read more