Editorial: Unsettled issue
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) September 12, 2010 - 12:00am


Abbas will not be able to continue talking while Israel continues building With the expiration of Israel’s partial freeze on settlements only two weeks away, President Barack Obama is concerned. The “major bone of contention” he referred to over the weekend is the potential lifting of the settlement moratorium which could wreck the talks before they get out of first gear. The president’s credibility and the future of talks depends on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.


Palestinian federation launches campaign against settlement products
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Mohammed Mar’i - (Analysis) September 11, 2010 - 12:00am


RAMALLAH: The Palestinian federation of Laborers on Saturday launched an international campaign to boycott the products of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories. Shaher Sa'ad, Secretary-General of the Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), told Arab News that his federation lunched the international campaign to boycott the products of Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories.


Rush of openings on West Bank is sign that prosperity is returning
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Analysis) September 10, 2010 - 12:00am


RAMALLAH // On the eve of Eid al Fitr, Rukab Street was gripped in the traditional holiday fervour. Hijab-clad women and their Christian counterparts, in knee-length skirts and floral shirts, bumped shoulders as they thronged shoe stores and sweet shops for last-minute bargains. Employees at coffee shops busily scrubbed their storefronts in anticipation of customers after iftar. Unlike previous years, the end of the holy month came amid unmistakable signs of prosperity.


Settlers vow to keep on building – at any cost
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Catrina Stewart - (Analysis) September 11, 2010 - 12:00am


As Israeli and Palestinian leaders prepare for key peace talks in Egypt, hardline Jewish settlers are vowing to sabotage a political process that they fear, if successful, could endanger the survival of the Jewish state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas sit down for a second round of talks on Tuesday in a US-sponsored effort to end nearly two decades of deadlock, but opponents of the negotiations say they are quietly confident of their failure.


Bedouin village razed for 5th time
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ilana Curiel - (Analysis) September 13, 2010 - 12:00am


Authorities are determined to demolish an unrecognized Bedouin village in The Negev – residents of the Bedouin village al-Arakib rebuilt their houses four times, after they were razed by The Israel Land Administration. 


Settler leader: Extending West Bank freeze will end Netanyahu gov't
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jack Khoury, Chaim Levinson, Jonathan Lis - (Analysis) September 12, 2010 - 12:00am


A continuation of a moratorium on West Bank settlement building would usher the end of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, a prominent settler leader said on Sunday, thus commenting on what many consider to an earlier remark by the premier. Speaking at a meeting of Likud ministers earlier Sunday, Netanyahu hinted that he was open to a formulation of a partial building freeze in the settlements after September 30. "The freeze order is support to expire at the end of the month," Netanyahu said.


Jerusalem or Gaza - where is it worse to be Palestinian?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - (Opinion) September 13, 2010 - 12:00am


Graduates of the Shin Bet security service pride themselves on being able to recite Arabic proverbs, claiming this is the way to win over an Arab interlocutor. If it sounds to you as if I'm a bit envious of the linguistic training they receive, you are not mistaken; in my sort of school - the field - I have been able to memorize only a few Arabic adages.


Peace Now: 2,066 settlement homes to be built as soon as freeze ends
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - (Analysis) September 12, 2010 - 12:00am


2,066 new homes would be ready for continued West Bank construction as soon as a moratorium on settlement building is lifted later this month, a report by the Israeli left-wing NGO Peace Now said Sunday, adding that work on another 11,000 potential units could hypothetically start as well.


Netanyahu urges recognition of Israel as "Jewish people's state"
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
(Analysis) September 13, 2010 - 12:00am


JERUSALEM, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday urged the Palestinians to recognize Israel as "Jewish people's state" and called for "two states for two peoples " as part of a solution to the Israeli -- Palestinian conflict. "We say that the solution is two states for two peoples, meaning two national states, a Jewish national state and a Palestinian national state," Netanyahu told ministers at the weekly cabinet session.


Erekat: No infighting on negotiations team
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Analysis) September 13, 2010 - 12:00am


BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The PLO's chief negotiator denied on Sunday, reports in the Arab media that he and another Palestinian officials were sparring over who would represent President Mahmoud Abbas at an upcoming peace summit. Saeb Erekat told Ma'an that President Abbas appointed him as head of the Palestinian negotiations delegation, which meant he - and not Nabil Shaath - would attend the Sharm Ash-Sheikh summit on Tuesday, where peace talks that began on 2 September in Washington are set to continue.



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