September 21st

Israeli Arab accused of spying freed in plea deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
(Analysis) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am


JERUSALEM — An Israeli Arab charged with spying for Hezbollah has been released from jail in a plea bargain. Courts spokeswoman Nitzan Eyal said Monday that Omar Sayid was freed last week after five months behind bars. He pleaded guilty to contact with an enemy agent — a crime that could have carried up to seven years in prison.


Premier wants Israeli troops at Palestinian border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Amy Teibel - (Analysis) September 21, 2010 - 12:00am


JERUSALEM — Israel's leader is demanding that Israeli troops remain on the eastern border of a future Palestinian state, further antagonizing the Palestinians at a time when they are already threatening to walk out of peace talks. The negotiations, which resumed this month in Washington after a two-year breakdown, are foundering over Palestinian demands that Israel extend a curb on Jewish construction in the West Bank. That curb, in place for 10 months, is to expire Sunday.


EU pays €3.58 million to rebuild Gaza economy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Analysis) September 21, 2010 - 12:00am


JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- The EU has contributed over €3.58 million in its second disbursement to the Palestinian Authority to aid rebuilding of Gaza's private sector, a statement issued Monday said. The EU will contribute a total of €22 million towards the project, the statement added. The Private Sector Reconstruction in Gaza program was launched by the PA following Israel's December 2008 offensive on the coastal enclave, Operation Cast Lead. The program targets businesses whose buildings and assets were destroyed in the war.


Peres meets Abbas in New York
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Analysis) September 21, 2010 - 12:00am


NEW YORK (Ma’an) -- All Israelis are watching negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians attentively hoping for success, Israeli President Shimon Peres said Monday in New York. At a news conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Peres addressed questions from the Palestinian press as to whether he was taking a leadership role in the ongoing talks, and whether he had intervened in the process.


Could Syria become a force for peace?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by John Hughes - (Analysis) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am


After decades-long hostility, Israelis and Palestinians are tiptoeing their way, at the urging of the United States, through talks toward a peace that has been as elusive as a desert mirage. The goal is to provide security for Israel and nationhood for the Palestinians, ordered by boundaries yet to be defined and agreed upon. Ironically, the wild card in all this may be the nation not even seated at the negotiating table: Syria.


Israelis Float Settlement Deal Involving Spy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - (Analysis) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am


JERUSALEM — Israeli officials have tried to float a trade-off in which they would extend the temporary moratorium on settlement construction in exchange for the release by the United States of Jonathan Jay Pollard, the American who pleaded guilty to spying for Israel and is serving a life term in an American jail, Israel’s Army Radio reported Monday.


Peace Now Flight Highlights West Bank Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - (Analysis) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am


TEL AVIV — Local leaders often take visitors to Jewish settlements occupying the high ground of the northern West Bank to lookout points from where, on a clear day, they can see the glass towers of Tel Aviv, the shimmering waters of the Mediterranean and the contours of Israel’s heavily populated coastal plain. The aim is to underline the strategic dangers that the leaders say would be inherent in any Israeli withdrawal from the area to make way for a Palestinian state.


West Bank settlements can now be tracked on your iPhone
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - (Analysis) September 20, 2010 - 12:00am


Want to know what's happening in the West Bank settlements in real time? In addition to 'Sudoku' and 'Street Fighter,' iPhone owners will now be able to install the "Facts on the Ground" application, which monitors the expansion of settlements in Judea and Samaria, created by Americans for Peace Now.


Abbas: Israel can call itself whatever it wants
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
(Analysis) September 21, 2010 - 12:00am


Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a Monday night interview with Palestinian news source Ma'an that "Israel was free to call itself the Israeli Zionist Jewish Empire." The PA leader made cynical remarks to Maan shortly after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called upon Abbas to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.


Quartet to urge Israel to keep settlement freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Andrew Quinn - (Analysis) September 21, 2010 - 12:00am


NEW YORK, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The Quartet of Middle East peace mediators will on Tuesday call on Israel to extend its settlement moratorium, saying the freeze has had a positive impact as the two sides seek a peace deal within the next year, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters.



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