July 21st

Ghanem: Work permits retain refugee status for Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star July 21, 2010 - 12:00am ead of the Administration and Justice parliamentary committee, MP Robert Ghanem, said work permits will preserve the refugee status of Palestinians in Lebanon. The West Bekaa MP spoke to reporters on Monday after chairing a meeting for the committee at the Parliament. Ghanem said the committee amended article 59 of the Labor Law by which Palestinians registered in the Interior Ministry and the Political Affairs and Refugees Directory would have to file for a work permit in order to gain access to various professions. » Read more

Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system not a silver bullet ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - July 20, 2010 - 12:00am Four years after Hezbollah exposed Israel's vulnerability to short- and medium-range rockets, Israeli defense officials finished testing on Monday what is supposed to be the answer. Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system is designed to intercept salvos of primitive rockets from Gaza and Lebanon, drastically reducing the ability of Hamas and Hezbollah to hit Israeli population centers. It's also a blow to Iran, which supports both militant groups, and could use them as proxies in a broader conflict against Israel. » Read more

Young Israelis and Palestinians Commit to Peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now by Ori Nir - (Opinion) July 21, 2010 - 12:00am I just came back from an inspiring event on Capitol Hill, in which young Israeli and Palestinian peace activists told their stories and urged Americans to get involved to make Middle East peace a reality. It was the first annual congressional forum of the Middle East program of New Story Leadership, a Washington-based organization that brings young adults to Washington for internships and leadership training. Participants eventually return to Israel, the West Bank or Gaza, and, hopefully, continue taking action toward peace and reconciliation. » Read more

IDF destroys West Bank village after declaring it military zone ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - July 21, 2010 - 12:00am The IDF's Civil Administration destroyed a Palestinian village Monday morning that had earlier been cleared out when its water supply was cut off. The IDF demolished about 55 structures in the West Bank village of Farasiya, including tents, tin shacks, plastic and straw huts, clay ovens, sheep pens and bathrooms. These structures served the 120 farmers, hired workers and their families who lived in the Jordan Valley village. The Civil Administration said they had declared the area a live fire zone and posted eviction orders for 10 families in tents on June 27. » Read more

July 20th

With hiring of AJC veteran, David Project consolidates its mainstream status ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ron Kampeas - July 20, 2010 - 12:00am WASHINGTON (JTA) -- In a continuing bid to transition from campus rabble rousers to more mainstream educators, The David Project has hired a Jewish establishment veteran to guide the pro-Israel campus organization. In recent years The David Project has expanded from its original mission -- confronting what it identified as radically anti-Israel groups on campus -- to educating Jewish students on Israel. Now the hiring of David Bernstein, 43, a 13-year veteran of the American Jewish Committee, as executive director signals a major growing-up for the organization. » Read more

Why Israel keeps moving to the right ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Carlo Strenger - July 20, 2010 - 12:00am Israel has been sliding into ever greater isolation in the few last years and this process has accelerated since Binyamin Netanyahu came to power in 2009. The international community is put off by his tactics: whenever the question of Israel's settlement policy comes up, he diverts attention to the Iranian nuclear threat. He argues that the world is facing a situation similar to 1938, and that its reaction is that of Neville Chamberlain, trying to appease Adolf Hitler. » Read more

EU envoy urges Israel to open Gaza borders ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News July 20, 2010 - 12:00am Lady Ashton urged the international community to pressure Israel to end the blockade. She is the most senior Western official to go to Gaza since Israel partly eased curbs on goods entering the territory. Israel tightened its blockade in 2007 after the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of Gaza. Lady Ashton did not have any official meetings with Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls Gaza. Its authority is not recognised by the EU, Israel or the US, who describe it as a terrorist organisation. » Read more

Gaza’s First Development Project in Years ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Benjamin Joffe-Walt - July 20, 2010 - 12:00am A group of Palestinian IT entrepreneurs have launched the first internationally funded economic development project in the Gaza Strip since Hamas took over the coastal strip. The project, “EnTeG_: Enable Technology sector Growth in Gaza”, aims to help Gazan software developers use the Internet to get around Israeli export restrictions. The French Development Agency will grant 500,000 euros to the Palestinian Information Technology Association of Companies (PITA) to create the Gaza Strip’s first private sector development project in years. PITA announced receipt of the grant on Monday. » Read more

When is a border not a border? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by David Newman - (Opinion) July 20, 2010 - 12:00am When is a border not a border? When it is a security barrier. Or so, our politicians will tell us as they continue to live in a state of denial that the heavily fortified and electrified security fence/wall which has been constructed during the past six years around much of the West Bank is no more than an antiterror prevention device and that it has little, or no, significance for the eventual demarcation of borders between sovereign and independent Israeli and Palestinian states. » Read more

Settlements and anti-Zionists ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gershon Baskin - July 20, 2010 - 12:00am November 6, 2012 – that’s the date when Barack Obama will stand for election for a second term. By November 2011 he will already be deeply involved in campaigning and most of his attention will be focused on Middle America and not the Middle East. On November 2, midterm elections will be held in the US in which members of Congress (including all 435 in the House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 in the Senate) stand before the electorate.The US political calendar is a map of the window of opportunity which might exist for advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace. » Read more