February 17th

PA denies reported arrest of security officer ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency February 17, 2010 - 1:00am A man reportedly detained for plotting to kill Palestinian Authority officials is not a member of the PA security services, a top security official said on Tuesday. PA security spokesman Adnan Ad-Dmeiri told Ma'an that Mujahed Nimer, a resident of Qalandiya refugee camp, has never been a member of the Ramallah government's forces. Nimer was arrested on criminal charges following a warrant issued by prosecutors, Dmeiri said, contradicting a report in the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth that identified Nimer as "a top official in the Palestinian security apparatus." » Read more

Sources: Fayyad to reshuffle cabinet ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency February 17, 2010 - 1:00am Caretaker Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will dismiss members of his cabinet in the wake of a corruption scandal shaking the Ramallah-based Palestinian government, sources said on Tuesday. Officials said President Mahmoud Abbas approved Fayyad's recommendations at a cabinet meeting on Monday, which Abbas chaired, and offered Interior Minister Said Abu Ali the position of chief of staff. Abu Ali, however, has since denied knowledge of the offer. » Read more

Why the West Bank won't crown a Miss Palestine ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - February 16, 2010 - 1:00am The idea to mount the first-ever Palestinian beauty pageant was part political statement, part feminism, and part personal fantasy. When marketing entrepreneur Salwa Youssef began planning a Miss Palestine contest late last year, she knew she was pushing the boundaries of social convention in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where women often wear head scarves in public in deference to traditional Islam. » Read more

One long summer in Lebanon ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Najla Said - (Opinion) February 17, 2010 - 1:00am Tuesday, July 11, 2006: I am in Beirut. My friend Alex calls and asks if I want to spend the day at the beach in Tyre with him and some other friends. A day on the most beautiful beach in Lebanon -- why would I ever say no? We get down to Tyre and swim in the bluest water you can imagine. » Read more

At least some Dubai photos of Hamas 'assassins' appear fake ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - February 16, 2010 - 1:00am At least some of the passport photos and information released by Dubai this week on 11 suspects in the assassination of an alleged Hamas arms dealer appears to be false, Irish officials and several Israeli citizens said Tuesday. The use of sophisticated fake IDs would match the professional manner in which the Jan. 20 slaying of Mahmoud Mabhouh was apparently carried out. » Read more

New Hints of Skulduggery in Hamas Killing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Robert Worth - February 16, 2010 - 1:00am BEIRUT, Lebanon — The murder was straight out of a cheap spy thriller. At least 11 professional assassins, some wearing wigs and fake beards, tracked a senior Hamas official to his Dubai hotel in January and killed him with cold precision, fleeing the country afterward on European passports, the Dubai police say. But even as the Dubai authorities called Tuesday for an international manhunt, questions emerged about the identities of the suspects, deepening the mystery around the killing. » Read more

February 16th

Confronting Settlement Expansion in East Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Report by Joel Beinin - February 14, 2010 - 1:00am The neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, a 20-minute walk up the hill from the Damascus Gate to the Old City of Jerusalem, has become the focal point of the struggle over the expanding project of Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. » Read more

Telling Film Floats Between Art and the Actual ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by Jerrold Kessel, Pierre Klochendler - February 15, 2010 - 1:00am 'Ajami' starts as a case of mistaken identity in a semi-tribal, semi-criminal feud: a kid fixing a car in the streets of Ajami, a nondescript Arab neighbourhood of the Mediterranean city of Jaffa, is killed in a drive-by shooting. Soon, a backdrop of acute poverty, crime and social decay evolves into a powerful tale of suffering, vengeance, and survival. 'Ajami' is a somehow a worst-case scenario of lives cast in tragic circumstances, a mirror image of the many conflicts that subdue the lives of Jews and Arabs within Israel/Palestine. » Read more

Challenge to Israel’s legitimacy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Linda Heard - (Opinion) February 15, 2010 - 1:00am The fact that Israel refuses to play according to international rules is eroding its legitimacy as a state with unofficial membership in the worldwide club of democratic nations. Israel has been somewhat of a “wild child” since its founding in terms of its flouting of international laws and norms but its doting allies have always afforded it unprecedented leeway in light of its tenuous position within a hostile neighborhood as well as a collective sense of holocaust guilt. » Read more

It is not just corruption ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Hassan Barari - (Opinion) February 16, 2010 - 1:00am Few, if any, were shocked by the news that senior Palestinian officials close to President Mahmoud Abbas were involved in various kinds of corruption. One report after another has revealed corruption in the Palestinian Authority (PA) unparallel anywhere else in the Middle East. Indeed, one of the reasons behind the electoral fall of the Fateh movement was the widely held perception of a highly corrupt PA under Fateh rule. As such, it is not that the phenomenon is unknown. It is about the timing for revealing the issue and the identity of the one exposing the corruption. » Read more