August 10th

US chides Israel over new east Jerusalem project ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews August 10, 2011 - 12:00am The United States is "deeply concerned" by Israel's plan to build a new housing project in the southeast Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, the State Department said on Tuesday. The State Department warned that such "unilateral actions" were detrimental to the peace process. Last week, the Jerusalem Zoning Commission approved 930 new housing units in Har Homa. Actual building on the site is at least two years off. Alongside its rare rebuke of a close ally, the State Department said Israelis and Palestinians should settle their differences on Jerusalem through negotiation. » Read more

Peres: Israel-Palestinian peace still possible ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz August 10, 2011 - 12:00am President Shimon Peres on Wednesday told a delegation of visiting U.S. Democratic congressmen that he believes that it is still possible for Israel to reach peace with the Palestinians, Israel Radio reported. Peres said that both sides understand that they need to overcome differences and renew negotiations before the United Nations General Assembly session in New York next month at which the Palestinians have said they will seek recognition of statehood. » Read more

Western diplomat: UN statehood bid will harm U.S.-Palestinian Authority ties ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - August 10, 2011 - 12:00am Cooperation between the U.S. and the Palestinian Authority will be harmed if the PA goes through with its plan to seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly session in September, a senior Western diplomat told Israeli journalists on Wednesday during a briefing in Tel Aviv. » Read more

Israel: Chinese military chief to visit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Associated Press - August 8, 2011 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — The Chinese military's chief of staff will visit Israel next week for the first time, the Israeli military said Monday, in what may signal a renewed warming of ties between the Jewish state and Beijing. Chen Bingde will be a guest of the Israeli military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, the military said. Bingde's visit follows Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak's trip to China two months ago. That was the first visit of an Israeli defense minister in a decade. Chinese officials were not available for comment about the visit. » Read more

Marwan Barghouti warns of protests if US wields veto ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency August 10, 2011 - 12:00am CAIRO (AFP) -- A Palestinian leader jailed in Israel has warned Washington that vetoing a Palestinian state at the United Nations would spark huge regional protests, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported Wednesday. Marwan Barghouti, a leading member of the dominant Fatah party convicted of organizing attacks against Israelis during the second intifada, gave an interview to MENA through his lawyer from an Israeli prison. » Read more

APNewsBreak: Israel and Arabs tentatively agree to exploratory talks on Mideast nuke-free zone ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Associated Press - August 10, 2011 - 12:00am VIENNA — Israel and Arab nations have tentatively accepted an invitation by the U.N. nuclear agency to discuss a Middle East free of atomic arms, in correspondence shared with The Associated Press. Whether the meeting takes place may depend on the participants’ willingness to compromise on preconditions. An official from a delegation accredited to the International Atomic Energy agency says IAEA chief Yukiya Amano planned to meet with the Arab group on Sept. 5 to try and bridge differences. » Read more

In Tumult, New Hope for Palestinian Cause ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Anthony Shadid - August 9, 2011 - 12:00am BEIRUT, Lebanon — In the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila, a corner of Beirut bearing the scars of massacres and an enduring despair, the words of a young barber hinted at an emerging optimism about what the Arab revolts could mean for a central issue of the last half century in the Middle East: the fate of Palestinians. The barber, Mohammed Assad, was not naïve; life here is too grim for that. But in a region whose politics are being recalculated, he celebrated the rising influence of popular will on governments that long ignored it. “There is hope,” he said. » Read more

August 9th

Facts on the Ground ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) August 8, 2011 - 12:00am With negotiations hopelessly stalled and the deadline for a potential confrontation at the United Nations in September rapidly approaching, the Israeli government apparently decided that now would be the appropriate time to announce a major expansion of one of its most provocative settlements. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said last week that final approval has been given for 900 new units in the Jerusalem "Har Homa" settlement, an area known to Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim. » Read more

Israel and the Palestinians Must Face the Inescapable ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post by Alon Ben-meir - (Opinion) August 8, 2011 - 12:00am Coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians is inevitable and, short of catastrophic developments, the two peoples are doomed or destined to live between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. They must now decide on the quality of that coexistence. Do they want to live with mutual hatred and fear while demonizing one another or do they want to live in peace and amity and realize the biblical prophecy of making their shared land the true Land of Milk and Honey? » Read more

Illegal, unjust and ultimately destructive ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) August 8, 2011 - 12:00am Ten years after Israel started building a Wall in the occupied West Bank, the project has not proven Israeli arguments in its defense, but rather illustrated the Palestinian view that this is one more component of illegal Israeli settlement expansion. Israel, for the most part, said that the Wall was needed for its security. In response, Palestinians asked why then it was built to incorporate settlements into Israel, rather than on the internationally-recognized 1967 borders between Israel and the West Bank. » Read more