February 18th

Abbas: National vote must include Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency February 17, 2011 - 1:00am Elections must be held simultaneously in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday. It is "not acceptable to hold them in the West Bank only," Abbas said. At a news conference alongside President of East Timor Jose Ramos-Horta, Abbas said efforts would be made to ensure that the vote could go forward by September in all Palestinian areas. Last week, the Palestinian Authority announced it would hold presidential and legislative elections by September. A local election is also scheduled to take place on July 9. » Read more

Crusades redux: Will Jerusalem soon be surrounded by hostile Islamists? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Walter Rodgers - February 17, 2011 - 1:00am The other night I found myself dreaming, drifting simultaneously through two parallel worlds, 800 years apart. In the first vision, I was on the ramparts of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in July 1187. News came in from Galilee that the Crusader Armies had been decimated by the overwhelming Muslim forces of the great Sultan Saladin at the Battle of Hattin. Jerusalem, already an island in an angry, surging Muslim sea, was about to be totally engulfed. » Read more

Hamas sees opportunity in change in Egypt ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - February 18, 2011 - 1:00am Egypt's revolution brought sudden and unintended freedom to Ayman Nofal. During the chaos in Cairo, the senior Hamas commander broke out of an Egyptian jail with thousands of other prisoners, traversed the Sinai desert in a series of getaway cars, crawled through a smuggling tunnel at the border and emerged back home in the Gaza Strip to a hero's welcome. Now Nofal has one thing on his mind. "I'm anxious to get back to fighting Israel," the 37-year-old Palestinian militant said in his Nuseirat refugee camp home, surrounded by several of his six children and a plastic flower bouquet. » Read more

WEST BANK: Obama calls Mahmoud Abbas, who calls for urgent leadership meeting ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - February 17, 2011 - 1:00am On the eve of a planned United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution condemning Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, President Obama called his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, on Thursday to discuss the measure. Palestinian sources said Obama tried to dissuade Abbas from proceeding with the resolution, which the U.S. strongly opposes on grounds that it will obstruct efforts to resume Palestinian-Israeli negotiations suspended since September. » Read more

WEST BANK: Obama calls Mahmoud Abbas, who calls for urgent leadership meeting ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - February 17, 2011 - 1:00am On the eve of a planned United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution condemning Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, President Obama called his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, on Thursday to discuss the measure. Palestinian sources said Obama tried to dissuade Abbas from proceeding with the resolution, which the U.S. strongly opposes on grounds that it will obstruct efforts to resume Palestinian-Israeli negotiations suspended since September. » Read more

February 17th

Jordan calls for resuming Palestinian-Israeli peace talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua February 16, 2011 - 1:00am Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh on Wednesday urged intensified international efforts to realize progress in resuming Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. In a joint press conference with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Judeh stressed the need for pushing peacemaking efforts forward and re-launching serious and effective negotiations that will address all final status issues. These negotiations should lead to the creation of an independent and viable Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital, Judeh said. » Read more

Aide: Palestinian elections proceed without Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Mohammed Daraghmeh - February 16, 2011 - 1:00am Palestinian elections will go ahead this fall regardless of whether the Islamic Hamas participates, an aide to the Palestinian president said Wednesday. Yasser Abed Rabbo's statement means presidential and parliamentary elections might take place only in the West Bank, as Hamas has refused to allow elections in the Gaza Strip. "We can't be held hostage by Hamas and remain without elections," Abed Rabbo said. » Read more

Abbas stresses Palestinian clinging to Jerusalem's Armenian Quarter ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua February 16, 2011 - 1:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stressed Wednesday his leadership will never give up the Armenian area in East Jerusalem under any peace deal with Israel. "The Armenian Quarter is an undividable part of East Jerusalem, which is the capital of the (future) independent Palestinian state, " Abbas said during a meeting with Christian leaders at his office in Ramallah. » Read more

Jordan: Israelis' killer will serve life sentence ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Jamal Halaby - February 16, 2011 - 1:00am Seeking to allay Israeli anger, Jordan reassured its neighbor Wednesday that a soldier who killed seven Israeli schoolgirls in 1997 will serve out his life sentence. On Monday, Justice Minister Hussein Mjali had joined a protest in Amman calling for the release of Cpl. Ahmed Daqamseh. Mjali, once Daqamseh's defense lawyer, promised the protesters that he will seek his former client's immediate release. In comments that particularly angered Israelis, Mjali portrayed the soldier as a hero who does not deserve to be in prison. » Read more

Netanyahu faces international isolation as peace process stalls ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - February 17, 2011 - 1:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under increasing pressure and international isolation as a result of the breakdown in the peace process. European leaders do not believe he is serious about achieving peace, the Chinese are still furious with him for canceling his trip at the last minute in November, and India has been diplomatically sidestepping his request to visit. » Read more