July 29th, 2008

Engage ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - July 29, 2008 - 5:12pm There seem to be two schools of thoughts among Palestinian politicians and analysts regarding the coming elections in the United States. Some, including President Mahmoud Abbas and the head of the negotiating delegation, Ahmed Qurei, believe that this last year of President George W. Bush is a year of opportunity that must not be wasted. Others, including Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, are convinced that no progress can be expected in the Palestinian-Israeli political process before a new administration has settled in. » Read more

Israel ‘chokes’ Jordan Valley ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Omar Karmi - July 29, 2008 - 5:11pm Jasser Said Daragmeh is an obstacle. The ramshackle hut that houses the 34-year-old farmer, his wife and six children on land his family has been cultivating for generations, lies in the middle of a cluster of small Jewish settlements on surrounding hilltops in the northern Jordan Valley. » Read more

Israel Blows Up "illegally Built" Palestinian Home ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters July 29, 2008 - 5:07pm Israeli security forces blew up a Palestinian four-storey apartment block near East Jerusalem on Monday because Israel said some of the structure had been built without planning permission. An Israeli police spokesman said security forces had surrounded the structure in the Palestinian suburb of Beit Hanina north of central Jerusalem, before bulldozers began preparing it for demolition. It was blown up in the evening. » Read more

Mideast Deal Seems Beyond Reach As Rice Hosts Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Arshad Mohammed - July 29, 2008 - 5:03pm Israeli and Palestinian negotiators meet this week to work toward the long-shot U.S. goal of achieving a comprehensive peace deal this year that even Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says is out of reach. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to meet separately, and then together, in Washington on Wednesday with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minster Ahmed Qurei, the two sides' lead negotiators. » Read more

Livni Says Kadima Lost Way Under Olmert ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters July 29, 2008 - 5:01pm Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni stepped up a campaign to oust Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, charging on Monday that their centrist Kadima Party had lost its way under his leadership. Livni, a favourite in public opinion polls to succeed Olmert, whose tenure has been threatened by a series of corruption probes, spoke at a rally in Jerusalem ahead of a party leadership vote scheduled for mid-September. » Read more

Poverty In Gaza Hits "unprecedented" Level ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by Omid Memarian - July 29, 2008 - 5:00pm In both the West Bank and Gaza, young people aged 15 to 24 are the most likely of any group to be unemployed, while the number of households in Gaza below the poverty line has reached an historic high of nearly 52 percent, according to a new report by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) issued Thursday. » Read more

Hamas, Fatah Pursue War Of Words Over Detentions ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Mohammed Assadi - July 29, 2008 - 4:58pm Hamas warned its Fatah rivals on Tuesday that a crackdown against the Islamist group by forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas could spark a revolt in the occupied West Bank. A senior Palestinian security official in Ramallah dismissed the threats by "irresponsible people". Abbas's security forces have detained at least 150 Hamas supporters in the West Bank in response to a sweep in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas seized nearly 200 Fatah sympathizers after a bomb blast killed five Hamas militants and a girl on Friday. » Read more

Israel Suspends Shooting Colonel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bbc News July 29, 2008 - 4:54pm An Israeli colonel has been sent home for 10 days amid allegations he told one of his soldiers to shoot a Palestinian detainee at a checkpoint. The soldier says Col Omri Borberg ordered him to shoot the man at close range with a rubber-coated bullet. Unknown to the Israelis, a Palestinian girl filmed the incident and the video was published by a human rights group. Media reports say Col Borberg failed a lie-detector test about his claim not to have ordered the soldier to shoot. » Read more

Could Peace Break Out For Israel And Syria? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune by Janine Zacharia - July 29, 2008 - 4:53pm Israel and Syria have suddenly found fresh reasons to try to make peace after eight years of stalemate. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, concerned about the survival of his regime, wants to reap the political and economic benefits of ending his nation's isolation from the West. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, mindful of his own precarious political future, seeks to wrest Syria out of Iran's orbit and stop it from funneling weapons to the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which used them against Israel in the 2006 war. » Read more

July 28th

Obama: We’ll Make Sure Palestinians Have A State ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yitzhak Benhorin - July 28, 2008 - 4:39pm "The Palestinian people are having a very tough time right now economically, and it is in US interests to make sure that they have a sense of hope and opportunity and a Palestinian state. I think it's in Israelis' interest as well," US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told NBC's Meet the Press Sunday on the heels of his Mideast tour. » Read more