July 19th, 2011

GAZA STRIP: Israeli military warns Gazans in leaflet drop ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Rushdi Abu Alouf - July 18, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets over the Gaza Strip for the first time since the end of a 22-day assault more than two years ago. The leaflets, dropped late Sunday and early Monday, written in Arabic and signed by the "Israel Defense Forces," warned residents not to come near the border with Israel in the northern part of the territory, witnesses said. The leaflets warned citizens against approaching within 300 yards of the border. "Anyone approaching the buffer zone will put himself in danger," one leaflet read. » Read more

Yes Mr. Lieberman, I'm a proud Jewish terrorist ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Shlomo Gazit - (Opinion) July 19, 2011 - 12:00am In 1942, as a young boy, a high school student in Tel Aviv, I joined the Haganah (the main pre-state underground Jewish militia). The British Mandatory government considered me, and others who did as I did, to be members of an illegal organization. Two years later I enlisted in the Palmach, the elite strike force of the Haganah, and during my period of activity in the framework of the Jewish resistance movement the British government considered me a "terrorist." Afterwards I fought in the War of Independence and spent another 32 years in the Israel Defense Forces as a career soldier. » Read more

Israel's 'equality under law' doesn't apply to Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) July 19, 2011 - 12:00am West Bank Palestinian minors accused of throwing stones do have a chance of being acquitted; the odds are about one in a thousand. According to a B'Tselem report published yesterday, just one juvenile defendant out of 835 was acquitted of stone-throwing over the past six years. The others were convicted, mostly through plea bargains. About 60 percent of the convicted minors served prison terms of four months or more. Among those who served sentences of a few days and up to two months in prison were 19 defendants who were 12 to 13 years old. » Read more

July 18th

An urgent need for intervention ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) July 18, 2011 - 12:00am Palestinian politicians and analysts were divided in their understanding and evaluation of last week's Quartet failure to agree on a statement promoting the resumption of a Palestinian-Israeli political process. Some Palestinians expressed disappointment and frustration because disagreements within the Quartet that prevented consensus indicate that the international community is not going to be able to help Palestinians and Israelis move forward towards ending the occupation and realizing peace. » Read more

Why the Quartet fears the UN track ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) July 18, 2011 - 12:00am The Quartet failed to find a formula for restarting the peace process because it is either unable or unwilling to recognize that both the Israeli and the Palestinian leaderships are uninterested right now. It failed because all four of its component actors--the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia--are either unable or unwilling to exercise the necessary pressure on the two sides to bring about a viable process. » Read more

Ineffective position ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times (Editorial) July 18, 2011 - 12:00am The recent meeting in Washington of the Quartet, made up of the US, Russia, the EU and the UN, ended without the usual statement calling on the Palestinians and Israelis to resume peace talks. This suggests that there is a rift among the members of the group who are represented by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. Only that could explain why such statement was not issued. » Read more

Peace process is crumbling ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Adel Saft - (Opinion) July 18, 2011 - 12:00am The unrealised peace process recently suffered some setbacks. Last week, the members of the Quartet (US, Russia, UN and the EU) — the driving force behind the peace process — met in Washington. They took stock of the growing gap between the parties and the obvious dead-end the parties and the Quartet had reached. » Read more

Palestinians may turn directly to General Assembly to better chances for UN recognition ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - July 17, 2011 - 12:00am Wishing to avoid an American veto at the Security Council, the Palestinian Authority is considering turning directly to the United Nations General Assembly in September in order to gain international recognition of Palestinian statehood. » Read more

The Question of Barghouti: Is He a Mandela or an Arafat? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time by Karl Vick - July 17, 2011 - 12:00am In France, Marwan Barghouti is called "the Palestinian Nelson Mandela," an imprisoned militant turned bookworm who talks of peace when he gets out. In the West Bank and Gaza, many call him the heir to Yasser Arafat, so popular that polls routinely show him winning the presidency of the Palestinian Authority, even while he remains behind bars. Israelis know him as a mass murderer, serving five life sentences for sending suicide bombers to a Tel Aviv fish market and a Jerusalem mall. » Read more

Special from Gaza: Factions vow imminent armed uprising ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Masry Al-Youm July 18, 2011 - 12:00am GAZA - Leading Islamic Jihad figure Khaled al-Batch is over fifty and has been a part of the Palestinian struggle for years. His organization is deemed a terrorist group not only by the United States and Israel, but also by the rest of the world. The senior official’s activity in the group hasn’t exactly discouraged such a label. He helped orchestrate a series of bombings in Israel that ravaged the country during the outbreak of the Second Intifada. And now Batch, sitting barefoot in his Gaza office, says he’s convinced the Third Palestinian Intifada will erupt in a matter of months. » Read more