Time for an Obama intervention
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - December 10, 2008 - 1:00am

When the outgoing Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was in Washington late last month to bid farewell to President George W. Bush, whose term ends on January 20, the two unpopular leaders understandably reminisced about their close relationship, the American leader being considered Israel's closet friend when compared to former American presidents.

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This election's real meaning
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) December 8, 2008 - 1:00am

It happened four weeks before the heroic evacuation of the House of Contention in Hebron. In the middle of the night, police officers entered a small apartment in the Shimon Hatzadik compound in the Sheikh Jarra neighborhood of East Jerusalem. The police officers easily overwhelmed a handful of human-rights activists and evicted the al-Kurd family, which had lived there for 52 years.

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Jerusalem Tensions on the Rise
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Americans For Peace Now
December 8, 2008 - 1:00am

A new report by the Israeli Peace Now movement warns that settlers are taking advantage of a “perfect storm” of political conditions to create “new facts on the ground” in Jerusalem “that could later make it difficult if not impossible to resolve the Israeli Palestinian conflict peacefully.”

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Israel's West Bank system 'like apartheid'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
December 7, 2008 - 1:00am

ISRAEL'S discrimination between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank is increasingly reminiscent of white South Africa's apartheid system, an Israeli human rights group said. Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territory "have created a situation of institutionalised discrimination and segregation,'' the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said.

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New Tensions in Jerusalem’s Arab Neighborhoods
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - December 6, 2008 - 1:00am

A series of recent Israeli actions in the mainly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem have raised tensions there, with Palestinian and Israeli critics contending that they are part of a wider plan to “Judaize” historically charged areas around the Old City.

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Obama's 'Palestinian friend' laments catastrophic U.S. policy in Mideast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - December 5, 2008 - 1:00am

No one stopped Rashid Khalidi, the Columbia University professor of Modern Arab Studies, at Ben-Gurion airport. Having just landed after the long flight from New York, the professor was anticipating the traditional reception from airport security personnel reserved for visitors with "suspicious" names. To his surprise, he entered the airport like anyone else, with no problems or delays. Perhaps word had gotten around at Ben-Gurion that he was the Palestinian friend of United States President-elect Barack Obama.

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From an Israeli Settlement, a Rabbi’s Unorthodox Plan for Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - December 5, 2008 - 1:00am

ABOUT two weeks ago Menachem Froman, the chief rabbi of this Jewish settlement perched on the edge of the Judean desert, had a dream. In the dream, he recounted in an interview this week, he was sitting with the late Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat “as we used to.” “It was like he was pushing me to continue in my efforts to make peace between our peoples,” he said.

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President Obama: Go For It
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by M.J. Rosenberg - (Opinion) December 4, 2008 - 1:00am

It is impossible to get Mumbai out of my mind. I keep thinking about two-year old, Moshe, sitting in his parents’ blood, crying out to a mother and father who are gone forever. It is hard to imagine how anyone can justify terror against children but many people do. In fact, fanatics of virtually every faith and nationality justify killing kids or leaving them orphans. It is sickening. Until humanity comes to the understanding that there is no justification—none, whatsoever—for killing children or making them orphans, we remain uncivilized.

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Palestinian man stabbed by Jews in Occupied Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
December 3, 2008 - 1:00am

A Palestinian man was seriously wounded after being stabbed in an attack carried out by Jews in Occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday, officials said. Police were searching for a number of suspects who stabbed the 31-year-old resident of East Jerusalem, an Israeli police spokesman said. The man told Israel police four men wearing skullcaps attacked him near the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Mea Shearim. The spokesman did not confirm the attackers were Jews, but said police believed it was a "nationalistically motivated" assault.


Israel alarmed by EU bid to reopen Orient House as part of peace plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - November 30, 2008 - 8:00pm

Israeli officials are deeply concerned over an internal European Union document outlining the EU's plans for advancing an Israeli-Palestinian deal in 2009. Inter alia, it calls for increased pressure on Israel to reopen Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem, including Orient House, which formerly served as the Palestinian Authority's headquarters in the city. The document, a copy of which was obtained by Haaretz, was written by the French Foreign Ministry, as France currently occupies the EU's rotating presidency.

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