Abbas, Olmert to meet Friday
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
October 13, 2008 - 8:00pm

Outgoing Israeli PRIME Minister Ehud Olmert is to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for a new round of peace talks this week, the Palestinian foreign minister said on Monday. "[Abbas] will meet Prime Minister Olmert on October 17 within the framework of their regular meetings," Riyad Malki said at a news conference in Ramallah. Olmert and Abbas have been meeting about twice a month since the peace process was relaunched at a US conference in November.

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Gaydamak Promises Arabs Paradise if Elected Jerusalem Mayor
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Abd el-Raouf Arnaout - October 12, 2008 - 8:00pm

Beginning by appointing an Arab as deputy mayor, to opening the way for Muslims and Arabs to invest in the city of Jerusalem, to building an international airport in the city for Muslim pilgrims, Russian-Israeli billionaire Arcadi Gaydamak is promising Jerusalem Arabs paradise if they help elect him mayor of Jerusalem. A weekly news bulletin called “Al-Amal” (hope) appeared for the first time in the streets of Jerusalem a couple of weeks ago with a long interview with Gaydamak clarifying his positions regarding the city of Jerusalem, and making a wide range of promises.

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Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad Reaffirms Commitment to Self-Empowerment, Peace at ATFP Gala
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - October 12, 2008 - 12:00am

Washington, DC, Oct 13 – While strongly criticizing Israel’s occupation policies, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told the audience at the Third Annual American Task Force on Palestine Gala on Oct.


Olmert's Final Divorce From "All of Eretz Israel"
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Counterpunch
by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) October 6, 2008 - 8:00pm

In colloquial Israeli Hebrew, when someone discovers something that everybody else already knows, we say: "Good morning, Elijahu!" Why Elijahu? I don't know. Now one could say: "Good morning, Ehud!" That's what I said to myself when I read the sensational interview that Ehud Olmert gave this week, on the eve of the Jewish New Year, to the newspaper "Yediot Aharonot".

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The Balkans have arrived
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - October 4, 2008 - 8:00pm

It is difficult to imagine that a veteran political hack and smart lawyer like Ehud Olmert did not understand that once Israel's prime minister loudly set the bar for an agreement with the Palestinians at the 1967 borders, no Palestinian leader will settle for less. Like the heiress apparent, Tzipi Livni, Olmert knows that there is no point in continuing to bargain. Both have concluded that the old game of the endless peace process that leads nowhere has reached its end.

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'Hundreds join' settler violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
October 1, 2008 - 8:00pm

Hundreds of settlers are engaged in violence against Palestinians and Israeli soldiers, the senior Israeli commander in the West Bank has said. Majr-Gen Gadi Shamni said diverting military resources to deal with settlers impaired the army's ability to carry out operations against militants. A recent UN report recorded 222 acts of settler violence in the first half of 2008 compared with 291 in all of 2007. Palestinians have long complained of settler harassment and intimidation. They have also complained the Israeli military does little to stop or restrain the settlers.

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Israeli general says settler violence increasing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Jeffrey Heller - October 1, 2008 - 8:00pm

Hundreds of Jewish settlers are engaged in violence against Palestinians and Israeli soldiers who get in their way, Israel's top general in the occupied West Bank said in remarks published on Thursday. "In the past, only a few dozen individuals took part in such activity but today that number has grown into the hundreds. That's a very significant change," Major-General Gadi Shamni said in an interview with the Haaretz newspaper.

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Third Palestinian Uprising Possible
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Times
by Cherrie Heywood - October 1, 2008 - 8:00pm

A senior Palestinian politician and member of Fatah, the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization affiliated with the Palestinian Authority (PA) of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has warned of the possibility of a third Palestinian uprising or Intifada. Kadoura Fares, a leader of the Palestinian peace coalition, demanded at a conference in Tel Aviv on the Geneva Initiative last week, that Abbas or Abu Mazen as he is better known, halt peace talks with Israel citing a lack of progress on the ground.

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Ehud Olmert’s Parting Words Dared To Offer Painful Truth
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
(Editorial) October 1, 2008 - 8:00pm

It is a rule of thumb in democracies that lame duck leaders should steer clear of bold new initiatives and sharp turns of policy. They’re supposed to sit tight until their elected successors can settle in and take the wheel. A decent respect for the opinions of the electorate demands that the voters’ decisions be honored, including the decision to repudiate an incumbent. Ehud Olmert, Israel’s outgoing prime minister, broke that rule September 29. And rightly so.

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Israel's West Bank roadblocks increasing, says UN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Wafa Amr - September 29, 2008 - 8:00pm

Closure of the West Bank for the Jewish New Year placed further restrictions on the movement of Palestinians marking the end of Ramadan on Tuesday. Despite pledges to ease travel restrictions, Israel has increased the number of roadblocks and checkpoints over the last six months in the occupied West Bank, according to a United Nations report made public this week. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says the Israeli army erected 19 new "obstacles" since April, raising the total to 630, including 93 checkpoints controlled by soldiers.

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