Analysts: Despite Hamas absence, elections still Fatah failure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 22, 2012 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The first elections held in the West Bank for six years reflect how frustrated Palestinians are with their political system and ruling party Fatah, political observers said Sunday. The poll was held on Saturday in 92 of the 353 municipalities in the West Bank. Other seats were uncontested, creating automatic winners, or failed to register any candidates in this round, and will hold polls next month.

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Fatah 'not invited' to meet Qatari emir
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 22, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Fatah has not been invited to meet Qatar's emir who is due to visit the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, a Fatah leader said Monday. Yahya Rabah told Ma'an that Fatah received no invitation from Qatar or the Hamas-led government in Gaza to meet Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. Rabah, who is based in Gaza, said Fatah was not informed of the reason for the visit or any of the arrangements but said the trip raised questions.

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Palestinian reporter Asmaa al-Ghoul aims to keep thorn in Hamas’ side
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ben Sales - October 22, 2012 - 12:00am

TEL AVIV (JTA) -- She can't stay out of trouble there, but Asmaa al-Ghoul always comes back to Gaza. A secular, feminist Palestinian journalist, al-Ghoul, 30, has been harassed by Hamas. She's also been beaten and arrested by Hamas police for protesting its Islamist policies and suppression of human rights.

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Civic Duty and Economic Worries Drive Palestinian Voters in Parts of West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Jodi Rudoren - October 21, 2012 - 12:00am

AL BIREH, West Bank — More than half the Palestinians who participated in municipal elections on Saturday said they did so because they saw voting as a civic duty, twice the portion giving the next most popular reason.

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IDF source: Hamas gaining strength in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Lappin - October 21, 2012 - 12:00am

Hamas is getting stronger in the West Bank, but is focusing its activities on indoctrinating Palestinians in its extremist ideology and creating social assistance programs, an IDF source said Sunday.

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Meshal set to make first official visit to Gaza visit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - October 18, 2012 - 12:00am

Arab VIPs including the emir of Qatar are expected to visit the Gaza Strip next week to "completely and officially end the Israeli blockade of several years," Hamas' television station reported Wednesday. There were also unconfirmed reports that Hamas leader Khaled Meshal will accompany the emir for his first official visit. The station said Qatar is launching a huge reconstruction project in the Strip, for which building materials will be transferred through the Rafah crossing, which hitherto has been open for people only.

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Shalit-prisoners exchange: One year on
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Yolande Knell - October 18, 2012 - 12:00am

At the Free Gilad campaign tent erected by his parents on the pavement outside the prime minister's official residence, school children tied yellow ribbons around a tree and passers-by would sometimes break down in tears. Tens of thousands joined a 12-day march from his home in northern Israel to Jerusalem in 2010 to focus attention on his plight. The ordinariness of Gilad Shalit, a 19-year-old corporal on mandatory military service, when he was wounded and seized by militants in a cross-border raid in June 2006, meant that many Israelis could easily identify with him.

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Hamas vows to kidnap more Israeli soldiers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - October 18, 2012 - 12:00am

Hamas vowed Thursday to abduct more Israeli soldiers and hold them as bargaining chips for militants in Israeli jails, on the anniversary of the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. A Hamas spokesman said that "soldiers of the enemy can be a target anytime, they can be killed, wounded or held captive by militants."

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Hamas redefines itself after leaving Syria for new allies
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Dalia Hatuqa - (Opinion) October 17, 2012 - 12:00am

This month, Hamas's political leader Khaled Meshaal took part in a conference hosted by Turkey's ruling AKP party. A commentator on Syria's state-run Al Dunya television channel compared Mr Meshaal to "an orphan" looking for shelter after being rebuffed by other countries, further admonishing the group's leader for his seeming ingratitude to Syria.

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War will not resolve Gaza problem -Israeli official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Crispian Balmer - October 17, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, Oct 17 (Reuters) - A major Israeli attack on Gaza would not curb growing extremism in the Palestinian enclave, with the ruling Islamist group Hamas itself struggling to quell radicalism, a senior Israeli official said on Wednesday. Voicing concern about a recent influx of increasingly potent weaponry into the Gaza Strip, the director of Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs told reporters that international pressure was needed to try to put an end to militancy.

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