Egypt's new envoy to Israel says brings message of peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
October 17, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM -- Egypt's new ambassador to Israel took up his post on Wednesday, assuring the country of Cairo's continued commitment to a 1979 peace treaty. "I came with a message of peace and I came to confirm that we are working for mutual trust and transparency and we are committed to all the agreements we signed with Israel," Atef Mohamed Salem Sayed Elahl said on presenting his credentials to President Shimon Peres.

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Middle East: Antiaircraft Missile is Fired From Gaza, Israeli Officials Say
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
October 16, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli defense officials say that Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have for the first time fired an antiaircraft missile at Israeli aircraft. The officials say the militants fired a Strela shoulder-fired missile at an Israeli helicopter operating over Gaza last week but missed their target. The officials said Israeli intelligence has long believed that militants in Gaza possessed these weapons, but this was the first time they were fired.

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Palestinians protesters shut West Bank highway to avoid settlers' raids
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
October 16, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian protesters and international peace activists on Tuesday briefly blocked a street in the West Bank allocated for the use of Israeli vehicles only. The protesters shut Route 443 on a highway linking Jerusalem and Tel Aviv near Ramallah city, causing traffic jam for half an hour.

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Diplomacy Ministry seeks to boost settlers' global image
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Itamar Fleishman - October 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Against the backdrop of the upcoming Knesset elections, the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs is set to launch a campaign aiming to boost the West Bank settlements' global image.

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In praise of Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ari Shavit - (Opinion) October 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Yedioth Ahronoth and diplomatic correspondent Shimon Shiffer deserve all possible praise for their sensational story on Friday. Israel and Syria conducted peace negotiations in 2010 and 2011.

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Gaza extremists endanger the balance of terror along border with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel - (Opinion) October 15, 2012 - 12:00am

For several months now, Israel and Hamas are maintaining a complex balance of terror along the Gaza Strip border. The relative calm is kept despite rockets being fired at Israel by extremist groups supporting al-Qaida (sometimes with a nod from Hamas, sometimes with its indirect assistance), and despite Israeli airstrikes against members of these groups. It is true that lately the lulls between escalation to escalation have become shorter, but still there is no room for comparison to the situation along the border during the years that preceded Operation Cast Lead in 2008.

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In Gaza's smuggling tunnels, Egypt's interests trump Brotherhood ties
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ahmed Aldabba, Kristen Chick - October 15, 2012 - 12:00am

As Egypt's closure of some of the smuggling tunnels from Gaza drives up prices in the tiny coastal enclave, it has also spurred anger toward Egypt’s new Islamist president for throttling one of Gaza's main sources of goods.

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Netanyahu agreed to full Golan Heights withdrawal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Shimon Shiffer - October 12, 2012 - 12:00am

The onset of the rebellion against Bashar Assad in January 2011 interrupted intense negotiations between the Syrian president and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which the latter agreed to a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace agreement, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday.

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Rare twist as Palestinians, Israeli settlers cooperate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
October 12, 2012 - 12:00am

Saed's village, Khirbet Zakariya, is in a part of the West Bank under full Israeli administrative and security control. As a Palestinian, he cannot build without Israeli permission, which is often extremely difficult to secure. "Settlers came to visit the village three years ago and were surprised when they saw how little housing there was," he told AFP.

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Palestinian 'stabs settler' in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 11, 2012 - 12:00am

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- An Israeli man suffered moderate injuries Wednesday after a Palestinian stabbed him near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, officials said. Israeli and Palestinian officials identified the attacker as a young Palestinian man, but they gave conflicting accounts of the events surrounding the incident. An Israeli police official said authorities were treating the stabbing as "a terrorist incident," while a Palestinian medic said the suspect himself had been attacked.

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