Israeli air strike on Gaza tunnels wounds three
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
October 14, 2009 - 12:00am

GAZA, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Israeli warplanes attacked two smuggling tunnels along the Gaza Strip border with Egypt on Wednesday, wounding three tunnellers, Palestinian medical sources and the Israeli army said.   An Israeli army spokeswoman said the attack came in response to a rocket fired by Gaza militants into southern Israel late on Tuesday. It landed in an open field causing no casualties, the army said.

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Jerusalem set for al-Aqsa protest
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News
October 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Thousands of Israeli police have been deployed in Jerusalem as Palestinian groups call for protests over tensions at the al-Aqsa mosque. The Islamist group Hamas called for a "day of rage", local media said, while its rival Fatah urged peaceful protests over access to the key holy site. Sporadic clashes in recent weeks are apparently due to Palestinian fears of extremist Jews gaining entry. The tensions come as US envoy George Mitchell visits the region for talks.

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Arab from the North? You can't enter Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
October 9, 2009 - 12:00am

The heavy security around Jerusalem in the wake of the recent Arab riots appeared to get a little bit out of hand on Thursday when Al-Jazeera's bureau chief in Israel, Walid al-Omari, and two of his crew members were initially denied entrance to Jerusalem, because "Arabs from the North aren't allowed into the capital."

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Talk to Hamas now or fight new radicals indefinitely
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Nathan Stock - (Opinion) October 9, 2009 - 12:00am

History is repeating itself in the Palestinian territories. Washington refuses to engage a right-wing Palestinian group – and so spawns organizations that are even more extreme. It happened in the 1980s, when the US balked at recognizing the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and hesitated to seek a resolution to the Middle East conflict through the creation of a Palestinian state. Those long delays helped propel the rise of the hard-line Islamist party Hamas.

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Postponing Discussion on the Goldstone Report: Many Attackers and Even More Beneficiaries!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Raghida Dergham - October 9, 2009 - 12:00am

A useful comparison can be made between, on the one had, internal US discourse as well as US-international discourse over the issue of the problem of Afghanistan and the extent to which Islamic extremism affects the interests of nations, and, on the other, the way the international community as well as the Arabs – amongst themselves – is addressing the report of the head of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza War, Judge Richard Goldstone. This report condemned both Israel and Hamas for committing “war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity”.

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Jordan's king to Haaretz: Without two states, there is no future
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

Jordan's King Abdullah II has asked Haaretz to relay a message to the Israeli public that it disavow the illusion that the status quo can be perpetuated, because as a result of the diplomatic impasse, "We are sliding back into the darkness. "Is Israel going to be fortress Israel or is it going to be part of the neighborhood? Because if there is no two-state solution, what future do we all have together?" he asked in an exclusive interview on Tuesday at his palace in Amman at the height of the disturbances in East Jerusalem.

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Fears of third intifada as tension grows in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Telegraph
by Adrian Blomfield - October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

After two weeks of mounting tension and sporadic clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters, a showdown is expected when Friday prayers are called at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's old city. Thousands of Israeli soldiers and policemen are being deployed around the site after the Palestinian Authority called a one-day general strike and a leading Islamic cleric in Egypt urged the Arab world to rise up in "a day of anger".

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What is at stake in Palestine: a third intifada and the parade of horribles
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog
by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) October 8, 2009 - 12:00am

As the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, especially East Jerusalem, is balanced on a knife edge and could erupt at any moment into a new explosion of violence or even a third intifada, it is crucial to review what is at stake for all parties should such a catastrophic turn of events occur. Far too many actors and commentators are casually viewing the present extremely dangerous situation, and even welcoming the prospect of a third intifada or the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority, or are calling for less dramatic but also extraordinarily dangerous scenarios.

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Israel tightens Jerusalem 'siege'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
October 7, 2009 - 12:00am

Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Old City are describing it as a community “under siege” as Israeli forces continue to operate in large numbers fearing renewed demonstrations. Restrictions in the city were so severe Wednesday that children were prevented from reaching schools in the Old City. Israeli forces also prevented Islamic Endowment (Waqf) personnel from reaching the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which has been the site of rolling demonstrations and clashes with Israeli forces over the past four days.

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U.S. to Israel and PA: Calm Jerusalem tensions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - October 7, 2009 - 12:00am

In its first response to recent clashes in Jerusalem, the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama on Tuesday called on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to take steps to calm the tensions in the capital. Israeli police mobilized reinforcements from across the country to secure the volatile Jerusalem on Tuesday, deploying thousands of officers on city streets for fear that two days of low-grade clashes with Palestinian protesters would escalate.

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