IDF Prepares for More West Bank Violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Amir Rappaport - December 11, 2012 - 1:00am

The attack of the masses on a Nahal Brigade infantry patrol in Hebron ahead of last weekend is not just another warning sign of the possibility that Judea and Samaria will soon start to burn: It is another manifestation of the fact that years of almost total quiet are reaching their end.

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PLO calls on EU to 'reconsider' relations with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
December 11, 2012 - 1:00am

The Palestine Liberation Organization called on the European Union on Tuesday to "reconsider" it's political and trade relations with Israel over what it called "provocations." The EU said on Monday that it was “deeply dismayed by and strongly opposes Israeli plans to expand settlements in the West Bank, including in east Jerusalem, and in particular plans to develop the E1 area,” and said all of its agreements with Israel only applied to the pre-1967 lines.

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Drying out the Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) December 10, 2012 - 1:00am

Since the beginning of the year, Israel has destroyed 35 rainwater cisterns used by Palestinian communities, 20 of them in the area of Hebron and the southern Hebron Hills. In 2011, Israel destroyed 15 cisterns, and in the preceding 18 months, 29. In many of these cases ancient cisterns were destroyed that had served the forefathers of the inhabitants of these communities. Recently, they have been restored with European assistance.

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Israel must not dismiss outrage over settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Boston Globe
by James Carroll - (Opinion) December 10, 2012 - 1:00am

AFTER A STORM of criticism hit Israel for the plan it announced to expand settlements in the occupied territories, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back. “Israel will continue to stand for its essential interests,” he declared, “even in the face of international pressure, and there will be no change in the decision it has taken.”

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Why Obama Will Ignore Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Peter Beinart - (Opinion) December 10, 2012 - 1:00am

The last week of November 2012 was a big one on the Israeli-Palestinian front. On the 65th anniversary of the partition resolution that created a Jewish state, the United Nations recognized a Palestinian one. Israel retaliated with the West Bank equivalent of sequestration: announcing it would move toward building settlements in an area east of Jerusalem called E1, which many observers believe would kill the two-state solution.

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Netanyahu wards off criticism: Israeli settlement plans won't prevent Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by DPA - December 10, 2012 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday dismissed international criticism of Israel's recently announced plans to build in an area near Jerusalem, saying it's "simply not true" that the settlements are an obstacle to Palestinian statehood. "I don't understand how this will prevent territorially the establishment of a Palestinian state," Netanyahu said, referring to Israeli construction in the area east of Jerusalem and west of Ma'aleh Adumim - the so-called E-1 area.

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EU dismayed at Israeli settlements, takes no action
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Justyna Pawlak - December 10, 2012 - 1:00am

BRUSSELS, Dec 10 (Reuters) - The European Union expressed dismay on Monday over Israel's plans to build settlements in a highly sensitive part of the West Bank, but spelled out no punitive measures in response. After meeting in Brussels, foreign ministers of the 27 EU states said the Israeli plan would seriously undermine the prospects of successful peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

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Meshal Goes Out of Bounds
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National Interest
by Paul Pillar - (Opinion) December 9, 2012 - 1:00am

What Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal said at a mass rally in Gaza City on Saturday was contemptible. Taken at face value, his words eradicated any distinction between Israeli and Palestinian territory, and any possibility of Israelis and Palestinians living in peace. “Palestine, from the river to the sea, from north to south, is our land,” he said.

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Canada frowns on Israel’s settlement expansion plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Canadian Jewish News
by Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf - December 7, 2012 - 1:00am

Canada believes Israel went too far when it declared its intent to build 3,000 new settlement units in a controversial tract of the West Bank in response to the Palestinians achieving non-member state status at the UN last week.

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Ben-Gurion already agreed to a Palestinian state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shaul Arieli - (Opinion) December 6, 2012 - 1:00am

In the first years of the Oslo Accords the Israeli government didn't question the Palestinian people's right to self-determination in the land of Israel. Israel also expressed this in its mutual recognition with the PLO.

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