Middle East News: World Press Roundup

Tax exempt US funds are used to support Israeli settlement activity. Israel outlines its new Gaza policies. Pres. Obama and PM Netanyahu meet to try to repair US-Israel relations. Israel bans Palestinian West Bank agricultural products from Jerusalem. PM Fayyad and DM Barak meet to discuss security. Robert Danin says time is running out for an agreement. The CSM says Netanyahu must offer concessions to Obama. A new report by B'Tselem says 42% of the West Bank is controlled by settlements, and Seth Freedman says many should be evacuated. The PA wraps up its store-to-store settlement goods boycott campaign. Ira Sharkansky dismisses diplomatic moves, but Hussein Ibish defends them. Palestinian officials call on the US to make decisive decisions. Akiva Eldar says Netanyahu will present unworkable “security borders” at the meeting. Numerous Gazans claim to have been used as human shields during the Gaza war. Orly Azoulay says Obama will politely tell Netanyahu the time is now for a Palestinian state. In These Times interviews Hussein Ibish. On the Ibishblog, Ibish says adroit Palestinian diplomacy has set the stage for the Netanyahu meeting.

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Tax-Exempt Funds Aid Settlements in West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner, Mike McIntire, Jim Rutenberg - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Twice a year, American evangelicals show up at a winery in this Jewish settlement in the hills of ancient Samaria to play a direct role in biblical prophecy, picking grapes and pruning vines. Believing that Christian help for Jewish winemakers here in the occupied West Bank foretells Christ’s second coming, they are recruited by a Tennessee-based charity called HaYovel that invites volunteers “to labor side by side with the people of Israel” and “to share with them a passion for the soon coming jubilee in Yeshua, messiah.” » Read more

Israel Details Easing of Its Gaza Blockade ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Israel on Monday announced details of the easing of its blockade of Gaza, and the Israeli defense minister held a rare face-to-face meeting here with the Palestinian prime minister in a flurry of activity apparently intended to show diplomatic momentum ahead of the Israeli prime minister’s meeting with President Obama, scheduled for Tuesday in Washington. » Read more

Obama, Netanyahu meet again ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Anne E. Kornblut - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Two months after a tense meeting at the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Obama are set to meet on Tuesday with a deceptively simple mission: getting their picture taken together. The public show of unity matters for the delicate Middle East peace process and for domestic political consumption on both sides. Of immediate concern to the Democratic Party is the effect a perceived rift could have on the midterm elections, as Republicans angle to use any perceived rupture with Netanyahu to argue that Obama is insufficiently committed to Israel. » Read more

WEST BANK: A tit for tat or just a new policy? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Hundreds of Palestinian dairy and meat producers demonstrated Monday outside the Palestinian Authority prime minister’s office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, demanding that Israel cancel an order banning the sale of their products in East Jerusalem markets. The demonstration took place only hours before Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority was scheduled to meet Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Jerusalem to discuss such matters and many more that directly affect Palestinian living conditions. » Read more

ISRAEL: Are Palestinians and Israelis ready to talk face to face? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Raising hopes that direct peace talks might soon be renewed, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad met Monday in Jerusalem with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the first high-level meeting since February. Fayyad said in a statement that they discussed “a number of vital and key issues as well as Israeli violations of the rights of our people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including Jerusalem.” » Read more

Clock is ticking on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Robert Danin - (Opinion) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy brokered by the United States is rapidly heading toward a September crisis. President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu need to establish a new understanding quickly when they meet Tuesday at the White House or relations between the two governments will remain stormy and efforts to launch direct negotiations will fail. » Read more

Obama-Netanyahu talks need concessions for an Israeli-Palestinian deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor (Editorial) July 2, 2010 - 12:00am A year has passed since President Obama vowed the US would not to turn its back on the Palestinians and their “aspiration for ... a state of their own.” On Tuesday he meets with the one man most able to create that new state: Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel. Their talks at the White House will have many purposes, such as lessening the estrangement between the two leaders and bolstering US support of Israel at a time when it is very isolated. But Mr. Obama should not forget his promise to the Palestinians and must extract concessions from Mr. Netanyahu. » Read more

B'Tselem: Settlements must be evacuated ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Forty-two percent of the West Bank is governed by settlement councils, Israeli rights organization B'Tselem revealed in a new settlements study, published Tuesday. Released as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to meet with US President Barack Obama in Washington, the report By Hook and by Crook: Israel's Settlement Policy in the West Bank, uses government reports, Civil Administration maps and military documents to compile a picture of "the mechanisms used to gain Israeli control of land in the West Bank." » Read more

PA wraps up store-to-store campaign ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 6, 2010 - 12:00am After visiting most of the shops in the West Bank, Palestinian Authority Minister of the Economy Hassan Abu Lubda said the "store-to-store" campaign promoting the boycott of settlement goods had come to an end. A statement announced the end of the project, which saw hundreds of volunteers coordinated by government and bodies to go to shops - mostly food and mini-markets - with lists of goods produced in settlements and promoting the government-led boycott. » Read more

Israelis, Palestinians, Americans produce 24 hours of "theater": analyst ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by David Harris - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am The diplomatic activities in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Washington on Monday and Tuesday is nothing more than theater, according to an analyst. The political science professor of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ira Sharkansky, was highly dismissive of the meeting on Monday in Jerusalem between Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Likewise, Sharkansky expected little more than showmanship when United States President Barack Obama hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday. » Read more

What do Palestinians expect from Obama-Netanyahu meeting? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Emad Drimly - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am On the eve of the scheduled meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday, the Middle East peace process and lifting Gaza Strip blockade are the two major issues of deep concerns for the Palestinians. They are seeking an active U.S. intervention in both tracks, while officials and observers see that the White House is standing before a real examination at this moment to achieve a serious progress in the political process and respond to the Palestinian demands. » Read more

Netanyahu heads to Washington in effort to mend U.S. ties ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - July 5, 2010 - 12:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will fly to Washington on Monday evening to meet with President Barack Obama for the fifth time since the two leaders took office. A senior source in Jerusalem said that Netanyahu hoped the meeting would enable him to regain Obama's trust after months of tension regarding West Bank settlement construction. Netanyahu was planning to present Obama with a number of proposals for coordinating progress in the Middle East peace process, said the source. » Read more

On Netanyahu's map of concerns there is no room for neighbors ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Akiva Eldar - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog was quoted in these pages over three months ago as saying: "The diplomatic issue is the main thing keeping us in the government, because we have a genuine wish to reach a breakthrough with the Palestinians and the Syrians." ("What is the Labor Party still doing in a right-wing government?" March 22 ). "And we see the possibility of ending this partnership if there is no change of direction in the coming months," Herzog, one of the top members of the Labor Party, added assertively during that interview given to Aluf Benn. » Read more

Gazans: We were used as 'human shields' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews July 6, 2010 - 12:00am A series of testimonies in a report probing Operation Cast Lead suggest that IDF soldiers used Gazans as human shields. The report – exclusively obtained by Ynet – was compiled by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and focuses mainly on violation of Palestinian prisoners' rights by the Israeli military during the Gaza war. » Read more

Palestinian state now ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Orly Azoulay - July 6, 2010 - 12:00am The prime minister will undergo a corrective experience in the White House Tuesday: President Obama will shake his hand before the cameras, utter a few polite words of encouragement, and later serve the PM a strictly kosher lunch. It won’t be like Netanyahu’s previous visit, which was held far away from the cameras, almost in hiding, amid a sour atmosphere and bearing the characteristics of a military hazing ceremony. » Read more

Israel's rocky friendship with Barack Obama ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Jeremy Bowen - (Opinion) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am Benjamin Netanyahu does not have a great history with the occupants of the Oval Office. He got off to a bad start with Bill Clinton during his first term as Israel's prime minister in the 1990s. After he lectured Mr Clinton about the Arab-Israeli conflict the president was not happy. "Who the heck does he think he is?" he expostulated. "Who's the hecking superpower here?" Only according to the witness, a diplomat called Aaron Miller, he did not say "heck". It is safe to say that Mr Netanyahu's relations with President Obama have been disastrous. » Read more

Settlements are a blockade to peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Seth Freedman - (Opinion) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am There are plenty of thorns in the side of the peace process, but none as sharp and intractable as Israel's settlement programme. For decades, successive Israeli governments have persisted in their obstinate policies in the West Bank to the detriment of civilians on both sides, despite knowing full well that no lasting peace deal can ever be reached without an end to the settlement enterprise. » Read more

Beyond the Occuption: Palestine and the Two-State Solution ATFP World Press Roundup Article from In These Times by Ralph Seliger - (Interview) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am In the wake of the Israel Defense Force’s violent interdiction of the Free Gaza movement’s “peace flotilla” on May 30, and Israel’s decision to ease the blockade of Gaza as a result, we present a pro-Palestinian viewpoint that favors peaceful co-existence with the Jewish State. » Read more

The Palestinians have set the stage for Netanyahu's Washington trip ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) July 6, 2010 - 12:00am This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his entourage will be visiting Washington and meeting with Pres. Obama tomorrow, but it all comes very much in the context of last month's highly successful trip by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and an entourage of PLO leaders, the centerpiece of which was a meeting on June 9 with Obama in the White House. The logic of the Abbas visit, which had originally been scheduled to follow one week after a similar meeting between Obama and Netanyahu, originally seemed lost due to Netanyahu's cancelation of his meeting. » Read more

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