Middle East News: World Press Roundup

Gazans from across the political divide come together to reopen sports clubs. Palestinians say they won't be a pretext for US arms sales to Israel. Nablus' governor tours the city after a foiled Hamas assassination plot. The US blocks Palestinian moves for greater recognition in the UN. The US and Israel are struggling over terms of a settlement freeze deal. Israel condemns a web posting about Israeli soldiers. An Israeli airstrike kills two Palestinians in Gaza. Militants fire rockets into Israel from Gaza. A fired AIPAC staffer says he had no choice but to sue the organization, which hits back with more accusations. Doron Rosenblum says Zionism is becoming a childish religion. David Horovitz laments US-Israel tensions. Safed is becoming a hotbed of anti-Arab sentiment. The Jerusalem Post looks at the F-35 fighters the US may sell to Israel. Israel says the US has agreed it can build in occupied East Jerusalem, but no US document has been presented. Kieron Monks says aid to Palestine is life-support not development. Accusations grow against Steven Emerson. Israeli education students boycott the settlement of Ariel. Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid says Pres. Arafat is badly missed.

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Despite Hamas-Fatah split, Gaza's sportsmen score a truce. Game on. ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Daniel Estrin - November 19, 2010 - 1:00am The schoolboys chasing after a soccer ball at Ittihad Al-Shajayia sports club here hardly seem to notice the concrete shell nearby – all that's left of what were the club's offices before Israeli planes bombed them. And not one boy stopped to admire the large mural that depicts Israel's target: masked militants kneeling next to a rocket launcher. » Read more

Abbas aide: Palestine won't be pretext for weapons sale ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 19, 2010 - 1:00am Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told reporters on Friday that Palestinians would not be used as a pretext for supplying Israel with weapons. Commenting from the Jordanian capital, Abu Rudeina said the Palestinian position on the matter of the US-Israel deal for an extension to the settlement freeze was clear. » Read more

After foiled assassination plot, Nablus governor tours city ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency November 19, 2010 - 1:00am Nablus Governor Jibrin Al-Bakri toured the city's markets and congratulated shoppers and merchants on the occasion of Eid Al-Adha, days after PA forces said plot to assassinate him was foiled, and one day after Israel handed full PA security control over to the city's police. The mayor was accompanied by security forces as he made the tour, during which he reflected on the increased number of out-of-towners enjoying time in the city, and said he hoped it boded well for the next year. Al-Bakri thanked shopkeepers and his security team for keeping the atmosphere in the city calm. » Read more

US bars Palestinian statehood moves in UN agencies ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters November 19, 2010 - 1:00am Away from the headlines, Palestinians have been trying to advance their statehood agenda in small but symbolic ways in United Nations agencies that fall off the radar for most people. But even on the outer reaches of the sprawling U.N. system, their efforts have been blocked by a United States resolved not to display the slightest tilt toward Palestinians as it tries to act as honest broker in their halting peace talks with Israel. » Read more

Israel, U.S. struggling to conclude settlement pact ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters November 19, 2010 - 1:00am Talks between Israeli and U.S. officials aimed at reviving Middle East peace negotiations have hit snags over incentives promised by Washington to persuade Israel to resume a freeze of Jewish settlement building. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the U.S. inducements to his cabinet last weekend and appeared hopeful the ministers would back plans for a temporary halt to building in the occupied West Bank to overcome a hurdle to the peace talks. » Read more

Israel condemns Web list of Gaza soldiers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman by Matti Friedman - November 19, 2010 - 1:00am Israel's military on Friday condemned the publication of names and photographs of 200 Israeli soldiers on a website that called them "war criminals." Militants in Gaza, meanwhile, fired rockets at southern Israel, causing no casualties, but sparking retaliatory Israeli air strikes that wounded five. The website also published the home addresses and ID numbers of many of the Israelis. They included senior commanders and low-ranking soldiers who the site claimed participated in the three-week offensive Israel launched in Gaza in late 2008. » Read more

Israeli airstrike kills 2 Palestinians in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua November 18, 2010 - 1:00am Two Palestinians were killed and three others wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a local car Wednesday evening in central Gaza City, medical sources and witnesses said. An Israeli war jet targeted a white Subaru car in central Gaza City, said witnesses, adding that ambulances arrived at the scene and evacuated the casualties to Shifa Hospital in the city. Adham Abu Selmeyah, spokesman of medical services in the health ministry of the deposed Hamas government, told Xinhua that Islam Yassin and Mohamed Yassin, who were in the targeted car, were killed. » Read more

Gaza militants fire Grad rocket, barrage of mortar shells at western Negev ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Yanir Yagna - November 19, 2010 - 1:00am Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a long-range Grad rocket and seven mortar shells at western Negev on Friday, following a night-long barrage of Qassam rockets fired from the coastal enclave. Eshkol Regional Council was hit by 3 mortar shells Friday afternoon. Another 4 bombs hit Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. No injuries or damages were reported. Earlier on Friday Gaza militants fired a long-range Grad rocket into the western Negev. » Read more

Fired AIPAC staffer tells Haaretz: I had no choice but to sue for defamation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Natasha Mozgovaya - November 19, 2010 - 1:00am A former AIPAC staffer who was dismissed for allegedly "mishandling classified information" told Haaretz on Wednesday that he had been left with no choice but to see the pro-Israel lobby for defamation. The U.S. Jewish community has been scandalized by the details of the increasingly dirty lawsuit, brought forth by Steve Rosen. Rosen was sacked by the America Israel Public Affairs Committee in 2005 after he and fellow staffer Keith Weissman were charged with "mishandling classified information" and passing sensitive information to Israeli diplomats and journalists. » Read more

Nationalists are turning Zionism into a childish religion ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Doron Rosenblum - November 19, 2010 - 1:00am The crowds of ministers and deputy ministers who surround Benjamin Netanyahu in their multitudes under the overall name "the government of Israel" sometimes seem like participants in a cantata or review: Every now and then, one of them gets up from among the semi-anonymous heads to make his voice heard - one with a trill in favor of annexation, another in a racist etude, yet another in an ethnocentric sermon, and another with a rational chirp. When one sits down, the next soloist gets up, while the Chorus of the Rock of our Existence follows him with background humming. » Read more

Editors Notes: Didn’t we used to be on the same side? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by David Horovitz - (Opinion) November 19, 2010 - 1:00am Earlier this month, in an op-ed for The New York Times marking the 15th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, former US president Bill Clinton told the tie story. Again. The story, often repeated, that shows a Rabin so focused on the important things of life, so “utterly without pretense” as Clinton put it, that he never quite came to terms with this merely decorative article of clothing. » Read more

An unholy battle in a holy city ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Larry Derfner - November 19, 2010 - 1:00am By pure coincidence, the main opposing forces in Safed’s latest anti-Arab flare-up are next-door neighbors. One is Eli Zvieli, 89, who became a target of threats and public denunciations after he rented an apartment to three Beduin college students last month. The other is Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliahu, who vehemently repeated his decade-old call on Jews to refuse to rent to Arabs. They live in adjoining stone houses in the heart of the Old City and even share a rooftop balcony, divided by a low gate. » Read more

Stealth Power ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Katz - November 19, 2010 - 1:00am When the gray-haired man entered the Lockheed Martin aircraft assembly plant in Fort Worth, Texas, last May, the workers thought he was just another corporate executive. His suit, tie and slightly British accent seemed to fit the mold. The man was then given the opportunity to do something that most visitors do not have when visiting the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) assembly line – sign his name inside the cockpit of a plane. » Read more

Israelis insist they have US backing to build in East Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian November 19, 2010 - 1:00am Israel yesterday insisted it would keep building homes in the disputed East Jerusalem area, threatening to stall a US-proposed building moratorium aimed at reviving peace efforts. Despite Washington having agreed to exclude the eastern part of the city from the 90-day moratorium, according to Israeli officials, it had still not sent a detailed letter on the understanding. Palestinians want building to halt in the West Bank and in Jerusalem, which they claim as their state. The US hopes a renewed moratorium will let Israel and the Palestinians work towards a deal on their future borders. » Read more

Palestine aid models must change ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Kieron Monks - November 19, 2010 - 1:00am "Peace Starts Here" is the slogan adopted by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to promote its work in the Palestinian territories. But why does peace "start here"? Why not 60 years ago when UNRWA began its work with Palestinian refugees? Or 60 years in the future, when we will still be debating the same problems if the aid models do not change. » Read more

AIPAC Gets Down and Dirty in Pushback Against Rosen Defamation Suit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - (Opinion) November 17, 2010 - 1:00am The espionage case against two senior officials of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington was dropped last year. But it has not been forgotten, and is now threatening to draw the lobby into new depths of mudslinging. » Read more

Terror Expert Emerson Feels His Own Heat Over Finances ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - November 19, 2010 - 1:00am Steven Emerson has made his reputation by scrutinizing American Muslim organizations and individuals, trying to uncover their possible ties to terror groups. But lately he is being scrutinized himself, by a Nashville, Tenn., daily newspaper digging into the finances of his operation. Emerson: ‘All of this was approved by outside legal and accounting experts.’ » Read more

Education students boycott Ariel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) November 19, 2010 - 1:00am Education students at a college in central Israel have refused to participate in their final project at a facility in Ariel. In refusing to join in the teaching project in the Jewish West Bank city, the students from Beit Berl College have joined theater professionals, authors and academics in boycotting institutions in Ariel. » Read more

Arafat: The Man We Now Miss ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed - (Opinion) November 19, 2010 - 1:00am If late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was among us today, would the Palestinian situation be as it is? Gaza is in a state of secession, negotiations are at a stalemate, the Palestinian cause has dropped down the list of priorities, coming behind the issues of Iraq, Iran, the Shebaa farms, Darfur and al-Qaeda in Yemen. » Read more

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