Middle East News: World Press Roundup

Daniel Shapiro is appointed new US ambassador to Israel. The Palestinian national soccer team loses its first home game, which is still a political victory. Denmark upgrades the status of the PLO mission. An Israeli court allows settlers to seize part of a Palestinian home in occupied East Jerusalem. The Palestinian Election Commission opens voter registration for July local elections. A Hamas national unity plan is rejected by all rivals. PM Netanyahu condemns settler violence and appoints a hawkish new security adviser, who Israeli leftists call a “fascist.” Hamas reshuffles its cabinet in Gaza. Israel says Gaza smuggling has increased. Pres. Abbas urges the Quartet to endorse a new European statement. Ha'aretz says Israel's future depends on the removal of unauthorized outposts. Alon Idan condemns Israeli military policies in Hebron. Bradley Burston wonders if Pres. Obama might gamble on a new Netanyahu peace proposal. The UK ambassador Israel says the next six months are crucial for the resumption of negotiations. D. Bloomfield asks if Israeli negotiations with Syria are an opportunity or a diversion. The BBC looks at how Arab unrest might affect the peace process. Daoud Kuttab says the Palestinian leadership is recalibrating its national strategy.

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Obama taps top foreign policy aide as ambassador to Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Peter Nicholas - March 9, 2011 - 1:00am President Obama is nominating a top foreign policy aide, Daniel B. Shapiro, as ambassador to Israel — tapping for the sensitive diplomatic post a Hebrew-speaking Middle East specialist who has been in charge of outreach to the American Jewish community. If he wins Senate confirmation, Shapiro, whose nomination was announced Wednesday, will replace James Cunningham, a George W. Bush appointee who will be rotating out of the job later this year. » Read more

In West Bank, a loss in soccer is still seen as a victory ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Joel Greenberg - March 9, 2011 - 1:00am When the game was finally over, after extra time and penalty kicks, the Palestinian squad had lost to Thailand. But the Palestinian national team's first official soccer match on home turf Wednesday gave thousands of raucous fans who braved a cold and rain-lashed night a taste of international recognition. A qualifying game for the 2012 London Olympics, the match was more than a sporting event. It was also freighted with symbolism for both organizers and ordinary people who packed the stadium in Al-Ram, a West Bank suburb of Jerusalem that is cut in two by Israel's separation barrier. » Read more

Denmark ups Palestinians to mission status ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 10, 2011 - 1:00am The PLO representative office in Copenhagen has been designated as a mission with full diplomatic status, giving officials powers equal to that of other countries. Denmark is the latest in a string of European nations to recognize Palestinian diplomats with full rank, making the announcement Wednesday after British officials did the same in London, Dublin, Paris and Stockholm. The official Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA quoted President Mahmoud Abbas, who learned of the change at a news conference in the Danish capital, as saying it "supports us politically and diplomatically." » Read more

Court: Settlers to share Palestinian home in Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 10, 2011 - 1:00am An Israeli court issued a decision last week allowing Israeli settlers to take part of a Palestinian family home in the Rad Al-Amoud neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. The court decision came after an 11-year battle between the Hamdella family and American-Israeli billionaire Irving Moskowitz, who purchased the property in 1990 from a Jewish group claiming to own the land. » Read more

Elections committee opens voter registration ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 9, 2011 - 1:00am The Palestinian Authority-appointed Central Elections Commission announced Wednesday that voter registration had opened, in the latest step ahead of July 9 municipal elections. Registration will continue for one week only, a statement from the CEC said, and would include teams sent out to high schools to ensure participation of voters who turned 17 since the last voter registration was conducted in 2010. » Read more

Rival factions snub Hamas unity offer ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal al-Mughrabi - March 10, 2011 - 1:00am Hamas has presented what it described as a new Palestinian unity initiative, a move widely seen as an attempt to pre-empt any public pressure for change in the territory it runs while revolt flares in the Arab world. The proposal, raised with several factions at a meeting late on Wednesday, called for a unified leadership to handle Palestinian affairs until the Palestine Liberation Organisation is restructured to include Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group. » Read more

Netanyahu condemns settler violence ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters March 9, 2011 - 1:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticised Jewish settlers who assault Palestinians or Israeli security personnel in the occupied West Bank, calling them a "marginal minority". Alluding to violent protests and attacks perpetrated since the attempted removal of an unauthorised settlement last week, Netanyahu told a parliamentary panel: "Israel shall not tolerate or accept any attacks on Arab residents as a means of protest against the government." Netanyahu said he was referring to "a small and marginal minority, a small extremist group of among our brothers, the settlers. » Read more

Gaza Strip's Hamas leader reshuffles Cabinet ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press March 10, 2011 - 1:00am The Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip reshuffled his Cabinet on Thursday, naming the first foreign minister for the isolated militant-run Palestinian territory. Hamas said Ismail Haniyeh's move was unrelated to the unrest rocking the Arab region, but it is likely to be seen as an effort by the hard-line movement to convey a more open image to the outside world. For the first time since the group's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, there is a Hamas foreign minister. Haniyeh appointed Mohammed Awad to the post. Awad will also keep his job as planning minister. » Read more

Israel: Gaza smuggling rising amid Mideast unrest ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press March 10, 2011 - 1:00am A top Israeli diplomat says smuggling of arms from Egypt into the Gaza Strip has grown following the unrest in the Arab world. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon says Israel has observed "increased activity" in Gaza. He accused militants of "trying to take advantage of the uncertainties in the region to booster their capabilities to attack Israeli cities and Israeli citizens." Ayalon says explosives and terrorists are also being smuggled. Gaza militants have fired thousands of rockets at Israel in recent years. » Read more

Netanyahu picks hawkish new security adviser ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press March 9, 2011 - 1:00am Israel's prime minister has appointed a new security adviser — an ex-general known for his hawkish views. A statement from Benjamin Netanyahu's office Wednesday said Yaakov Amidror will become Israel's new National Security Council chief, replacing Uzi Arad, a longtime Netanyahu confidant who resigned. Amidror is known as a hard-liner who opposed Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. He has since called to reoccupy the crowded area to stop frequent rocket attacks on southern Israel by Palestinian militants. That view is shared by a relatively small number of Israeli hawks. » Read more

Palestinian presidency urges Quartet to support European statement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua March 10, 2011 - 1:00am The Palestinian presidency on Thursday called on the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators to support a European declaration of principles to settle Israeli- Palestinian conflict. The declaration, presented by Britain, Germany and France, was announced by the British envoy to the United Nations at a UN Security Council meeting on Feb. 18 when Washington vetoed an Arab bill against the Jewish settlement building. » Read more

Israel's future depends on removal of outposts ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Opinion) March 10, 2011 - 1:00am The state's pledge to the High Court of Justice to remove all outposts on private Palestinian land should raise at least two questions: Why did the state have to wait for a High Court order to acknowledge the illegality of the outposts, and why must it wait until the end of 2011 to remove them? » Read more

The IDF's masquerade in Hebron ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Alon Idan - (Editorial) March 10, 2011 - 1:00am A walk through Hebron sends you into deep despair. Near the Cave of the Patriarchs, at the end of the plaza surrounded by a low fence, you see destruction and ruin, and especially the inconceivable segregation of the populations. Four children, maybe eight or nine years old, curse you in Arabic as if by conditioned reflex. You smile at them, try to remove the wall between you, and all of a sudden they change their stance. Now they come closer to the fence and ask you for money. A shekel, sir, a shekel. » Read more

Might Obama gamble on a new Netanyahu peace plan? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Bradley Burston - (Blog) March 8, 2011 - 1:00am You needn't be an optometrist to see that Israel has a vision problem. We have become a nation whose only vision is peripheral. » Read more

Leftists: Amidror a fascist ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Roni Sofer - March 9, 2011 - 1:00am The appointment of Major General (res.) Yaakov Amidror as Israel's next national security advisor is a dangerous move, given his "fascistic" views, leading leftist figures argue in a letter issued Wednesday. The letter compares Amidror to Rabbi Dov Lior, who endorsed the killing of non-Jews in a book he wrote. "Amidror's declaration that in a normal army, a soldier who's scared to charge forward should be shot in the head is blatantly illegal," the letter reads. "This statement disqualifies him for any public post, and certainly a sensitive security-political position." » Read more

Next 6 months crucial for resumption of negotiations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gil Shefler - March 10, 2011 - 1:00am Free elections set to take place in Egypt may turn ugly for Israel unless the peace process is resumed, UK ambassador Matthew Gould warned on Thursday morning. Speaking to Israeli press at the British ambassador’s residence in Ramat Gan, he said Egyptian politicians might try to outdo each other with rhetoric critical of the Jewish state to gain voters. » Read more

Peace with Syria: Opportunity or diversion? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Douglas Bloomfield - (Editorial) March 9, 2011 - 1:00am Will the impasse with the Palestinians open opportunities to seek a deal with Syria? The military and intelligence establishment has been urging Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to pursue that track because the issues are more straightforward and the potential strategic benefits much greater. Also, the Syrian dictator keeps telling visitors he is ready for negotiations. » Read more

Arab uprisings hit Israeli-Palestinian peace process ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Bethany Bell - March 9, 2011 - 1:00am Israelis and Palestinians are so often the focus of events in this region, but now many people are wondering about their place in a changing Middle East. In the West Bank town of Ramallah, Lina, a student, looked around at the crowds shopping in Manara Square and shrugged her shoulders. "Other nations are seeking their own freedoms," she said. "But they are forgetting the Palestinian issue. "We suffer from many things here but until now nobody has made any kind of a revolution in Palestine. Although we are the people that most need a revolution." » Read more

PA recalibrating its strategy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Daoud Kuttab - March 10, 2011 - 1:00am For the first time in many months, Palestinian spokesmen appear to indicate a revisit of their political strategy towards liberation and independence. It is not clear what the new ideas are, but it is obvious that Palestinian plans focusing on a September landmark seem to be in question. » Read more

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