Western imports ease daily stress, but fuel the fundamentalists' ire
New York Times Sep 7, 08 3:34 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Culture is the quiet battleground in Gaza, where Jennifer Lopez pouts on CD covers beside religious paperbacks on store shelves, the New York Times reports. Combating daily food shortages and feeling isolated, Gazans escape with soap operas, sitcoms, and music—homegrown or imported from the West. But recent incidents—from a party host beaten for serving alcohol, to a theater director held at gunpoint—have heightened cultural tensions.
More »
Freed prisoners intended to shore up Fatah PM Abbas; some in Israel fuming
AFP Aug 25, 08 9:09 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
Israel today released 198 Palestinian prisoners in an effort to bolster Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, the AFP reports. The release, on the eve of a visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, included two prisoners held since the late 1970s who were convicted of murdering Israelis. One of them, a Fatah party member who killed an Israeli settler in Hebron, was elected to parliament in 2006.
More »
Abbas rejects plan, which doesn't include contiguous Palestine
Haaretz Aug 12, 08 11:26 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
Ehud Olmert has presented Mahmoud Abbas with a plan to withdraw from most of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip once the Palestinian Authority retakes Gaza from Hamas. The centerpiece of the proposal is a new permanent border that would keep 7% of the West Bank in Israel in exchange for adding some territory to Gaza. Abbas immediately rejected the proposal because it doesn't create a contiguous Palestinian state, though it offers passage without checkpoints between the West Bank and Gaza.
More »
Notes weakness of current governments
Associated Press Jul 22, 08 5:16 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Barack Obama touched down in Israel late today, promising work on peace negotiations “starting from the minute I’m sworn into office.” He said that while the “historic and special relationship” between the US and Israel “is not going to change,” an American president could be more concerned with “the legitimate difficulties that the Palestinian people are experiencing,” the AP reports.
More »
About-face signals frustration with Bush-led peace talks
New York Times Jun 5, 08 5:57 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas offered an unexpected olive branch to Hamas yesterday, reports the New York Times . Abbas, in control of only the West Bank since the Islamic militant group seized Gaza last year, said it was time for national unity talks aimed at forming a new government. The move could signal the total breakdown of faltering peace talks with Israel.
More »
Reuters journalist among the dead in Israeli offensive
Associated Press Apr 16, 08 5:53 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
Three Israeli soldiers and at least 20 Palestinians were killed today as Israeli attacks rocked the Gaza Strip, the AP reports. Fadel Shana, a Reuters cameraman, was among the dead in fighting that undermined an Egyptian-negotiated peace effort and saw the highest death toll in a month.
More »
Hatred of Jews pervades media in Gaza, worries Fatah
New York Times Apr 1, 08 10:32 AM CDT
(Newser)
-
In the 15 years since the Oslo accords, the Palestinian Authority under Fatah has tamped down anti-Semitic rhetoric. But in Hamas-controlled Gaza, incitement to violence against Jews has been amped up in everything from sermons to television cartoons. The New York Times investigates how virulent hatred of Jews—not just Israelis—compounds the difficulties of the peace process.
More »
Rival Palestinian factions bicker over control of Gaza
Reuters Mar 23, 08 8:02 PM CDT
(Newser)
-
In a second attempt to mend fences, rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas agreed to resume direct talks today to resolve disputes and revive their failed coalition. A Hamas official called the deal “a new beginning and the start of a new stage,” but just hours after signing the Yemeni-sponsored Sanaa Declaration, the factions returned to feuding, Reuters reports.
More »
Deadly seminary attack draws international condemnation
BBC Mar 7, 08 4:55 AM CST
(Newser)
-
Israel has vowed that US-backed peace talks with the Palestinians will continue despite an attack on a Jerusalem seminary last night that killed eight students, the BBC reports. A Palestinian gunman fired into a group of 80 Jewish students before he was shot dead. Israel and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas both slammed Hamas for hailing the shootings as a "natural reaction" to Israeli missile attacks on Gaza that claimed 120 Palestinian lives.
More »
Blockade destroying jobs, food supplies
Independent (UK) Mar 6, 08 5:19 AM CST
(Newser)
-
As Israeli and Palestinian leaders tentatively prepared to resume peace talks, a new report by a coalition of British charities warns of a crushing humanitarian crisis in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. The international consensus to isolate Hamas has led to unemployment, medical shortages and hunger worse than at any time since Israel's seizure of the Strip in 1967, they warn.
More »
Calls negotiations a 'strategic choice'
Associated Press Mar 5, 08 9:44 AM CST
(Newser)
-
Fatah Palestinians will resume peace talks with Israel, Mahmoud Abbas said today, recapitulating on his demands that Israel first halt its bloody campaign against Hamas in Gaza. Abbas characterized the peace process as a “strategic choice.” The Palestinian president halted the talks on Sunday after an Israeli attack, and reiterated his demands earlier today, but a flurry of backroom dealings by Condoleezza Rice brought him around.
More »
Police kill second bomber before he can detonate
Reuters Feb 4, 08 7:59 AM CST
(Newser)
-
A suicide bomber attacked an Israeli mall today, killing one woman and injuring seven, in the first suicide bombing in Israel in more than a year. Police shot a second bomber as he was attempting to detonate an explosives belt. “We heard a large explosion and people started to run. I saw pieces of flesh flying in the air,” said one witness.
More »