News Highlights:
- Israel will expropriate more Palestinian land near East Jerusalem, from four Palestinian villages; experts say the move advances Israel’s plan to join Jerusalem with the settlement of Maaleh Adumim, effectively cutting the West Bank into two and severing the northern and southern regions.
- Israeli forces overrun Al Bureij refugee camp in Gaza; earlier, Israeli soldiers assassinated a young Palestinian man near the border crossing.
- Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says an accord with the Palestinians is a long way off and refuses to commit to any timeline.
- Several Palestinian groups say the upcoming U.S. sponsored summit will achieve little, and warned of the underlying U.S.-Israeli agenda.
Feature:
An in-studio discussion about the diplomatic maneuvers currently happening in advance of the U.S. sponsored summit next month. The panel talked about how the Israeli government is refusing to make any substantial commitments and is attempting to play the “Jordanian option”, which has long been a not-so-hidden objective of successive Israeli leaderships. There was also discussion of the recent letter from Dr. Abu Sitta, a renowned Palestinian expert on the right of return, who had warned Mahmoud Abbas against compromising more Palestinian rights, especially any move to recognize Israel as an exclusive national state for Jews.
Focus on Zionism:
Highlights of an Oct. 9th, 2007 press release from the Israeli peace group Gush Shalom, criticizing the insincerity of the Israeli government’s intentions towards any peace negotiations, especially following the new land confiscation around Jerusalem.
Here is an audio file of this show: