February 28th

Gaza power plant closes again
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 28, 2012 - 1:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Gaza's only power plant has been forced to shut down for the second time in two weeks due to a fuel shortage, the energy authority in the Gaza Strip said Tuesday. Energy officials appealed to Egypt to provide Gaza with a sufficient amount of fuel to allow regular operation of the plant, adding that the disruptions were inflicting a heavy toll on the 1.7 million Palestinian residents of the blockaded strip.

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Israel urges settlers in West Bank outpost of Migron to relocate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - February 28, 2012 - 1:00am

Reporting from Jerusalem— With negotiations apparently at an impasse, the Israeli government launched a last-ditch effort Monday to avoid a confrontation over the court-ordered evacuation of Jewish settlers living in the West Bank outpost of Migron. Lawmaker Benny Begin, who has been leading government efforts to resolve the issue, held a news conference to urge the families to accept an offer to relocate them.

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Israeli troops fatally shoot infiltrator who crossed border from Egypt’s Sinai desert
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
February 28, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Israeli troops have killed an unidentified man who illegally crossed into Israel through the porous border with Egypt’s Sinai desert. A military statement says soldiers patrolling the border overnight spotted a group of people who had breached the frontier. It says the soldiers called on the people to stop, but the infiltrators opened fire, drawing return fire from the Israeli troops. The military said Tuesday that one man was killed and the others fled back to Egyptian territory.

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In Israeli city, a tribute to a Palestinian doctor
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg - February 27, 2012 - 1:00am

JAFFA, Israel – Freighted with memories, a bus carrying Najwa Dajani and her extended family pulled into this city by the sea that she had left under gathering clouds of war more than six decades ago. “We’re going home,” she said. Najwa, 75, had not been back since she left for Cairo with her mother and siblings in January 1948 as fighting raged between Arabs and Jews in the war that accompanied the creation of Israel. The departure, part of a mass Palestinian exodus, was supposed to be temporary, until the hostilities died down, but became a lifelong exile.

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February 27th

NEWS: The Catholic Church asks Israel to help end attacks on churches in Israel and the occupied territories. Egypt will supply more power to Gaza, but local authorities say it's not enough. Pres. Abbas accuses Israel of conducting “ethnic cleansing” in Jerusalem, which PM Netanyahu angrily denies. Qatar's Emir agrees Arab identity in Jerusalem is at risk. Most other Palestinian parties are blaming Hamas for the impasse in national reconciliation talks. Hamas leaders say they now openly support the Syrian uprising, and analysts say it marks a historic shift in Hamas' regional alignments. Israel is threatening to demolish Palestinian solar energy installations in the occupied territories because they were built “without permission.” Qatar reportedly pledges $250 million for reconstruction in Gaza. Israel is planning a huge railway network for the occupied territories. Israeli officials fear the outbreak of another Palestinian intifada, but not in the coming year. COMMENTARY: AP interviews Hamas leader Abu Marzouk about the group's relocation from Syria. Akiva Eldar says Netanyahu was peddling a swindle during the last round of negotiations. Anshel Pfeffer says Israeli officials are skeptical about a planned pro-Palestinian mass march on Jerusalem next month. The Jerusalem Post interviews former Mossad Chief Halevy, who says it makes no sense to ask Palestinians to recognize Israel as a “Jewish state.” Leonard Fein says Israel needs to face up to its own nuclear arsenal. Shlomo Gazit says there is no apartheid in Israel, but there is discrimination against Palestinian citizens. Samah Jabr says life in the occupied territories is very much like apartheid. Matt Duss looks at the politics and economics of smuggling in Gaza. U Penn student Joshua Goldman says his “Birthright Israel” experience was hardly apolitical, but in fact tendentious propaganda.

My ‘Birthwrong’ experience
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Pennsylvanian
by Joshua Goldman - (Opinion) February 27, 2012 - 1:00am

I was compelled to write this as a result of Glenn Shrum’s mischaracterization of Taglit-Birthright in his article on the free trip to Israel offered to Jewish youth (“Taglit-Birthright Israel gaining popularity” 02/23/2012). The article makes the assertion that the trip is apolitical and that it avoids certain areas in the country — the allegedly dangerous ones that make neurotic Jewish mothers queasy — for mere practical reasons. As a former participant of the trip and someone who was raised Jewish in a decidedly pro-Israel household, I do not believe this is true.

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Smugglers’ tunnels are Hamas’ lifeblood
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Salon.com
by Matthew Duss - (Opinion) February 27, 2012 - 1:00am

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — The first things you notice are the trucks, entering Rafah’s dusty main thoroughfare from small side streets, flatbeds fully loaded and covered. Then there are the young boys packed three to a motorbike, darting heedlessly in between the rumbling behemoths, clutching shovels. As you get closer, you see the enormous mounds of earth and rubble, some 10 feet high and more, set amid acres of makeshift canopies, tents and metal garages, which serve as loading docks for Rafah’s booming tunnel trade.

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Apartheid has a face
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Samah Jaber - (Opinion) February 23, 2012 - 1:00am

Last month, in the early evening, as I drove on Jerusalem's Route 1 in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, I was attacked by several Israeli boys. They were about 12 or 13 years old, in religious orthodox dress. They threw a ball of burning gas into my car while I was stopped at a traffic light on my way to attend class at the Israeli Institute of Psychoanalysis.

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Many instances of discrimination
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Shlomo Gazit - (Opinion) February 23, 2012 - 1:00am

Apartheid policy was a set of principles of racial separation between whites, blacks, Indians and coloreds in pre-1994 South Africa and the attributing of privileges there to the white minority. Its principal characteristic in South Africa does not apply to Israel, which does not discriminate between black and white citizens and, indeed, has even adopted policies of encouraging immigration and reverse discrimination regarding black Jews from Cochin and Ethiopia.

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What About Israel's Atomic Weapons?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) February 26, 2012 - 1:00am

What About Israel's Atomic Weapons? Israel’s best kept secret is not of the “maybe yes, maybe no” variety. In fact it is a “yes” so definitive that it has 162 million Google entries. Honest. That’s what Google’s response is when you type in “Israel’s nuclear policy” — books, articles, essays, arguments, all blithely recognizing that Israel has nuclear arms.

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