March 5th

Clinton should not listen to Netanyahu ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Francis Matthew - (Opinion) March 4, 2009 - 1:00am Every four years there is a depressing ritual in which a new US Secretary of State agrees that the US will secure Israel's security, but will also support the establishment of a Palestinian state. As has happened many times before, this week the Palestinians told Hillary Clinton that the Israelis should stop building illegal colonies in the West Bank. The Palestinian point was vindicated by the discovery this week of an Israeli government plan for a massive expansion of Israeli colonies, which was published by Peace Now, an Israeli peace lobby. » Read more

Talking much gibberish about Hamas ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Michael Young - (Opinion) March 5, 2009 - 1:00am You can say many disparaging things about the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, but he did manage, until his dying breath, to preserve what was known as the independence of the Palestinian decision. Under Arafat's guidance, the Palestinian Liberation Organization was able for decades to avoid falling under the sway of an Arab state, particularly Syria, which tried as of the late 1960s to bring the PLO to heel. » Read more

Obama plans to boost security aid to Abbas's forces ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Adam Entous - March 5, 2009 - 1:00am The Obama administration plans to expand a programme to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces in the occupied West Bank as part of a push for statehood, officials said on Thursday. Israel has given tentative backing to the programme as a test of Abbas's ability to rein in militants, one of its main conditions in stalled U.S.-backed negotiations over establishing a Palestinian state. » Read more

Musical show of unity upsets many in Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Common Ground News Service by Ethan Bronner - March 5, 2009 - 1:00am Achinoam Nini, a singer and peace activist, has long stirred controversy here. Known abroad by her stage name, Noa, she has recorded with Arab artists, refused to perform in the occupied West Bank, condemned Israeli settlements there and had concerts cancelled because of bomb threats from the extreme right. But lately it is the left that has been angry with Nini. » Read more

Israeli Law Students Protest Professor Involved In Strikes on Gaza Civilians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum by M.J. Rosenberg - (Blog) March 5, 2009 - 1:00am This is interesting. Ha'aretz reports that students at Tel Aviv University are protesting the appointment to a lecturer position of an IDF colonel involved in approving strikes against civilians in Gaza. I had wondered what happened to Israel's usually vigorous anti-war movement which has come out in force in previous cases where Israel has engaged in wars of choice (like the Gaza and Lebanon wars), in contrast to wars like the Yom Kippur or Six Day Wars. » Read more

Palestinian health care 'ailing' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News March 5, 2009 - 1:00am The Lancet medical journal report highlights how 10% of Palestinian children now have stunted growth. The paper describes the healthcare system in the Palestinian territories as "fragmented and incoherent". An Israeli government spokesperson said the Lancet had failed to seek its view, and said many Palestinians had accessed medical care in the country. Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli government, called the report one-sided. He said: "This is propaganda in the guise of a medical report." » Read more

Israel to let more aid into Gaza in gesture to Clinton ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Nir Hasson, Avi Issacharoff, Barak Ravid - March 5, 2009 - 1:00am Israel will increase the range of goods permitted into the Gaza Strip as a gesture to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who concluded her visit to the region Wednesday. In recent weeks, Israel has prevented such products as jam, pasta and paper from reaching the besieged coastal territory. "We want humanitarian aid to get into Gaza in sufficient amounts to alleviate the suffering of the people," Clinton said, but stopped short of calling for a full opening of the crossings. » Read more

Hillary Clinton shores up weakened Palestinian leader ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times by James Hider - March 5, 2009 - 1:00am Hillary Clinton pledged her full support yesterday to the ailing Palestinian Administration of President Abbas, whose efforts to negotiate a peace deal with Israel have brought little progress, and whose standing among his own people has slipped dramatically. Speaking in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority, the US Secretary of State said that Mr Abbas's Administration was the only legitimate government of the Palestinian people - yet another snub to Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip and which the US regards as a terrorist organisation. » Read more

Clinton's caution in Israel has some Palestinians grumbling ATFP World Press Roundup Article from McClatchy News by Dion Nissenbaum - March 5, 2009 - 1:00am On her first visit as secretary of state to the de facto Palestinian capital, Hillary Clinton publicly chided Israel on Wednesday for demolishing dozens of Arab homes in East Jerusalem, a move that's undermining anemic peace talks with the Palestinians. » Read more

Deceptive unity ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) March 4, 2009 - 1:00am Talks on forming a united Palestinian Authority government between West Bank-based Fatah and Gaza-based Hamas commenced in Cairo last week. Egypt is sponsoring the talks, with the tacit blessings of the international community. This is a mistake. The Obama administration should take a close look at the likely consequences of such an arrangement. » Read more