Israeli forces roll in two parts of Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
February 24, 2010 - 1:00am


sraeli forces carried out three low- scale incursions into the Gaza Strip, sparking armed clashes with Palestinian militants, witnesses and security sources said Wednesday. Two of the raids targeted the eastern parts of Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip and one in Beit Lahiya town in northwest Gaza, the sources said. Residents said sounds of gunfire and blasts were heard in the areas during the incursions which started after dawn. There has been no word on casualties.


Hamas lawmaker hints at Israeli security breach
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
February 24, 2010 - 1:00am


A Hamas lawmaker on Wednesday hinted that an Israeli security breach to his Islamic movement was possible. "When the movements become victims of security breach, they should announce this openly," said Mahmoud Al-Rumhi, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), based in the West Bank. "The movements of resistance are always the subject of many attempted breaches through spies and Israel has facilities enabling it to try spying on the factions. It might had succeeded in some cases and failed in others," he told reporters.


With talks stalled, Mideast "alternatives" aired
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Alastair MacDonald - (Analysis) February 24, 2010 - 1:00am


The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has lost its global audience as both sides haggle over talks about talks on issues the world thought were long settled. Don't let it fool you. Here on the ground in this Belgium-size bit of Mediterranean coast a new war is raging, so far of words, over the "two-state solution" so consensually accepted in the West since the 1990s.


In seaside Gaza, fish in short supply
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - February 24, 2010 - 1:00am


With their fishermen at risk of being shot at by the Israeli navy, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are finding new ways to supply the blockaded territory with a staple that is in short supply. Seafood is coming into the Mediterranean enclave through tunnels from Egypt and fish farms are starting to fill a supply gap resulting from restrictions that stop fishermen from venturing more than 3.4 miles (5.5 km) from the coast.


Abbas: Heritage row could spark war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 24, 2010 - 1:00am


President Mahmoud Abbas warned Tuesday that Israel's plan to nationalize religious landmarks in the occupied West Bank could lead to war. Speaking in Brussels, Abbas slammed an announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem Israeli "national heritage sites." Netanyahu hit back shortly after the remarks, which his office described as a "campaign of lies and hypocrisy," the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.


Unfairly throwing the book at the 'Irvine 11'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Mark Levine - (Opinion) February 22, 2010 - 1:00am


The 11 students who each briefly disrupted Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's speech last week at UC Irvine have no 1st Amendment protection for their actions and deserve to be punished, writes my colleague, law school Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, in his Feb. 17 Times Op-Ed article. Reading Chemerinsky's piece, you'd think a group of hysterically angry Muslim men prevented Oren from speaking at all. But the situation, as a look at a video recording of the event makes clear, was much more complicated.


Israel's 'miracle' anti-rocket defense plan raises anxieties
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - February 23, 2010 - 1:00am


The rockets may not strike as often these days, but residents of this working-class town say they can't shake the anxiety that comes with living in Israel's most frequently bombed city. Pedestrians strolling downtown keep an eye out for the nearest concrete-reinforced bus-stop shelter in case public loudspeakers crackle with a 15-second warning to dive for cover. Many motorists forgo seat belts so they can ditch vehicles quickly. A playground is equipped with 5-foot-wide concrete pipes that are brightly painted to look like giant caterpillars but double as children's bomb shelters.


Declare a Palestinian State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Jerome M. Segal - (Opinion) February 23, 2010 - 1:00am


France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has alarmed the Israeli government with his recent statement that “one can envision the proclamation soon of a Palestinian state, and its immediate recognition by the international community, even before negotiating its borders.”



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