At a dead-end ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News (Editorial) March 28, 2010 - 12:00am The announcement by Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas at the Arab League summit that he will not enter into indirect talks with Israel unless it backs down on settlements, coming immediately after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected anew international calls to stop settlement building in East Jerusalem, means that the peace process has hit a dead-end. » Read more

PNA approves 3.9-bln-USD budget for 2010 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua March 30, 2010 - 12:00am The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) cabinet on Monday approved its budget for 2010, which amounts to 3.9 billion U.S. dollars. The cabinet, which is chaired by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, said in a statement after it held its weekly meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah that around 50 percent of the PNA budget was devoted to the Gaza Strip, ruled since 2007 by the Islamic Hamas movement, President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party's rival. » Read more

Gaza bank 'held up' in broad daylight... by police ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press March 29, 2010 - 12:00am When gunmen burst into Gaza's Palestine Bank on Monday and demanded a quarter of a million dollars the branch manager had to give in -- he couldn't say no to the police. The incident in Gaza City took place when police run by the Islamist Hamas movement went to impose a court order unfreezing the assets of a health charity at the heart of a bitter factional dispute. When the Friends of the Patient Society, which operates a small hospital in the impoverished territory, was taken over by Hamas earlier this year, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank blocked the assets. » Read more

Gaza banks on strike after de facto raid on branch ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 30, 2010 - 12:00am All banks across the Gaza Strip announced a general strike on Tuesday, protesting an attack against a local branch on Monday by de facto police. Banks announced action after the Monetary Authority called on branches to respond to the attack against a Palestine Bank in the Ar-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, in which 1 million shekels was seized by de facto security forces who were executing a court order demanding the branch return the amount to the Patients' Friends Society. » Read more

Report: 55% of Israeli settlers in Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 30, 2010 - 12:00am The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics issued a statement Tuesday to mark Land Day, estimating that more than 85% of Palestinian land remains under Israeli control, with 55% of settlers in the West Bank centered in the Jerusalem governorate. » Read more

Gaza: Child killed by Israeli fire, several reported injured ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 30, 2010 - 12:00am A child was shot and killed by Israeli forces east of the Yasser Arafat International Airport in Rafah on Tuesday, medics said. Muawiya Hassanein, director of ambulance and emergency services in Gaza, said Muhammad Zen Ismail Al-Farmawi, 15, was shot dead near the southeasterly border by Israeli forces. Hassanein said ambulances had been unable to retrieve the body because of ongoing clashes in the area. » Read more

Rachel Corrie's family takes case to court in Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - March 30, 2010 - 12:00am The American parents sit stoically in a sky-lit courtroom, listening to testimony about how an Israeli military bulldozer crushed their daughter to death seven years ago. They hear about the dangerous game of chicken played for several hours that winter afternoon in 2003, between bulldozers and international activists trying to protect Palestinian homes, before Rachel Corrie disappeared under a creeping mound of dirt. » Read more

Ministers Reaffirm Jerusalem Stance ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - March 29, 2010 - 12:00am Senior Israeli ministers have publicly rejected American demands for curbs on building in Jewish areas of East Jerusalem and other concessions to the Palestinians, indicating no imminent end to the rift between Israel and the United States. Benny Begin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner cabinet — which has met twice since Mr. Netanyahu returned from Washington last week — said Monday on Israel Radio that the status of East Jerusalem should be resolved in direct negotiations with the Palestinians, not in advance. » Read more

Lo, the Mideast Moves ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) March 29, 2010 - 12:00am The passage of the U.S. health care bill is a major foreign policy victory for President Barack Obama. It empowers him by demonstrating his ability to deliver. Nowhere is that more important than in the Middle East. All the global mutterings about the “Carterization” of Obama, and the talk (widespread in Israel) of kicking the can down the road and so getting through the “garbage time” of a one-term president — that is suddenly yesterday’s chatter. » Read more