March 30th

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

March 29th

On Passover, Israel concerned over world standing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Aron Heller - March 29, 2010 - 12:00am Nearly one out of every two Israelis thinks the country's international standing is poor following Israel's most serious crisis with the United States in decades, according to a poll published Monday on the eve of the Passover holiday. As Jews around the world were making last-minute preparations for the spring festival — which marks the biblical story of the Hebrews' exodus from Egypt — a poll in the Maariv daily showed increasing concern following the open rift between the governments of the world's two largest Jewish centers. » Read more

After US dustup, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing challenges ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - March 28, 2010 - 12:00am On the eve on Israel's Passover holiday, which celebrates liberation from oppression, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looked so mired in his mounting, multi-faceted crises that he might need a miracle to survive them. » Read more

PNA urges Arabs to maintain peace offer with Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua March 28, 2010 - 12:00am he Palestinian National Authority (PNA) said Sunday that Arabs should maintain the Arab peace initiative with Israel. The Arab peace initiative "is still the strategic choice of the Arab League (AL)'s summit" that is wrapping up on Sunday in Libya, said Nabil Abu Rdineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. However, he added that the Palestinians "will be committed to any other option the summit takes." » Read more

Israel fears Obama heading for imposed Mideast settlement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Ari Shavit - March 29, 2010 - 12:00am U.S. President Barack Obama's demands during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Tuesday point to an intention to impose a permanent settlement on Israel and the Palestinians in less than two years, political sources in Jerusalem say. Israeli officials view the demands that Obama made at the White House as the tip of the iceberg under which lies a dramatic change in U.S. policy toward Israel. » Read more