March 28th

Arrest raid targets Beit Ummar, 14 detained
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 28, 2011 - 12:00am


Israeli forces detained 14 Palestinians overnight from the southern West Bank town of Beit Ummar, as construction of military road blocks and a fence surrounding one side of the residential area continue. Local activist Muhammad Ayyad Awad estimated that 150 Israeli soldiers entered the town during the campaign, which began at 2:30 a.m., as soldiers entered homes with sniffer dogs and took residents. Twelve of the 14 taken were identified, seven of them under the age of 18, one of whom was only 15 years old.


Why Israel is wary of getting into another Gaza war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - March 24, 2011 - 12:00am


Fighting along the Israeli-Gaza border that has killed at least 11 people continued Thursday for the sixth-straight day, despite parallel pledges by Israel and Hamas to restore calm amid the worst violence since the 2009 Gaza war. Israeli aircraft on Thursday fired on low-profile targets such as border smuggling tunnels, while Gaza militants launched mortars and homemade rockets into southern Israel. One rocket even struck within 16 miles of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.


Amid violence, pen pals in Congress focus on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - March 23, 2011 - 12:00am


It happens almost like clockwork: Something happens in the Middle East, and it reverberates across the Atlantic with new letters from the U.S. Congress. With so many relatively new members looking to establish their pro-Israel credentials, the reaction in Congress to the recent violence in Israel was particularly swift.


Why Israel is wary of getting into another Gaza war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
December 31, 1969 - 8:00pm


Fighting along the Israeli-Gaza border that has killed at least 11 people continued Thursday for the sixth-straight day, despite parallel pledges by Israel and Hamas to restore calm amid the worst violence since the 2009 Gaza war. Israeli aircraft on Thursday fired on low-profile targets such as border smuggling tunnels, while Gaza militants launched mortars and homemade rockets into southern Israel. One rocket even struck within 16 miles of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.


Amid violence, pen pals in Congress focus on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
December 31, 1969 - 8:00pm


It happens almost like clockwork: Something happens in the Middle East, and it reverberates across the Atlantic with new letters from the U.S. Congress. With so many relatively new members looking to establish their pro-Israel credentials, the reaction in Congress to the recent violence in Israel was particularly swift.


Amid violence, pen pals in Congress focus on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
December 31, 1969 - 8:00pm


It happens almost like clockwork: Something happens in the Middle East, and it reverberates across the Atlantic with new letters from the U.S. Congress. With so many relatively new members looking to establish their pro-Israel credentials, the reaction in Congress to the recent violence in Israel was particularly swift.


Israel lawmaker wonders if his Labor Party may deserve its fate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - (Interview) March 28, 2011 - 12:00am


He says the Israeli left is in disarray and its standard-bearer Labor Party has betrayed its values so much, it might be renamed the "Prostitution Party." It's a harsh analysis, and somewhat surprising given that it comes from lawmaker Daniel Ben-Simon, one of the party's leaders. In January, Ben-Simon was so frustrated that he announced plans to leave Labor. But he changed his mind after former Labor Party Chairman Ehud Barak quit instead to form his own party, just as other party leaders were threatening to oust Barak.


In Gaza, rocket attacks seen as a smokescreen
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - March 26, 2011 - 12:00am


Yousef Mohammed, 61, is not ready to die by what he and many others in this besieged Palestinian territory cynically regard as little more than a ploy by Hamas. Militants here have recently been allowed to fire a flurry of rockets deep inside Israel, undermining more than two years of relative calm since the country's three-week military assault on Gaza, Operation Cast Lead, killed as many 1,400 Palestinians. Thirteen Israelis died in the fighting that also obliterated much of Gaza's infrastructure.


In Obama’s push for Mideast peace, whose side is he on?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jackson Diehl - (Opinion) March 27, 2011 - 12:00am


So far what some are calling the Arab Spring has brought Israel the first terrorist bombing in Jerusalem in seven years and the first significant missile attacks from the Gaza Strip in two years. And that, for the government of Binyamin Netanyahu, is likely to be the easy part. The hard part will be managing Barack Obama.


Palestinians Hold Talks on Reconciliation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - March 26, 2011 - 12:00am


President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority met Saturday with officials of Hamas for the first time in a year in an effort to reconcile the two movements whose bitter rivalry has kept the West Bank and Gaza apart and blocked any real hope of Palestinian statehood.



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