February 28th

Israeli Airstrikes on Gaza Wound Man and Baby ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Ben Weyl - February 26, 2011 - 1:00am Israeli warplanes bombed a half-dozen targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, wounding a 7-month-old girl and a Palestinian man, medics in the coastal territory said. An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that there were at least two airstrikes aimed at militant targets, saying they were in response to rocket and mortar attacks on Israel. Medics said one strike was carried out on a military post of Hamas, the Islamic militant group, in Rafah, which is on Gaza’s border with Egypt. In a home nearby, a baby was hit in the head by fragments, though medics said the injury was slight. » Read more

Israeli Panel Finds No Crime in 2002 Assassination ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - February 27, 2011 - 1:00am Nearly nine years after an Israeli assassination of a Hamas leader in Gaza killed at least 13 civilians and led to widespread international condemnation, a government-appointed panel of inquiry concluded Sunday that the operation was flawed but that the consequences “did not stem from disregard or indifference to human lives.” » Read more

Palestinians Seek New Path to State ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal by Richard Boudreaux - February 26, 2011 - 1:00am Palestinian leaders here say they have lost faith in U.S. mediation with Israel and are weighing a new strategy to press for independence, including an appeal for United Nations recognition of a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The evolving strategy, inspired in part by uprisings across the Middle East, also envisions stepping up nonviolent protest against Israeli occupation and trying to end a deep schism between the West Bank's secularist-led Palestinian Authority and the Islamist group Hamas that governs Gaza. » Read more

February 25th

Stability not at cost of injustice ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Ziad Asali - (Editorial) February 24, 2011 - 1:00am One would expect the usual demands for democracy, human rights, freedom of expression and regularly scheduled elections as well as a heightened commitment to the people of the region, that their rights and aspirations will be reflected in this new vision. Furthermore, it would not be surprising if all these were packaged as part of an initiative to address the Palestine-Israel conflict and a commitment to the establishment of a state of Palestine. » Read more

Second chance in the Middle East ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Rami Khouri - (Editorial) February 25, 2011 - 1:00am Sometimes in life you get a second chance to get something right, after getting it wrong the first time. The perception I get from discussions in Washington, with independent analysts and people in and close to the administration, is that the Obama team remains caught and wavering between two approaches: to forge ahead with a bold new policy that responds to the historic changes now rippling through the Middle East; to broadly maintain established old patterns of American policy, especially vis-à-vis Arab autocrats and the Arab-Israeli conflict. » Read more

Palestinian-American Entrepreneur Re-Envisions West Bank Development ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Jeffay - February 23, 2011 - 1:00am In his chic office in Ramallah, Bashar Masri, believed to be the richest person in the Palestinian territories, is in high spirits. It’s February 3, his 50th birthday, and the past year has been a particularly good one. It is a year that has seen him start construction on the first planned Palestinian city, an $800 million development that will have more homes than Ramallah. And he nearly achieved in the boardroom what Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose office is just a few blocks away, hasn’t managed in negotiations. » Read more

Young Palestinians call for protests on 15 March ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Harriet Sherwood - February 24, 2011 - 1:00am Their movement has no name and no leaders. Just a goal, and a tool. The goal is to force an end to the political divisions among Palestinians by stirring the youth of Gaza and the West Bank to emulate their brothers and sisters in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Their tool – as elsewhere – is the internet, specifically Facebook. "End The Division", a page in both Arabic and English, calls for protests across the Palestinian territories and refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon on 15 March. It has already got thousands of supporters, and is growing by the day. » Read more

Jerrold Kessel, journalist, author, filmmaker, dies at 66 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Leslie Susser - February 25, 2011 - 1:00am Jerrold (Yoram) Kessel, who died on Thursday after a long battle with cancer, was one of Israel’s leading English-language journalists, with a career that spanned over four decades in radio, print and television, including stints as Jerusalem correspondent for the London Jewish Chronicle, news editor at The Jerusalem Post, Israel reporter for CNN and sports columnist for Ha’aretz. He was 66. We first met at the Hebrew University in the 1960s, as part of a group of young ex-South African immigrants studying subjects like literature, history, politics, economics and philosophy. » Read more

PA, Hamas fear Gaddafi will attack Palestinians in Libya ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Khaled Abu Toameh - February 24, 2011 - 1:00am Palestinians on Thursday expressed fear that Muammar Gaddafi would turn against thousands of Palestinians living in Libya under the pretext they are helping his opponents. The concern came in response to charges made by Gaddafi and his son Seif al-Islam to the effect that Arabs living in Libya were involved in the fighting against the government. Both the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas government have called on neighboring Arab countries to intervene to prevent Gaddafi from carrying out “massacres” against Palestinians in Libya. » Read more

J Street aims to have 2,000 at weekend conference in DC ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Hilary Leila Krieger - February 25, 2011 - 1:00am More than 50 members of Congress are expected to attend J Street’s second-annual conference here this weekend, with 200 offices receiving the progressive group’s lobbyists during its visit to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, according to the organization. The number of federal lawmakers coming to the conference gala on Monday night are slightly more than the 44 who came last year, but well under the 148 lawmakers who served as a host committee at the last conference. This year J Street has no host committee. » Read more