Asharq Al-Awsat Talks to Israel Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Ali al-Saleh - (Interview) February 14, 2010 - 1:00am

Perhaps for security reasons, the meeting with Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister David Ayalon was at the Israeli Embassy in a neighborhood across the affluent High Kensington Street in central London. One feels the security measures even before arriving at the big gate to this exclusive area near Kensington Palace, the private residence of the late Princess Diana. You are watched from a distance by a number of British policemen in their traditional uniform, but the untraditional part of the scene is the machine guns they are carrying.

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No independent probe of Gaza war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - February 12, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel believes that the report it gave UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon earlier this month on the investigations it is conducting into Operation Cast Lead is sufficient, and there is no need to set up an independent inquiry committee, The Jerusalem Post has learned. “Israel feels the report it gave was a serious, comprehensive, credible and complete answer to the UN secretary-general,” one senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office said.

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Goldstone fire far from extinguished
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Dan Izenberg - (Analysis) February 12, 2010 - 1:00am

The government is often accused of conducting a policy of “extinguishing fires” – that is, of careening from one emergency to another without managing to establish a systematic and well-thought-out program. But in some cases, including very important ones, it seems that its policy is to do no more than dampen fires, without bothering to go to the trouble of extinguishing them altogether, even though one day in the distant – or not so distant – future, the flames may start up again.

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Peace making requires application of the law
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) February 12, 2010 - 1:00am

Of the many long-running conflicts that see two communities competing for the same piece of land, three in particular have always caught my attention: Northern Ireland, Cyprus and Palestine-Israel. The first is on the way to being resolved through peaceful political negotiations, with another advance this week in the areas of police powers and administration of justice. The Cyprus conflict has long lost its military edge, and shows signs of moving towards a breakthrough, due to both internal leadership changes and external pressures and inducements.

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Israel needs Goldstone
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) February 11, 2010 - 1:00am

Shock (noun): a major medical emergency, often seen after serious injury. Among its signs and symptoms are mental changes including a sense of great anxiety and foreboding, confusion and, sometimes, combativeness. This is about fear of the dark. Of the monstrous. In this case, the terror of finally uncovering what we ourselves are really made of.

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Israeli fire kills 1 in central Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 11, 2010 - 1:00am

An Israeli airstrike at midday killed one and injured a second, hours after Israeli artillery fire injured three children on Thursday in Johur Ad-Dik, central Gaza. An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the strike, saying it was in retaliation against militants who had fired on Israeli patrol jeeps earlier that morning. He said the Israeli patrol had been operating on the east side of the Gaza border, and that soldiers returned fire in the direction of the attack.

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Israeli warplanes fire on southern Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 10, 2010 - 1:00am

The Israeli military confirmed reports from Gaza residents that warplanes struck targets in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning, causing damage the the already destroyed airport site in Khan Younis but no injuries. An Israeli military spokeswoman said strikes came in retaliation for projectiles launched into the western Negev in recent days. In a separate statement, the army also warned that it would "continue to operate firmly against anyone who uses terror against the State of Israel. Hamas is solely responsible for maintaining peace and quiet in the Gaza Strip."

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Israel satisfied with Ban’s report on Goldstone
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
February 7, 2010 - 1:00am

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's report to the General Assembly "reflected accurately" Israel's response to the Goldstone report, the Foreign Ministry said. "This Israeli document expresses Israel's full commitment to carry out credible independent investigations that meet the standards of international law," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement released shortly after the General Assembly's meeting last Friday on the status of the implementation of the Goldstone report's recommendations.

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Israeli conservatives attack U.S.-based philanthropy as unpatriotic
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - February 7, 2010 - 1:00am

A U.S.-based philanthropy that funds human rights groups in Israel is under fire amid accusations that its recipients provided the bulk of evidence to a U.N. commission that issued a report highly critical of Israel's Gaza Strip war a year ago. Leaders of the Washington-based New Israel Fund, whose recipients include several groups that promote Palestinian rights, said Sunday that they are being unfairly targeted by conservatives in Israel seeking to silence opposing viewpoints.

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Hamas denies regretting Israeli civilians' death
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
February 6, 2010 - 1:00am

Hamas said Saturday that it did not regret the death of Israeli civilians by rockets militants fired from the Gaza Strip during Israel's military operation against the coastal strip. "There has been no regret or apology, on the contrary, we held the Israeli occupation responsible for the crimes committed during the war," said Mohammed al-Ghoul, minister of justice of the deposed Hamas government.

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