Israel's Gaza Vindication
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jackson Diehl - (Opinion) September 21, 2009 - 12:00am

When it was launched last December, Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip looked to most people in Washington to be risky, counterproductive and doomed to futility. Not only pundits like me but senior officials of the Bush administration predicted that the Israeli army would not succeed either in toppling Gaza's Hamas government or in eliminating its capacity to launch missiles at Israeli cities. Instead it would subject the Jewish state to another tidal wave of international opprobrium and risk its relations with West Bank Palestinians and Egypt.

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Seized Israeli Writes of Deep Depression
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
September 10, 2009 - 12:00am

An Israeli soldier seized by Palestinian fighters more than three years ago described his captivity as an "intolerable and inhumane nightmare" in a 2006 letter to his parents that was made public Wednesday. In carefully printed script, Sgt. Gilad Shalit reported deteriorating health and deep depression, making an anguished appeal to the Israeli government to release him from his "closed and solitary prison." Shalit, now 23, wrote the 14-line letter three months after gunmen affiliated with the Gaza Strip's Islamist Hamas rulers captured him in a cross-border raid.

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Hamas said ready to sign Shalit deal this weekend
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - September 4, 2009 - 12:00am

Hamas leader in exile Khaled Meshal is planning to finalize a prisoner swap deal for the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit during a rare visit to Cairo this weekend, senior Palestinian sources told the Saudi daily Al-Watan on Friday. Hamas spokesman Taher A-Nunu confirmed that Meshal was traveling to Cairo on Saturday for a round of talks with Egyptian officials, attended by the organization's top-brass from Gaza and Damascus.

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Hamas: Israel won't get better deal on Shalit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - September 2, 2009 - 12:00am

Just hours after Defense Minister Ehud Barak told a group of students that Gilad Shalit's release won't be "at any price", a Hamas official told Ynet that Israel is trying to make talks on the kidnapped soldier's release more difficult. "The Shalit family is paying the price of the negotiation ploys that their government is trying to carry out in a bid to present a better deal than its predecessor," said the Hamas official. According to him, Israel is trying to bide time by presenting new versions of the deal.

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Report: Mashaal promised release of Jordanians in Shalit deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roee Nahmias - August 31, 2009 - 12:00am

Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal has promised to include the release of Jordanian prisoners held in Israeli prisons as part of a prisoner exchange deal meant to secure the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit, Jordanian newspaper al-Arab al-Yawm quoted secretary of the National Committee for Jordanian Prisoners and Missing in Israeli Jails as saying. The matter of Jordanian prisoners has surfaced in the past in talks for a Shalit deal as part of Hamas' demands of prisoners to be released in the second phase of the agreement.

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Israeli-Arab indicted for Ashkenazi plot
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz - August 31, 2009 - 12:00am

Hizbullah recruited an Israeli-Arab and ordered him to collect intelligence on IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi ahead of plans to assassinate him to avenge the death of the guerrilla group's military leader Imad Mughniyeh. On Monday, an indictment was filed at the Petah Tikva District Court against Rawi Sultani, a 23-year-old Israeli-Arab from the town of Tira, alleging that he was recruited by Hizbullah in the summer of 2008 when he traveled to Morocco to attend a Balad Party summer camp.

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Report: Meshal to fly to Cairo to approve Shalit deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - August 28, 2009 - 12:00am

Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal is expected to fly to Cairo next week to approve a deal that includes the release of captured Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, the London-based Arabic language newspaper al-Hayat reported on Friday. Meanwhile, a German intelligence official has arrived in Cairo to help mediate on the Shalit deal, senior German officials told Haaretz on Thursday.

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PA wants piece of Shalit deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - August 27, 2009 - 12:00am

Reports of progress on a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas have led to high expectations in the Palestinian Authority as well, as sources say they hope this means past understandings between Israel and the PA will also be realized with the deal's execution. According to sources, Israel has in the past agreed to release a number of Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to President Mahmoud Abbas as the deal for the release of captive solder Gilad Shalit nears completion.

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Israel, Hezbollah threaten war – again
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Nicholas Blanford - August 15, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel and its arch foe Hezbollah are waging an increasingly heated war of words, fanning concerns about another bruising encounter between the two enemies who fought a devastating but inconclusive conflict in 2006.

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Israeli Law Students Protest Professor Involved In Strikes on Gaza Civilians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Israel Policy Forum
by M.J. Rosenberg - (Blog) March 5, 2009 - 1:00am

This is interesting. Ha'aretz reports that students at Tel Aviv University are protesting the appointment to a lecturer position of an IDF colonel involved in approving strikes against civilians in Gaza. I had wondered what happened to Israel's usually vigorous anti-war movement which has come out in force in previous cases where Israel has engaged in wars of choice (like the Gaza and Lebanon wars), in contrast to wars like the Yom Kippur or Six Day Wars.

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