A boy's death exposes Israel's deliberate fiction
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) March 1, 2012 - 1:00am

In 2000, as the second intifada raged, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, Mohammed Al Dura, was one of many children killed by the Israeli Defense Forces. Mohammed was shot as he and his father attempted to find cover and he died moments later in his father's lap. A Palestinian cameraman caught the incident on film, causing shock around the world. But not even that evidence was enough for some to condemn Israel's actions; 12 years later, there is still a debate in France about the authenticity of the report.

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Let us compare al-Assad to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - (Opinion) March 1, 2012 - 1:00am

When considering much of what is being repeated in our region, on all levels about Syria, one is struck by confusion, for one party justifies what is happening, whilst another casts doubt, and a third attempts to be clever. Therefore you feel as if you are looking at a situation that is impossible to understand, namely an Arab case par excellence, which is a problem with no solutions, or in the desperate manner of Nabih Berri, a case where there is ‘no winners and no losers”, which is what I term a case of political fluidity.

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Israeli FM Says Military, Civilians Must Stay in Jordan Valley
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 1, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that upheavals in the Arab world prove the need for Israel to retain a military and civilian presence in the Jordan Valley, The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday. "I am looking at what is happening in Syria and the whole region," Lieberman said, adding that "We can not secure the state of Israel without maintaining control of the Jordan Valley." The Jordan Valley has been under Israeli military and civilian control according to the 1993 Oslo Accords.

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Fatah: Chief Justice Dies After Raid on Home
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 29, 2012 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- The chief justice of the Palestinian high religious court died Tuesday of a heart attack two days after soldiers raided his home, the Fatah movement said. Sheikh Fahmi Asaad Jaradat died after soldiers occupied his home in the northern West Bank village of Zabuba, near Jenin, and took up positions on his roof, the movement said. Fatah said it held Israel responsible for the justice's death. The funeral, according to a statement from the movement, will be on Wednesday after midday prayer.

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Israel Capable of Defending Itself Against Iranian Salvos: Defense Expert
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
February 29, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Arrow missile defense system is capable of protecting the Israeli territory from an Iranian missile barrage, a former Defense Ministry rocket expert told Xinhua on Wednesday. "I can say it with assurance: we built those abilities into the Arrow warhead," Uzi Rubin, the Arrow's chief developer and head of Israel's Homa (Barrier) Missile Defense Agency between 1991 and 1999, when the first version of the missile was deployed.

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Report: Israel’s Security Situation Worst in Decades
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Oren Kessler - February 29, 2012 - 1:00am

The Arab revolts and an emboldened Iran have created the most precarious security situation for Israel since the end of the Cold War, according to a study released this week. The report, “The 2011 Arab Uprisings and Israel’s National Security,” was released by Bar-Ilan University’s Begin- Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and authored by the center’s director, Prof.Efraim Inbar.

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Israel’s Last Chance to Strike Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Amos Yadlin - (Opinion) February 29, 2012 - 1:00am

Tel Aviv ON July 7, 1981, I was one of eight Israeli fighter pilots who bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak. As we sat in the briefing room listening to the army chief of staff, Rafael Eitan, before starting our planes’ engines, I recalled a conversation a week earlier when he’d asked us to voice any concerns about our mission.

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Iran’s last diplomatic chance?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yonah Alexander, Milton Hoenig - (Opinion) February 29, 2012 - 1:00am

As an ancient Persian proverb wisely reflects, “Even with the strength of an elephant and the paws of a lion, peace is better than war.” It is time for Iran to heed this thousand-year-old lesson and relinquish its nuclear ambitions before a doomsday scenario occurs.

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Israeli Troops Raid 2 Private Palestinian TV Stations in West Bank, Confiscate Equipment
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
February 29, 2012 - 1:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli troops raided two private Palestinian TV stations before dawn Wednesday, seizing transmitters and other equipment, the military said. The military said one of the outlets, al-Watan TV, is a pirate station whose frequencies interfered with legal broadcasters and aircraft communications. It said several transmitters were confiscated in the operation initiated by Israel’s Communications Ministry. The military also confirmed a second raid at Jerusalem Educational TV, a Ramallah-based station owned by the Palestinians’ Al Quds University, but did not elaborate.

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PA: Israel Seizing Broadcast Frequencies
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 29, 2012 - 1:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) – The Palestinian Authority is describing Wednesday's raids on TV networks in the occupied West Bank as the possible beginning of a "frequency war" over limited broadcasting space. The confiscation of equipment from Watan TV and Al-Quds Educational TV deprives Palestinians of their right to have frequencies for building modern wireless communication networks, the PA says. Suleiman Zuheiri, undersecretary of the Palestinian ministry of telecommunication in Ramallah, said Israel had breached Article 36 of the Oslo agreement, which requires consultations with the PA.

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