Barak: Criticism of IDF should be directed at me
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel - July 15, 2009 - 12:00am

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday criticized an Israeli human rights organization for publishing an Israel Defense Forces soldier's testimony that troops used Palestinians as human shields during Operation Cast Lead last January, despite a 2005 High Court ruling outlawing the practice.

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Israeli ships may have crossed Suez
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
July 14, 2009 - 12:00am

Two Israeli navy ships made a rare crossing of Egypt’s Suez Canal today, headed from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea a source at the port said. One of the ships, the Hanit, already crossed the canal both ways in June, in what the source said was the first case of a large Israeli warship using the strategic waterway, although this was not possible to confirm officially. After fighting several wars since Israel’s foundation in 1948, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979.

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Egypt says captured Israeli soldier well
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
July 7, 2009 - 12:00am

Cairo, July 7 - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Tuesday he believed an Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants three years ago was well and that he hoped the issue would not take a long time to resolve. Militants of the Hamas Islamist group and other gunmen launched a raid into Israel in June 2006 from the Gaza Strip, killing two soldiers and capturing Gilad Shalit. Egypt has sought to mediate a deal for his freedom between Hamas and Israel.

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Court: Revise charges against soldier who shot at Palestinian
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Aviad Glickman - July 1, 2009 - 12:00am

The trial of Lieutenant-Colonel Omri Borberg, and his subordinate L., charged of disorderly conduct over their involvement in shooting at a bound Palestinian, Ashraf Abu-Rahma, was called off by the Supreme Court on Wednesday, after the judges accepted a petition by human rights organizations that argued that the charges were extremely insufficient. The ruling was unanimous, and the judges ordered the Military Advocate General reexamine the case and reconsider the charges to be brought against the two.

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Report Criticizes Israeli Drone Strikes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Christopher Drew - June 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Twenty-nine civilians, including eight children, were killed in several missile strikes by Israeli drones in Gaza in December and January, according to a report released on Tuesday by Human Rights Watch. The group questioned whether Israeli forces had taken “all feasible precautions” to avoid civilian casualties. Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich, a spokeswoman for the Israeli military, said Israeli forces had gone to extraordinary lengths to warn civilians during the Gaza offensive, and she questioned the credibility of some of the Palestinian witnesses cited by the advocacy group.

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Netanyahu: No foreign troops in PA territory
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - June 22, 2009 - 12:00am

The international guarantees Israel is seeking to ensure that a future Palestinian state remains demilitarized does not mean the introduction of foreign forces, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the cabinet at its Sunday meeting.

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Barak: Prepare for Deeper Operations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hanan Greenberg - June 9, 2009 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited the Shizafon Armor Corps' training base in southern Israel on Tuesday, where they observed an officers' course drill simulating a joint Armor, Infantry Engineering and Artillery corps operation, complete with aerial assistance, meant to take a Syrian village. "Future comprehensive operations will not resemble Operation Cast Lead, but will be designed to go deeper and wider and to take more chances," Barak told the cadets.

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Michael Oren, Ambassador, or, this is how the occupation ends
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Opinion) May 11, 2009 - 12:00am

I was reading an Etgar Keret book of gently hallucinatory short stories when I got the news. It fit right in. The Foreign Minister, who was now Avigdor Lieberman - himself nothing if not an Etgar Keret invention - had approved the choice of Michael Oren as Israel's next ambassador to Washington.

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Israel's human rights abuses out in open
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) May 7, 2009 - 12:00am

The revelation that harsh interrogation methods, including torture, were used against detainees during the US-led war in Iraq by the George W. Bush administration, continues to reverberate here and overseas. The actions, sanctioned in legal memorandums, were recently released by US President Barack Obama. The repercussions of Obama's actions, however, are being felt by key US government officials, especially those within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as well as within several other countries including Great Britain and Israel.

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Netanyahu: Israel to do all in its power to bring Shalit home
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
April 29, 2009 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed on Wednesday the state's commitment to the parents of captive Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit to do all in its power to win the corporal's release. "Every combat soldier knows that we will use all our capabilities in order to bring him back home safe and sound," Netanyahu said before a special Independence Day ceremony to honor outstanding soldiers in the President's Residence.

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