What is behind Israeli-Palestinian cultural wars? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by David Harris - February 24, 2010 - 1:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to add two West Bank shrines to a list of Israeli national heritage sites has drawn harsh condemnation from the Palestinians. Deposed Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haneya on Tuesday called for popular uprising in the West Bank to protest Israel's decision, one day after Israeli security personnel and Palestinians clashed in the West Bank city of Hebron. » Read more

Israeli forces roll in two parts of Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua February 24, 2010 - 1:00am sraeli forces carried out three low- scale incursions into the Gaza Strip, sparking armed clashes with Palestinian militants, witnesses and security sources said Wednesday. Two of the raids targeted the eastern parts of Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip and one in Beit Lahiya town in northwest Gaza, the sources said. Residents said sounds of gunfire and blasts were heard in the areas during the incursions which started after dawn. There has been no word on casualties. » Read more

Hamas lawmaker hints at Israeli security breach ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua February 24, 2010 - 1:00am A Hamas lawmaker on Wednesday hinted that an Israeli security breach to his Islamic movement was possible. "When the movements become victims of security breach, they should announce this openly," said Mahmoud Al-Rumhi, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), based in the West Bank. "The movements of resistance are always the subject of many attempted breaches through spies and Israel has facilities enabling it to try spying on the factions. It might had succeeded in some cases and failed in others," he told reporters. » Read more

With talks stalled, Mideast "alternatives" aired ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Alastair MacDonald - (Analysis) February 24, 2010 - 1:00am The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has lost its global audience as both sides haggle over talks about talks on issues the world thought were long settled. Don't let it fool you. Here on the ground in this Belgium-size bit of Mediterranean coast a new war is raging, so far of words, over the "two-state solution" so consensually accepted in the West since the 1990s. » Read more

In seaside Gaza, fish in short supply ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal Al-Mughrabi - February 24, 2010 - 1:00am With their fishermen at risk of being shot at by the Israeli navy, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are finding new ways to supply the blockaded territory with a staple that is in short supply. Seafood is coming into the Mediterranean enclave through tunnels from Egypt and fish farms are starting to fill a supply gap resulting from restrictions that stop fishermen from venturing more than 3.4 miles (5.5 km) from the coast. » Read more

Abbas: Heritage row could spark war ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency February 24, 2010 - 1:00am President Mahmoud Abbas warned Tuesday that Israel's plan to nationalize religious landmarks in the occupied West Bank could lead to war. Speaking in Brussels, Abbas slammed an announcement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque and Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem Israeli "national heritage sites." Netanyahu hit back shortly after the remarks, which his office described as a "campaign of lies and hypocrisy," the Israeli daily Haaretz reported. » Read more

Unfairly throwing the book at the 'Irvine 11' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Mark Levine - (Opinion) February 22, 2010 - 1:00am The 11 students who each briefly disrupted Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's speech last week at UC Irvine have no 1st Amendment protection for their actions and deserve to be punished, writes my colleague, law school Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, in his Feb. 17 Times Op-Ed article. Reading Chemerinsky's piece, you'd think a group of hysterically angry Muslim men prevented Oren from speaking at all. But the situation, as a look at a video recording of the event makes clear, was much more complicated. » Read more

Israel's 'miracle' anti-rocket defense plan raises anxieties ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - February 23, 2010 - 1:00am The rockets may not strike as often these days, but residents of this working-class town say they can't shake the anxiety that comes with living in Israel's most frequently bombed city. Pedestrians strolling downtown keep an eye out for the nearest concrete-reinforced bus-stop shelter in case public loudspeakers crackle with a 15-second warning to dive for cover. Many motorists forgo seat belts so they can ditch vehicles quickly. A playground is equipped with 5-foot-wide concrete pipes that are brightly painted to look like giant caterpillars but double as children's bomb shelters. » Read more

Declare a Palestinian State ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune by Jerome M. Segal - (Opinion) February 23, 2010 - 1:00am France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has alarmed the Israeli government with his recent statement that “one can envision the proclamation soon of a Palestinian state, and its immediate recognition by the international community, even before negotiating its borders.” » Read more