IDF declares West Bank protest villages a 'closed military area' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - March 15, 2010 - 12:00am The army has declared the West Bank villages of Bil'in and Ni'lin a 'closed military area' until August 17, it emerged Monday. In arresting a demonstrator on Friday, police cited a military edict closing off the two villages, where weekly protests against the barrier Israel is erecting around the West Bank have often turned violent. Bil'in residents told Haaretz that late on Friday night dozens of soldiers, some of them masked, deployed throughout the village to post notices of the order, signed on February 17 by the chief of army Central Command, Gen. Avi Mizrahi. » Read more

Israel envoy: U.S. ties at their lowest ebb in 35 years ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - March 15, 2010 - 12:00am Israel's ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, has told the country's diplomats there that U.S.-Israeli relations face their worst crisis in 35 years, despite attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office to project a sense of "business as usual." Oren was speaking to the Israeli consuls general in a conference call on Saturday night. » Read more

Israel extends West Bank closure for three days ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua March 14, 2010 - 1:00am Israeli security forces extended the general closure on the West Bank for three days to Tuesday midnight, an Israeli army statement said on Saturday. The lookdown, which had been expected to be lifted on Saturday midnight, was extended in view of the unrest in the area, according to the statement. » Read more

Israeli apology gets cool reception in Washington ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Josef Federman - March 14, 2010 - 1:00am Israel's prime minister expressed regret Sunday for a crisis with the United States over plans to expand a Jewish neighborhood in east Jerusalem, even as American officials played down the apology and called for bold Israeli action to get peace efforts back on track. With tensions rising, Israel deployed hundreds of police around east Jerusalem's Old City and heavily restricted Palestinian access to the area — the scene of several recent clashes. » Read more

Officials: US wants Israel to cancel building plan ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Amy Teibel - March 15, 2010 - 12:00am The U.S. is pressing Israel to scrap a contentious east Jerusalem building project whose approval has touched off the most serious diplomatic feud with Washington in years, said Israeli officials Monday. Tensions in the city at the center of the spat were high, with police out in large numbers in Jerusalem's volatile Old City in expectation of renewed clashes and Palestinian shopkeepers shuttering their stores for several hours to protest Israel's actions in the city. » Read more

Netanyahu faces 'moment of truth' after US slams Israel 'insult' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - March 14, 2010 - 1:00am Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu found himself on the defensive after an unprecedented public assault by US officials over the weekend, as the diplomatic furor over new building in Jerusalem escalated. » Read more

Questions abound after Biden's Israel visit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - March 12, 2010 - 1:00am You come for a hug. You leave with a slap. It happens in the Middle East. Vice President Joe Biden's trip this week was supposed to highlight U.S.-Israeli cooperation to counter a perceived nuclear threat from Iran and kick off U.S.-brokered indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Instead, talk about Iran was sidetracked and the outlook for peace may be murkier than it was before. Even here, people are not quite sure how that happened. » Read more

Clinton Rebukes Israel on Housing Announcement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Mark Landler - March 12, 2010 - 1:00am In a tense, 43-minute phone call on Friday morning, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel’s plan for new housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem sent a “deeply negative signal” about Israeli-American relations, and not just because it spoiled a visit by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. » Read more

Driving Drunk in Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Thomas L. Friedman - (Opinion) March 13, 2010 - 1:00am I am a big Joe Biden fan. The vice president is an indefatigable defender of U.S. interests abroad. So it pains me to say that on his recent trip to Israel, when Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s government rubbed his nose in some new housing plans for contested East Jerusalem, the vice president missed a chance to send a powerful public signal: He should have snapped his notebook shut, gotten right back on Air Force Two, flown home and left the following scribbled note behind: “Message from America to the Israeli government: Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. » Read more

Netanyahu Offers Apology, but No Shift in Policy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - March 14, 2010 - 1:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told his cabinet on Sunday that the ill-timed announcement of new housing plans for a Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem during a visit by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. last week had been “regrettable” and “hurtful.” Mr. Netanyahu also said that the government had set up a committee to “examine the chain of events and to ensure procedures” to prevent such an episode from happening again. » Read more