The race is on for next IDF chief ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amos Harel - April 7, 2010 - 12:00am Defense Minister Ehud Barak announced Tuesday that Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi's term will not be extended for a fifth year. Ashkenazi will thus step down at the end of his term in February 2011. The race is now open for the next man to take up the job. Front-runners for the moment are GOC Southern Command Yoav Gallant, deputy chief of staff Benny Gantz, GOC Northern Command Gadi Eizenkot and Maj. Gen. (res.) Moshe Kaplinsky. » Read more

Israel seizing hundreds of millions of shekels meant for Palestinian services ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Chaim Levinson - April 7, 2010 - 12:00am For the past 15 years, Israel has been channeling hundreds of millions of shekels it had collected in the West Bank into its state coffers. The move is considered illegal, since international law prohibits an occupying power from appropriating the fruit of economic activity in an occupied territory. Following protests by military lawyers, the deputy attorney general has ruled that the practice should be stopped and ordered an inquiry into whether the Civil Administration in the West Bank should be compensated retroactively. » Read more

Settlers push to evict two more East Jerusalem families ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Nir Hasson - April 7, 2010 - 12:00am Settler groups are pushing to evict two more Palestinian families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, part of a wider program to demolish Palestinian homes in the area to make way for 200 housing units designated solely for Jews. Over the past six months, Sheikh Jarrah has become a focus of leftist protest and a flash point for clashes between Jews and Arabs claiming ownership of property there. » Read more

Palestinian PM stresses local elections ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua April 7, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday stressed that municipal elections would be carried out to pave the way for legislative and presidency elections. "The local municipal and village councils must be elected and their authority should be rotating," Fayyad said during an inauguration ceremony in Ramallah. He added that elections are a key part of his two-year plan to upgrade national institutions to be ready for a possible declaration of a Palestinian statehood next year. » Read more

Israeli FM warns Palestinians not to declare state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Matti Friedman - April 6, 2010 - 12:00am Israel's hard-line foreign minister warned Palestinians against plans to unilaterally declare independence next year, saying in an interview Tuesday that such a move could prompt Israel to annex parts of the West Bank and annul past peace agreements. Avigdor Lieberman also made harsh comments about Turkey, Israel's increasingly alienated ally, saying the Turkish prime minister was coming to resemble Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi. Lieberman, who heads an ultranationalist party, has become known for a belligerent tone that has earned him critics abroad and inside Israel. » Read more

Palestinian fears U.S. Mideast push in trouble ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Ali Sawafta - April 7, 2010 - 12:00am The United States appears to have hit a dead end in its attempts to revive Middle East peace talks, a senior Palestinian official said on Tuesday, urging Israel to halt settlement building on occupied land to give U.S. diplomacy a chance of success. The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority has demanded a full halt to Israeli settlement building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank before any resumption of negotiations suspended since December 2008. » Read more

OCHA: Land requisitioned for new checkpoint on 443 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency April 7, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli forces will confiscate 173.2 dunums of Palestinian land to construct a military checkpoint on highway 443, ordered open for Palestinian traffic by an Israeli court judge in December 2009. Previously a Jewish-only road, highway 443 extends 25 kilometers north from Jerusalem through the West Bank's Ramallah district and exits the area south of Ni'lin. » Read more

PA: Third mobile provider in works ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency April 7, 2010 - 12:00am A third mobile provider will be licensed to operate in Palestinian areas by 2013, Palestinian Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology Mashhur Abu Daka announced Wednesday. The minister said the initiative was out of the "interest of the ministry to free Palestinian frequencies and mobile users from the control of the Israeli occupation," and came only days after the ministry announced a ban on the sale of Israeli phone cards and SIM chips in the West Bank under a government ban on settlement goods. » Read more

Misfired projectile injures 5 in north Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency April 7, 2010 - 12:00am Five Palestinians were injured when a misfired projectile landed in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, witnesses said Tuesday. The misfiring proceeded after Israeli officials announced six projectiles landing in open areas of the western Negev, with no injuries reported. Eyewitnesses said projectiles were being launched from areas in the north of the Strip, when a sudden explosion was heard in the Beit Hanoun area. Neighbors said it hit a residential area and injured five. » Read more

Erekat: US efforts to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian talks hit 'dead end' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - April 6, 2010 - 12:00am The White House has hit a wall in its attempts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a senior Palestinian official said Tuesday. Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said that recent US efforts to get the two sides back to the negotiating table – or at least nearby tables as part of proximity talks – had reached a "dead end." » Read more