June 1st

News coverage focuses on the Gaza flotilla attack: ATFP Advocacy Director Ghaith Al-Omari is interviewed on CNN; several analyses examine the difficulties it poses to the peace process; the UN Security Council issues a condemnation and calls for an independent investigation; Israel says the Free Gaza movement poses a threat to its national security; the Washington Post says PM Netanyahu has to move quickly in the direction of establishing a Palestinian state; Israeli-Turkish relations are deeply strained; the PLO issues a six point plan of response; a new aid ship is headed towards Gaza; the Israeli inner cabinet is angered the attack went forward without consultation; Amos Harel says Israel fell into a trap due to poor planning; the Guardian says such actions establish Israel as a pariah state in the region; Eyad Sarraj says Israel is a victim of its own pathologies; the Jordan Times and the Arab News condemn the attack as murderous piracy; the head of Mossad says Israel is gradually becoming a burden on the U.S. 2,000 financiers are attending the Palestine Investment Conference. The IDF kills two Palestinians in Gaza. The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics says there were no new housing starts in the West Bank in the first three months of 2010. Aaron David Miller says Pres. Obama simply has to deal with PM Netanyahu. ATFP President Ziad Asali is named to Pres. Obama's delegation to the Palestine Investment Conference.

'We're the only ones who believe them'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Ben Smith - June 1, 2010 - 12:00am


A delicate diplomatic maneuver by President Barack Obama to smooth frayed relations with Israel without alienating America’s Arab allies may have been blown out of the water Monday morning by Israel’s botched attempt to enforce the Gaza blockade — and by the lack of condemnation from Washington that followed it.


U.S. must deal with Benjamin Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) June 1, 2010 - 12:00am


Israel’s disastrous commando operation against the Gaza relief flotilla delays and complicates — but does not entirely derail — the kiss-and-make-up session that would have played out at the White House on Tuesday, had Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not canceled his planned meeting with President Barack Obama


Terror at dawn
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) June 1, 2010 - 12:00am


What Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has so rightly called “a massacre” saw the death of at least 10 peace activists on board the lead ship of the six-vessel Freedom Flotilla and the injury of scores others, as heavily armed Israeli commandos seized the convoy and sailed it toward their port of Ashdod. Israeli sources put the toll at nine. The full details of this outrage are not yet clear since the Israeli authorities are censoring all reports and used sophisticated jamming technology to halt media broadcasts from the vessels as they were assaulted.


No excuse
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
June 1, 2010 - 12:00am


Displaying, yet again, utter disregard for international humanitarian law and contempt for the sanctity of life, Israeli commandos yesterday attacked the Gaza-bound aid flotilla and cold-bloodedly murdered several activists on board a Turkish ship. Their mistake: trying to deliver much-needed aid to the 1.5 million Gazans suffering under a prolonged Israeli blockade that constitutes, according to the Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, “collective punishment under international law”.


Israel itself may be among the victims of its pathology
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Eyad Sarraj - (Opinion) June 1, 2010 - 12:00am


Resorting to brute force is an expression of fear. Its deployment yesterday by the Israeli soldiers who raided and opened fire on the freedom flotilla en route to Gaza, killing at least 10 civilians and injuring dozens more, will not serve Israel or treat its existential anxiety.


Gaza: From blockade to bloodshed
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
(Editorial) June 1, 2010 - 12:00am


If an armed group of Somali pirates had yesterday boarded six vessels on the high seas, killing at least 10 passengers and injuring many more, a Nato taskforce would today be heading for the Somali coast. What happened yesterday in international waters off the coast of Gaza was the work of Israeli commandos, not pirates, and no Nato warships will in fact be heading for Israel. Perhaps they should be.


Zero housing starts in W. Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - June 1, 2010 - 12:00am


For the first time in more than two decades, and possibly in the history of the settlement movement, a three-month period has passed without any new settler construction in Judea and Samaria, according to numbers released on Monday by the Central Bureau of Statistics. The report, which shows zero settler housing starts in the first quarter of 2010, is part of a larger report on construction in Israel that is released by the CBS four times a year, including at the end of May.


Straight into the trap
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel - June 1, 2010 - 12:00am


The Israel Defense Forces had little trouble explaining the naval commando raid yesterday to the Israeli public. The troops slid from helicopters into a violent crowd, which attacked them with sticks. It's no wonder the troops opened fire in self-defense.


Top ministers fume after Gaza flotilla operation goes ahead without their approval
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - June 1, 2010 - 12:00am


Senior ministers have been sharply critical of the fact that the decision to seize control of the flotilla to Gaza was made after two meetings of the forum of seven senior ministers but without official deliberation by the inner cabinet, the body that has the authority to approve military actions of this scale.



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