The Israel-Turkey Imbroglio ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) July 9, 2010 - 12:00am NEW YORK — Here’s an intriguing nugget, given Turkey’s recent decision to close its airspace to Israeli military planes: When Israel attacked a covert Syrian nuclear reactor on Sept. 6, 2007, its bombers overflew Turkey. A former senior U.S. official who was intimately involved in handling the fallout from the raid told me Turkish officials raised the issue with Israel, were invited to discuss the matter, but in the end let it drop. Those were different times, before Turkish-Israeli ties entered their current poisonous phase. » Read more

Israel Vows to ‘Take Risks’ in Talks With Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Kyle Crichton, Isabel Kershner - July 9, 2010 - 12:00am Declaring that he intended to “confound the critics and the skeptics,” an upbeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told an audience of foreign policy experts in New York on Thursday that he was ready to begin direct peace talks with the Palestinians “next week” or even sooner. “Just get on with it,” he said. » Read more

Palestinians face being walled by Israeli security barrier ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Harriet Sherwood - July 9, 2010 - 12:00am Sixty-three-year-old Ahmed Bargouth sits in the shade of a walnut tree and contemplates the view before him. Across the valley is Jerusalem's zoo, which his grandchildren have never been able to visit, although they have watched animals through binoculars. » Read more

Bil'in leader remains in jail after term ends ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 9, 2010 - 12:00am Bethlehem - Ma'an - Bil'in protest leader Adeeb Abu Rahma is being held in Israeli custody until the prosecution's appeal against him is heard, despite having served his term in full, a statement read Friday. Abu Rahma, a taxi driver and organizer of the weekly anti wall protests in the central West Bank village of Bil'in near Ramallah, was sentenced to 12 months, a further 12 months of suspended sentence, and ordered to pay a fine on Thursday, in the first of a series of trials against Palestinian protest organizers. » Read more