Israel allows 250 trucks into Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Katz - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am Israel facilitated the transfer of 250 trucks with supplies to the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time since the government eased up restrictions on the amount and type of merchandise allowed into the Hamas-controlled territory. In late June, Israel announced that it would ease the blockade on the Gaza Strip after it came under pressure following the naval raid on the Gaza-bound aid flotilla. The trucks made their way into Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing. » Read more

The audacity of not losing hope ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) August 3, 2010 - 12:00am Direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are likely to resume in the near future. Both sides will reluctantly pay a price to enter the room even though neither side is too anxious to actually be there. » Read more

Israel makes no obligations to U.S. for start of direct talks with Palestinians: PM ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua August 2, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet members that he made no obligations to the United States in his recent meeting with President Barack Obama for possible direct talks with the Palestinians, sources told Xinhua on Monday. Addressing his cabinet ministers at a weekly session on Sunday, he estimated that direct talks with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) could begin within two weeks. » Read more

Last kaffiyeh factory struggles to stay afloat in Palestinian territories ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Harriet Sherwood - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am In a rundown office to the side of a gloomy and deserted breeze-block factory, 76-year-old Yasser Hirbawi is hunched on a low couch turning his life's work over and over between his fingers. In his lap – and on his head – are specimens of what has become the internationally recognised symbol of the Palestinian national struggle, the kaffiyeh, the chequered headscarf worn by politicians and militants alike and adopted not just by their supporters but by fashionistas across the globe. » Read more

Abbas rejects U.S. request to set date for direct talks without reference ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua by Saud Abu Ramadan - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday rejected a U.S. request to set a date for moving to the direct peace negotiations with Israel without defining an international peace reference for it, a senior Palestinian official said. Wassel Abu Yousef, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) official, told Xinhua that David Hale, deputy of U.S. peace envoy George Mitchell, asked President Mahmoud Abbas during their meeting earlier on Monday in Ramallah about setting a date for launching the direct talks. » Read more

Rocket attacks on Israel and Jordan highlight how Hamas could use Sinai ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am A salvo of at least five rockets, believed to have been fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, hit the Red Sea border area between Jordan and Israel on Monday morning. Three of the Katyusha rockets fell on the Israeli coastal resort area of Eilat, while the others hit outside the Intercontinental Hotel in the Jordanian resort city of Aqaba, killing one Jordanian and wounding at least three others. » Read more

Who will speak up for Israeli citizens' right to free speech? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Daphna Baram - (Opinion) August 3, 2010 - 12:00am The most widely mentioned text in Israel over the last few weeks has been the famous quotation by Pastor Martin Niemöller from 1946, which begins: "First they came for the Communists". » Read more

Israel approves new east Jerusalem apartments ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press August 3, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli municipal officials have approved the building of 40 apartments in a Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem's disputed eastern sector. The move could undermine efforts to restart direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. It comes as U.S. peace envoy David Hale is visiting the region. Municipality spokesman Stephen Miller confirmed the approval and said on Tuesday that construction would continue for residents of all faiths in Jerusalem. » Read more

In the midst of Gaza's calamity lies an opportunity ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Joseph Mayton - August 3, 2010 - 12:00am Beyond the most obvious hardships brought about by the Gaza blockade, there is another less commonly discussed environmental calamity in the making that could have terrible long-term implications. According to the United Nations Environment Program, the blockade on the Strip is causing severe water shortages and preventing farmers from tilling their land, leading to environmental damage that could take decades to repair. » Read more

Israel, Turkey and the U.N. ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times (Editorial) August 3, 2010 - 12:00am It took too long, but Israel made the right decision in saying it would cooperate with a United Nations-led investigation into its disastrous attack on a Gaza-bound aid ship. Only a transparent and credible inquiry has a chance of calming international outrage over the incident and beginning to repair fractured Israeli-Turkish ties. » Read more