January 19th

Bereft and Healing, a Father Returns Home to Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Jeffay - January 13, 2010 - 1:00am “The blood of my daughters was a price that saved others’ lives,” said Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish. One year later, the Gaza physician is trying to make sense of the deaths of his children, killed by Israeli missiles during Israel’s military campaign. Related Articles Guileless in Gaza What Happens to Gaza When the Fighting Stops? Timeline: The Gaza Strip, From Disengagement to Operation Cast Lead » Read more

Spitting on Christians in Jerusalem draws rabbinic rebuke ATFP World Press Roundup Article from by Ben Harris - January 17, 2010 - 1:00am JERUSALEM (JTA) -- From his ceramics gallery along Armenian Patriarchate Road, Garo Sandrouni has a sweeping view of one of the Old City of Jerusalem's longest thoroughfares, stretching from Jaffa Gate deep into the Jewish Quarter. Jewish worshipers heading to and from the Western Wall jostle for space along the narrow passage with Armenian priests and seminarians, and Sandrouni says about once a week he finds himself breaking up fights between them. » Read more

Israel targets Palestinian anti-wall activists ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Omar Karmi - January 18, 2010 - 1:00am Jamal Juma’ could not help but laugh at one of the accusations he said he had been threatened with while in Israeli detention. “They said they would indict me for links to Hizbollah. They didn’t like it when I started laughing,” Mr Juma’, a lifelong communist, said on Sunday, five days after his release. » Read more

How Israel put the brakes on another Palestinian dream ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent January 16, 2010 - 1:00am The West Bank scene is all too familiar: yellow cranes lifting boulders, bulldozers scooping up soil, drills transforming a hillside set in a biblical landscape of rolling olive groves. But this is not another Jewish settlement under construction. Small Palestinian flags wave from the bulldozers, a hint that this is a nationally significant project, the start of the first planned city in modern Palestinian history. » Read more

So who is Israel’s one true friend? Clue: it isn’t the US ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Tony Karon - (Opinion) January 16, 2010 - 1:00am Friends don’t let friends drive drunk, an old American slogan says. By that measure the US has hardly been a real friend to Israel over the past decade. It has enabled a pattern of Israeli behaviour so reckless as to endanger Israel’s prospects of ever achieving peaceful coexistence with the states and peoples around it. An aggressive drunk often reserves his most toxic invective for those of his friends who tell him the truth: that his behaviour is intolerable, is dangerous to himself and others, and can’t be allowed to continue. » Read more

Call for Palestinians to investigate Gaza 'crimes' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News January 18, 2010 - 1:00am Palestinian human rights activists have called on authorities in the West Bank and Gaza to investigate allegations of war crimes carried out by their forces. The accusations come from a United Nations report into the Israel's Cast Lead offensive in Gaza last year. Palestinian militants are accused of attacking Israeli civilians, as well as torturing and executing suspected Palestinian informers. The internal investigations must be launched by February, the groups said. » Read more

Take a tour of the West Bank – through Palestinian eyes ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Mya Guarnieri - January 15, 2010 - 1:00am Banners strung from lampposts across Jerusalem welcome the winter participants of Birthright, a programme that brings college-aged Jews, most of whom are American, to Israel for a free 10-day tour. Funded by wealthy Jewish philanthropists and the Israeli government, the trip takes participants to sites that have historical importance to Jews, such as the Western Wall, in hopes of strengthening their connection to Israel. » Read more

Israeli settlers arrested in mosque arson investigation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News January 18, 2010 - 1:00am Police carried out a pre-dawn raid on the Yitzhar settlement, near the Palestinian town Yasuf, where the mosque was attacked last month. They are investigating whether there is a link between those arrested and the arson attack, police sources said. The floor of the mosque and a stand holding copies of the Quran were burned in the December attack. Of the 10 people arrested on suspicion of damaging Palestinian property four were minors and would be released soon, Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. » Read more

MIDEAST: Harsher Gaza War Looming on Horizon? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by Mel Frykberg - (Analysis) January 19, 2010 - 1:00am During the last week the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have carried out a series of raids and air strikes across the Gaza Strip which have left five Palestinians dead, three of them confirmed Islamic Jihad operatives, and a number wounded. The IDF action followed a renewal of rockets being launched at Israel from within the coastal territory. To date this is the most serious escalation in violence between Palestinian resistance fighters and the Israeli military since Cast Lead. » Read more

Arab World: The Egypt-Hamas collision course ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Khaled Abu Toameh - January 14, 2010 - 1:00am Hamas representatives who visited Cairo in November and December for talks on a possible prisoner exchange agreement with Israel and reconciliation with the rival Fatah faction asked government officials about the nature of the construction work that had been taking place for several weeks along the border between the Gaza Strip and Sinai. The Egyptians, according to one of the Hamas representatives, sought to allay the group's concerns by assuring them that this was only routine "engineering" work. » Read more