March 16th

Abbas 'ready to travel to Gaza' for unity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 16, 2011 - 12:00am

President Mahmoud Abbas says he is ready to visit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in an effort to promote reconciliation between his Fatah party and Hamas Abbas also said he was ready to postpone the formation of a cabinet in order to give Hamas a chance to join a unity government. "I am ready to delay the formation of the new government to give Hamas a chance to join," he said in a speech at the start of a two-day meeting of the PLO Central Committee, a PLO legislative body of 130 members in which Hamas holds the majority.

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Palestinians rally for unity in Gaza, West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg - March 16, 2011 - 12:00am

Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on Tuesday to demand an end to the rift between the Hamas and Fatah factions that has left the two Palestinian territories in the control of rival governments. "The people want an end to the division!" the demonstrators chanted in the largest such push to date. "National unity!"

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Hamas Forces Break Up Pro-Unity Protests in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram - March 15, 2011 - 12:00am

Mass protests in Gaza on Tuesday were violently broken up by Hamas police officers and security officers, many in plainclothes, witnesses said. The demonstrations, organized by independent Palestinian youth activists, called for national unity. At least five people, including three local journalists, were treated at a hospital after being beaten at the demonstration, employees at the hospital said.

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Neighbors’ Blood Binds Settlers to West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - March 15, 2011 - 12:00am

To outsiders, this Jewish settlement clinging to a hill in the northern West Bank would seem to offer a precarious existence. Surrounded by Palestinian villages and near one of the largest Palestinian cities, Nablus, with a population of more than 120,000, Itamar has about 1,000 residents, many of them children or transient students studying at its religious academies.

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A MAN, A PLAN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New Yorker
by David Remnick - (Opinion) March 21, 2011 - 12:00am

Psychobiography in politics is ordinarily a mug’s game. Sometimes, though, an assessment of inherited traits and ideologies can be telling. For years, Israeli and American commentators have been waiting for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave behind the right-wing Revisionist ideology of his father, Benzion, a historian of the Spanish Inquisition, and, like Nixon leaving for China, end the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

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March 15th

Demonstrators in Gaza call for Palestinian national unity. The Israeli navy intercepts a ship carrying weapons. Israelis remember Gilad Schalit. Jewish groups protest the screening of a new film at the UN. The LA Times says the killing of a settler family is part of a cycle of violence. Settlers are still outraged and erect a new unauthorized outpost. An announcement on the new PA cabinet is expected next week. Israel releases a leader of Palestinian nonviolent protests. Few hopes are attached to PM Netanyahu's new peace plan. Nehemia Shtrasler says Netanyahu is exploiting the murder of settlers. The Danish company says it will stop operating in the occupied territories. Palestinian citizens of Israel compete over music. Settlers throw stones at Palestinians. Gershon Baskin says without a Palestinian state, Israel cannot continue to exist either. Daud Abdullah says Europeans have lost respect and affection for Israel. The Gulf News says the murder of settlers is unacceptable, but is no excuse for settlement expansion. Uri Avnery says Israel's leadership does not know how to respond to Arab change.

Danish company halts equipment supply to West Bank in wake of public protest
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Shuki Sadeh - March 15, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israeli security firm Hashmira, which is owned by the Danish concern G4S, announced last weekend it will stop providing equipment to security installations over the Green Line. The move comes in the wake of public pressure in Denmark following a report from the Coalition of Women for Peace, which runs the "Who Profits?" project monitoring Israeli companies operating in the territories. The report, released in November, says that Hashmira provides baggage scanning equipment and body scanners for the Qalandiya, Bethlehem, Sha'ar Efraim and Eyal checkpoints.

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Netanyahu's exploitation of the murders at Itamar
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nehemia Shtrasler - (Opinion) March 15, 2011 - 12:00am

The horrific murders in Itamar were a crime against humanity. Entering a home in that manner and slaughtering five people in their sleep is a base, cowardly act, and it makes no difference whether the victim is an adult or an infant. Murder is murder is murder. Motti Fogel, brother of Udi Fogel, said at the Har Hamenuhot cemetery on Sunday that the funeral should have been a private affair. "A person is born for himself, to his parents and siblings, and dies for himself, he is not a symbol or a national event, and death must not be allowed to become an instrument of something."

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Israeli Arabs plan to start rival artists association to collect royalties
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jack Khoury - March 15, 2011 - 12:00am

Several Palestinian and Israeli Arab artists and businesspeople are preparing to start a copyright protection association, with one of the businessmen behind the venture saying that the equivalent Israeli organization, ACUM, doesn't put enough money into encouraging Arab creative enterprise. "There's no doubt that the success of this project will constitute an important step toward the independence of Arab culture and creativity within Israel," the businessman said.

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Regional analysts expect few change in Israeli PM's upcoming peace initiative
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Khaled Khalefe - March 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Local media have widely reported in recent weeks that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will give a policy speech and launch a new round of peace initiative in May, before a joint session of the U.S. Congress when he visits the long-time ally and major sponsor of the Mideast peace process. Netanyahu's aids have started to prepare a draft for the speech. Mike Herzog and Ron Dermer, his two main political advisers, are taking part in these preparations. In addition, Yaakov Amidror has been appointed as the new national security adviser.

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