March 15th

Israel comes to standstill to remember soldier captured by Palestinian militants 5 years ago
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
March 15, 2011 - 12:00am

Traffic has come to a standstill on major roads across Israel as activists hold a nationwide five-minute protest to draw attention to the plight of a captured Israeli soldier still held by Palestinian militants. Sgt. Gilad Schalit was captured nearly five years ago in a cross-border raid by Gaza militants, and successive Israeli governments have been unable to bring him home. Gaza's Hamas rulers want the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including many convicted of murdering Israelis, in exchange for Schalit.

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Israel says its navy intercepts Egypt-bound ship carrying arms off Mediterranean coast
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Aron Heller - March 15, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israeli navy intercepted an Egyptian-bound ship carrying a large delivery of weapons off the country's Mediterranean coast on Tuesday, saying the arms had been sent by Syria to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. The military said the cargo vessel "Victoria" initially departed from the Lattakia port in Syria before proceeding to the Mercin port in Turkey. From there it departed for the port of Alexandria in Egypt. Israel says that Turkey had no involvement in the arms shipment.

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Briefing on Protest for Palestinian Unity Becomes a Rally Itself
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram - March 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Hundreds of demonstrators calling for Palestinian unity took to the streets here on Monday, a day earlier than scheduled, in an effort to prevent what they said were attempts by political factions to hijack their movement for their own agendas. What began as a news conference by protest organizers on Monday afternoon in the Square of the Unknown Soldier unexpectedly developed into a gathering of almost 1,000 people.

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March 14th

Israel hunts for killer of a settler family, and vows more settlement construction in response to the murders drawing US criticism. Pres. Abbas calls the murders "inhuman" and says the PA would have prevented them if they could have. The killings spark fears of renewed violence, and even Jewish terrorism, as settlers lash out. Palestinians of all political stripes seem embarrassed by the attack. Hamas says the culprits may not be Palestinians and insists the attack has no connection to Gaza. No major Israeli policy changes are expected. Some Palestinians in the West Bank honor a hijacking leader. FM Lieberman says Hamas could take over the West Bank. Israel's mayor in Jerusalem says the city will never be divided. Foreign Policy looks at the plight of Bedouins in the Negev.

Erasing links to the land in the Negev
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Noga Malkin - (Blog) March 11, 2011 - 1:00am

Hiding in the cemetery where her parents are buried, Hakma al-Turi, an Israeli citizen, has watched bulldozers demolish her village -- al-Araqib -- more than 20 times. The Israel Land Administration first demolished the 45 structures on this patch of land in the Negev desert eight months ago. When the 300 Israeli Bedouin who lived here defiantly rebuilt tarp-covered shacks, the Israel Land Administration demolished them again and again, the last time on March 7.

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Palestinians Embarrassed, Not Proud, of Settlement Attack
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by David Miller - March 13, 2011 - 1:00am

Far from gloating over a terrorist attack Friday night that left five Israeli family members dead in Itamar, a Jewish town located beyond Israel’s pre-1967 borders, Palestinians across the political spectrum reacted with embarrassment. Many preferred to put the blame for the attack on hidden Israeli hands than put the onus on any Palestinian group.

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Jerusalem will never be divided, says Barkat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Melanie Lidman - March 13, 2011 - 1:00am

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat insisted that Jerusalem is not up for negotiation in a future peace process during a conversation with Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief David Horovitz on Saturday night at the Great Synagogue in Jerusalem. “In [the peace negotiations] there are a lot of pink lines, but I have one red line: It’s called Jerusalem, don’t negotiate with Jerusalem,” the mayor told the crowd of 500, eliciting cheers. Noting that he considers the idea of a divided Jerusalem “dead on arrival,” the mayor added that “There is no good example of a split city that works.”

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Lieberman: Hamas can take over West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roni Sofer - March 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday that "the Foreign Ministry believes, in contrast with other authorities, that Hamas is currently stronger than Fatah in Judea and Samaria". "Hamas does not currently desire to take hold of power there," he told a debate at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. "They are waiting for the day after Abbas and Fayyad extract the maximum they are able to get out of the international community, and then they will seize power."

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Settlement attack could trigger terrorism by Jewish extremists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Blog) March 13, 2011 - 1:00am

The horrific act perpetrated in Itamar late Friday night turns the clock back to a darker time in the West Bank. The two Palestinian terrorists who murdered five family members - a father, mother and their three children - provided a jolt whose impact is likely to be far-reaching. Its consequences will cast a pall over Israelis' and Palestinians' sense of security in the northern West Bank, the intelligence cooperation between Israel and the Palestinian security services, and perhaps the lofty goal of restarting the diplomatic process.

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Palestinians honour highjack leader, defying Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Dan Williams - March 13, 2011 - 1:00am

Palestinians from President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction named a town square on Sunday after the leader of a 1978 bus hijacking in which 35 Israelis were killed. The ceremony, in Al-Bireh, a town near the Palestinian city of Ramallah, was held while Israelis mourned five members of a Jewish settler family knifed to death on Saturday in a West Bank settlement in an attack Israel blamed on Palestinians. Many Palestinians see Dalal al-Mughrabi, a member of the then-underground Fatah movement, as a heroine for her role in hijacking the bus on Israel's Haifa-Tel Aviv highway.

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