March 30th

Gaza court sentences man to death ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 30, 2011 - 12:00am A military court in the central Gaza Strip sentenced a man to death by hanging on Wednesday, after a judge found him guilty of treason contributing to the death of a Palestinian. A second man was found guilty of treason and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Both sentences were accepted unanimously by the military panel, but are appealable. Under Palestinian law, the death penalty must be accepted by the president. On April 15, 2010, however, the government in Gaza executed two men that had been found guilty of collaboration with Israel. » Read more

Despite volatility in Arab lands, Jews there stay put ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gil Shefler - March 30, 2011 - 12:00am Over the past several months a series of uprisings has shaken the Arab world, felling dictators and ushering in a period of great hope and fear for the future. But despite the growing political instability in the region, Jewish communities in Arab lands have so far chosen to stay. The remaining Jews in Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt – tiny remnants of once-much-larger communities decimated by decades of voluntary and involuntary emigration – have turned down repeated offers to leave by Jewish organizations and Israel concerned with their safety. » Read more

New Signs of Hamas headway into Post-Mubarak Egypt ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by David Miller - March 29, 2011 - 12:00am A visiting Hamas leader to Cairo brought a conciliatory message amid signs ties between Egypt and the Islamist movement were beginning to thaw in the post-Mubarak era. "Hamas has not and will not tamper with Egypt's national security," Mahmoud Al-Zahar told reporters in Cairo Monday, referring to Egyptian accusations of Hamas involvement in the bombing of an Alexandria church on New Year's Eve. Hamas was cautious to comment about the Egyptian uprising that began on January 25, but was emboldened by the revolution's success to oust its arch-rival, President Husni Mubarak on February 11. » Read more

Palestinians commemorate Land Day ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 30, 2011 - 12:00am Five hundred students were chased and beaten by government security forces during a Land Day protest in Gaza City on Wednesday, an organizer affiliated with the March 15 coalition told Ma'an. Officers were said to have dispersed the gathered young people, who were calling for unity and a return to the Palestinian national project in Tayaran (Aviation) Street in the center of the city. Activist Ihsan Abu Sharkh said the forces chased and beat demonstrators, spraying what appeared to be pepper spray at their eyes, and injuring at least one young man. » Read more

Gingrich: U.S. run by “anti-Jewish” elite ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) March 28, 2011 - 12:00am The United States under President Obama is "dominated by a secular, anti-Christian and anti-Jewish elite," Newt Gingrich said. Gingrich, the onetime speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a likely presidential candidate for 2012, spoke on March 25 at a meeting in Iowa of the American Family Association, Politico reported. » Read more

Make peace between peoples ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The San Francisco Chronicle by Danny Ayalon - (Opinion) March 30, 2011 - 12:00am The recent events in the Middle East have been momentous and encouraging. No one who craves a better future for our region can be unimpressed by the resilience shown by those seeking an improved and enlightened future for its people. However, as many instill hope for progress in the Middle East, there are those who are trying to seize the revolutions to further establish their grip on parts of our region. We saw this with the Iranian revolution of 1979, when the short-lived democracy was hijacked by the Islamist theocracy that has brutalized and repressed its people ever since. » Read more

Neither Hamas nor Israel seem to want new war ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times March 30, 2011 - 12:00am After 10 days of strikes and counter-strikes, a sense of calm appeared to have returned to the tense Israeli-Gaza border over the weekend, despite an air strike on Sunday that killed two members of Islamic Jihad's military wing. Gaza's armed groups have agreed to observe a period of calm if Israel reciprocates, but a rocket fell in Israel late on Tuesday, prompting another air strike overnight which killed a third Islamic Jihad militant and threatened to see a return of the tit-for-tat violence. » Read more

Do Israel's recent efforts to bolster security undermine its democracy? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - March 29, 2011 - 12:00am A flurry of votes in Israel’s parliament on controversial legislation affecting the country’s Arab minority is reigniting a debate about whether the right-leaning majority is trampling democratic norms in an effort to bolster the security of the Jewish state. The parliament, known as the Knesset, on Monday night passed into law an amendment to the country’s citizenship law to allow the state to strip the citizenship of anyone convicted of espionage, terrorism, or "disloyalty" to the state. » Read more

Why Palestinians Should Learn About the Holocaust ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Mohammed Dajani Daoudi, Robert Satloff - (Opinion) March 29, 2011 - 12:00am Should Palestinian and other Arab schools teach their students about the Holocaust? » Read more

Israel: Facebook Removes a Page Calling for Violence ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Jennifer Preston - March 29, 2011 - 12:00am After complaints by Israeli officials and American Jewish groups, Facebook took down a page Tuesday by Palestinian supporters that called for violence against Jews and an uprising against Israel. The page, titled “Third Palestinian Intifada,” began this month as a call for peaceful protests in the occupied Palestinian territories, one of more than a dozen Facebook pages used recently to mobilize uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa. The unidentified advocates who managed the page initially removed comments that promoted violence, according to Facebook officials. » Read more