NEWS: Israel opens a Palestinian-only bus line in the occupied West Bank. (Reuters) PM Netanyahu gets a two-week extension to continue to try to form a new government, which is not expected to press forward on peace issues. (New York Times/CSM) However, aides to Netanyahu say Israel will have to freeze construction outside of existing settlement blocs. (Ha'aretz) DM Barak again says Israel should consider unilateral separation measures should peace talks continue to fail. (JTA) The PA finance minister resigns over a budget dispute. (Reuters) Pres. Abbas unexpectedly met with Sec. Kerry in Saudi Arabia this afternoon. (Ha'aretz) Kerry scolds PM Erdogan for comments describing Zionism as a "crime against humanity." (Washington Post) Hamas rulers in Gaza launch a campaign to catch "spies." (AP) Gunfire erupts along the Gaza-Israel border. (New York Times) Israel blames Hamas for keeping a Gaza border crossing closed. (AP) Israel continues to insist that injuries to the body of a Palestinian prisoner who died in Israeli custody are consistent with resuscitation efforts. (New York Times) Israeli police question a teenage settler girl in an attack on a Palestinian woman. (AP) Herbs grown in Gaza are being exported to Europe. (Xinhua) Reconstruction in Gaza is still impeded by the blockade. (NPR) Many are skeptical about an Israeli plan for an industrial park for Bedouins. (Los Angeles Times) Palestinians are continuing to work on improving their justice system. (The Media Line) Syrian rebels hang two Palestinians accused of collaborating with the Damascus government in a refugee camp. (The Daily Star) Philip Gordon has been appointed NSC Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region. (White House)

COMMENTARY: Eric Yoffie says Jewish Americans and their organizations should feel proud about the power and influence they have accumulated. (Ha'aretz) Larry Snider says the US should start working intensively with the rest of the world to create the framework for a two-state solution. (Jerusalem Post) Giora Eiland says Americans and others need to start thinking about alternatives to a two-state solution. (YNet) Amira Hass illustrates the absurdities of occupation with a tale of soldiers, a shepherd and two baby goats. (Ha'aretz) Daniella Peled says the suggested EU settlement boycott isn't really an economic measure, but intended to demonstrate European frustration with Israel's settlement activities. (Ha'aretz) Hunger striking Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi explains his actions. (The Guardian) Naela Khalil says Palestinian national reconciliation is still a long way off. (Al Monitor) Shlomi Eldar says Erdogan is a hypocrite. (Al Monitor) Anna Lekas Miller looks at 10 years of Israel's West Bank separation barrier. (Daily Beast/Open Zion) Aeyal Gross says new ethnically-segregated bus lines in the occupied territories push Israel ever closer to Jim Crow and apartheid. (Ha'aretz) Paul McGeough interviews Hamas leader Mishaal. (Sydney Morning Herald)

We are fighting for all Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Sameer Abu Eisheh - (Opinion) March 3, 2013 - 1:00am

My story is no different from that of many other Palestinian young people who were born and have lived their whole lives under Israeli occupation. At 17, I was arrested for the first time, and jailed for two years. I was arrested again in my early 20s, at the height of the second intifada in Ramallah, during an Israeli invasion of numerous cities in the West Bank – what Israel called Operation Defensive Shield. I was sentenced to 30 years in prison on charges relating to my resistance to the occupation.

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Leader waits in shifting sands of Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Sydney Morning Herald
by Kate Geraghty - (Opinion) March 2, 2013 - 1:00am

First comes one projectile, then another. Both are in full flight, moving quickly. Launched by Khalid Mishal in the early hours of the morning, they could be rockets over Gaza. But he is in Doha, deftly quartering apples and guavas, then hurling pieces the length of the room, to a colleague at the other end of a long, leather-inlaid conference table.

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On the bus to Israeli apartheid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aeyal Gross - (Opinion) March 4, 2013 - 1:00am

In 1896 the United States Supreme Court handed down one of its most shameful decisions in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, rejecting the argument that the segregation between whites and blacks on trains in the state of Louisiana violated the principle of equality.

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White House Announces New Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from White House Office of the Press Secretary
(Press Release) March 4, 2013 - 1:00am

Today, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon announced that Philip Gordon will be joining the National Security Staff as Special Assistant to the President and White House Coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region. He will take up his duties beginning on March 11.

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Palestinians suspected of aiding Syria regime 'hanged'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
March 3, 2013 - 1:00am

Syrian rebels on Saturday hanged two Palestinians at a refugee camp in Damascus on suspicion of aiding the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, a rights watchdog said. "Rebels in the Yarmuk camp executed two men accused of cooperating with the regime by identifying targets that were bombed last week," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "They were hanged from trees in the camp."

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Anger At The Wall: 10 Years Later
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Anna Miller - (Opinion) March 1, 2013 - 1:00am

the first slab of the separation barrier—or Apartheid Wall, as it is called in Palestine—was erected in Bethlehem. Ten years later, the 14-foot concrete slabs now weave through the outskirts of the city, surrounding homes and casting shadows over entire neighborhoods and economically choking the Palestinian residents of Bethlehem.

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Palestinian Justice System Still a Work in Progress
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Diana Atallah - March 4, 2013 - 1:00am

Ramallah -- When a Palestinian court ordered a government center in 2011 to remove garbage they disposed of on lands belonging to Majid Zaher (not his real name) near Ramallah, he thought his case was over.

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Israel industrial park, meant to pull in Bedouins, draws skeptics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - March 1, 2013 - 1:00am

On a patch of agricultural land outside Israel's only officially recognized Bedouin city, workers are laying concrete for what the government says will be a cornerstone of its policy to lure impoverished Arabs from barren Negev desert terrain to approved Israeli towns.

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Palestinians Still Feel The Squeeze Of The Restrictions On Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from National Public Radio (NPR)
by Larry Abramson - March 4, 2013 - 1:00am

The streets of Gaza are busy, but they are also crumbling. Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel has maintained tight limits on shipments of anything that could be used for military purposes. That includes basic building materials that could be used for bunkers and rocket launching sites. Ask businessman Ali Abdel Aal what's the toughest thing for him to find, and he'll tell you "cement and gravel."

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