March 23rd, 2012

UN Rights Body Launches Probe into Israeli Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Stephanie Nebehay - March 23, 2012 - 12:00am

GENEVA (Reuters) -- The United Nations launched an international investigation on Thursday into Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories, with the United States isolated in voting against the initiative brought by the Palestinian Authority. The UN Human Rights Council condemned Israel's planned construction of new housing units for settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying they undermined the peace process and posed a threat to the two-state solution and the creation of a contiguous and independent Palestinian state.

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Fayyad Welcomes Call to Boost PA Funding
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 23, 2012 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The premier in Ramallah Salam Fayyad on Thursday welcomed the call to donors to give the Palestinian Authority $1 billion, but said the funds must be received swiftly to ease the deepening financial crisis. At a donors' conference in Brussels on Wednesday, the chair of the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee on Palestine, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, urged donors to pledge $1 billion to fill the PA's budget deficit. Fayyad told Voice of Palestine radio that it was crucial that at least half of the money was transferred quickly to reduce the fiscal crisis.

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No Arrests in Racist Mall Riot
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 23, 2012 - 12:00am

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Israeli police have made no arrests after hundreds of football supporters attacked Palestinian workers at a shopping mall in Jerusalem, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported Friday. The assault in Malha mall on Monday was "a mass lynching attempt," cleaner Mohammed Yusuf told Haaretz. An Israeli police spokesman did not respond to inquiries from Ma'an, but witnesses told Haaretz that hundreds of football fans flooded the mall after a match and chanted anti-Arab slogans, screaming "Death to the Arabs."

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Israel Seeks to Return Refugees to South Sudan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Batsheva Sobelman - March 22, 2012 - 12:00am

REPORTING FROM JERUSALEM--Israel doesn't need celebrity activists to call its attention to troubles in Africa. After years of being on the receiving end of a steady stream of work migrants and asylum seekers, the country knows this first-hand. Civil war, tribal troubles and economic hardship in African countries have sent tens of thousands on the dangerous journey across the desert to try their luck in Israel, which they have entered through the country's sprawling, largely open border with Egypt.

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Small Amounts of Israeli Fuel Entering Gaza, Only Barely Easing Power Crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
March 23, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Small amounts of Israeli fuel were trucked into the Gaza Strip on Friday, slightly easing an energy crisis provoked by a cut-off of Egyptian fuel, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. The shipment however did not meet Gaza’s total energy needs for even one day, one official said, and the territory still lacks a reliable fuel supply. Gaza’s fuel pinch highlights the difficulties its cash-strapped, internationally isolated Hamas rulers face in administering the territory.

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March 22nd

NEWS: DM Barak says Israel and the US disagree on the timetable for dealing with Iran's nuclear program. The PA says it has spent $7 billion on Gaza since the split with Hamas in 2007. PM Fayyad urges donors to fund a desalinization plant to alleviate the water crisis in Gaza. Pres. Abbas and Sec. Clinton discuss the upcoming Quartet meeting. The power crisis in Gaza is exacerbated by tensions with Egypt. Israel finalizes a deal with Germany for a 6th Dolphin submarine. The UK Advertising Standards Authority insists Israeli representations of its borders adhere to the 1967 lines. The Egyptian military is resisting Muslim Brotherhood calls to open the border with Gaza, as Egypt's relations with Hamas remain tense. A new EU report says Israel is “turning a blind eye” to settler violence against Palestinians, particularly farmers. COMMENTARY: Ha'aretz says the settlement project is leading to Israel's self-destruction. Gideon Levy says Israel is not succeeding in playing the eternal victim. Ari Shavit says Israel isn't bluffing about a possible attack on Iranian nuclear facilities. Douglas Bloomfield says PM Netanyahu fears that a 2nd-term Pres. Obama might not be “so easily bullied.” Edward Stourton asks if an Israeli attack on Iran is inevitable or preventable. J.J. Goldberg says recent remarks by EU foreign policy chief Ashton have been completely misunderstood and misrepresented. George Hishmeh says Americans are becoming more aware of religious extremism and racism in Israel. The Daily Star says the Toulouse killer is only the latest terrorist to cynically misappropriate the Palestinian cause. Aaron David Miller says it's ridiculous to claim that Israel controls Washington. Hussein Ibish says Jewish Americans and all those interested in peace should boycott settlement goods.

Three Cheers for a Settlement Boycott
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) March 21, 2012 - 12:00am

The backlash against Peter Beinart's principled call for Jewish Americans to boycott Israeli settlement goods mirrors a debate that has been raging within the pro-Palestinian community. While many Jewish Americans, including those who are highly critical of the settlements, have reacted angrily to Beinart's idea and reject the notion of any boycott of any Israelis whatsoever, in pro-Palestinian circles the debate has been whether or not to boycott all of Israel or to focus on the occupation and the settlements.

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Six Big Lies about How Jerusalem Runs Washington
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) March 21, 2012 - 12:00am

Several years after leaving government, I wrote a piece in the Washington Post titled "Israel's Lawyer." The article was an honest effort to explain how several senior officials in U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration (myself included) had a strong inclination to see the Arab-Israeli negotiations through a pro-Israel lens. That filter played a role -- though hardly the primary one -- in the failure of endgame diplomacy, particularly at the ill-fated Camp David summit in July 2000.

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Hijacked cause
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
(Editorial) March 22, 2012 - 12:00am

The Toulouse killer’s claim that the Palestinian struggle was the motive behind his recent murdering spree is just the latest example of terrorists’ misappropriation of the cause for their own selfish reasons. After shooting dead three soldiers, three Jewish children and one teacher over the last 10 days, Mohamed Merah was Wednesday cornered in his apartment by police. The Frenchman, of Algerian descent, has allegedly declared allegiance to Al-Qaeda, and said that the killings were designed to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children.

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Calling Israel's bluff
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) March 22, 2012 - 12:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu, the arrogant Israeli prime minister, is always tempted to repeat — erroneously — to foreign audiences that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. All he has to do is look around his country and see how some Israeli citizens, Jews and non-Jews, including women face discrimination in their communities.

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