June 2nd

'Next time we'll use more force' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Katz - June 1, 2010 - 12:00am Israel will use more aggressive force in the future to prevent ships from breaking the sea blockade on the Gaza Strip, a top Navy commander told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. "We boarded the ship and were attacked as if it was a war," the officer said. "That will mean that we will have to come prepared in the future as if it was a war." The anonymous comment came the day after the Israeli Navy raided a flotilla of international aid ships headed to the Strip. Nine activists were killed in the raid, and dozens were injured. » Read more

Flotilla attack: 'First the shots, then the ship was turned into a lake of blood' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Ben Lynfield - June 2, 2010 - 12:00am The first accounts of activists involved in Israel's devastating raid on a flotilla of aid for Gaza sharply contradicted Israel's official version of events, with one passenger insisting that commandos opened fire before they boarded. Nilufer Cetin, a Turkish woman who had been on the Mavi Marmara, which bore the brunt of the Israeli raid, said that the ship had "turned into a lake of blood" and she and her one-year-old child had to hide in a bathroom. » Read more

Turkish Funds Helped Group Test Blockade of Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Michael Slackman, Sabrina Tavernise - June 2, 2010 - 12:00am ISTANBUL — Since 2007, a small group of hard-core activists has repeatedly tried to sail cargo-laden ships into Gaza in an effort to thwart Israel’s blockade. But when the Free Gaza Movement teamed up with a much wealthier Turkish organization to assemble a flotilla, it became more than a nuisance, supercharged by the group’s money, manpower and symbolic resonance into what Israel sees as a serious and growing threat. » Read more

Patrick Cockburn: PR dangerously distorts the Israeli sense of reality ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent (Opinion) June 2, 2010 - 12:00am An old Israeli saying describing various less-than-esteemed military leaders says: "He was so stupid that even the other generals noticed." The same derisive remark could be applied almost without exception to the present generation of Israeli politicians. » Read more

Can Israel see itself through the eyes of others? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National June 2, 2010 - 12:00am Once Israel is done with its internal debate about whether it applied the wrong tactics in boarding the Mavi Marmara and killing civilians, it might do some soul-searching. Here, a history lesson would be helpful. States that keep a large group of those among them separate, and deny them equal treatment, rarely end up on the right side of history. » Read more

June 1st

'We're the only ones who believe them' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico by Ben Smith - June 1, 2010 - 12:00am A delicate diplomatic maneuver by President Barack Obama to smooth frayed relations with Israel without alienating America’s Arab allies may have been blown out of the water Monday morning by Israel’s botched attempt to enforce the Gaza blockade — and by the lack of condemnation from Washington that followed it. » Read more

U.S. must deal with Benjamin Netanyahu ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) June 1, 2010 - 12:00am Israel’s disastrous commando operation against the Gaza relief flotilla delays and complicates — but does not entirely derail — the kiss-and-make-up session that would have played out at the White House on Tuesday, had Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not canceled his planned meeting with President Barack Obama » Read more

Terror at dawn ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News (Editorial) June 1, 2010 - 12:00am What Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has so rightly called “a massacre” saw the death of at least 10 peace activists on board the lead ship of the six-vessel Freedom Flotilla and the injury of scores others, as heavily armed Israeli commandos seized the convoy and sailed it toward their port of Ashdod. Israeli sources put the toll at nine. The full details of this outrage are not yet clear since the Israeli authorities are censoring all reports and used sophisticated jamming technology to halt media broadcasts from the vessels as they were assaulted. » Read more

No excuse ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times June 1, 2010 - 12:00am Displaying, yet again, utter disregard for international humanitarian law and contempt for the sanctity of life, Israeli commandos yesterday attacked the Gaza-bound aid flotilla and cold-bloodedly murdered several activists on board a Turkish ship. Their mistake: trying to deliver much-needed aid to the 1.5 million Gazans suffering under a prolonged Israeli blockade that constitutes, according to the Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, “collective punishment under international law”. » Read more

Israel itself may be among the victims of its pathology ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Eyad Sarraj - (Opinion) June 1, 2010 - 12:00am Resorting to brute force is an expression of fear. Its deployment yesterday by the Israeli soldiers who raided and opened fire on the freedom flotilla en route to Gaza, killing at least 10 civilians and injuring dozens more, will not serve Israel or treat its existential anxiety. » Read more