Hamas quashes small pro-unity rally in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters February 28, 2011 - 1:00am A Hamas security man surveyed the scene on Monday -- 10 activists drawn by a Facebook page invitation to a Gaza rally for Palestinian unity. "Where's the revolution?" he asked with a note of sarcasm. Within minutes, security forces of the enclave's ruling Islamist movement moved into Gaza's main square. Witnesses said one of the security men punched the organiser of the rally and the other nine protesters obeyed orders to disperse. » Read more

Fatah sets new standards for cabinet selection ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency February 28, 2011 - 1:00am The Fatah party's top governing body announced Sunday that it had set standards for the selection of cabinet ministers as freshly appointed Prime Minister Salam Fayyad continues consultations ahead of announcing a new line-up. While the Fatah party holds power in the West Bank, it has no jurisdiction over policy, and it remains unclear to what extent the announced standards will be adopted by Fayyad, an independent, who was tasked by Fatah leader and President Mahmoud Abbas to form a new Palestinian Authority cabinet. » Read more

Israeli artillery fire injures 1 in Rafah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency February 28, 2011 - 1:00am At least one man was injured Monday, medics told Ma'an, in what witnesses near the Gaza International Airport said was a volley of artillery fire from an Israeli tank operating near the Rafah border area. Medics said teams were dispatched to the area to evacuate the wounded, while witnesses said ambulances were seen arriving at the airport, following the firing of several shells. » Read more

An old Jerusalem road gets a high-tech makeover ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Batsheva Sobelman - February 27, 2011 - 1:00am Jaffa Road has witnessed empires come and go, watched camel caravans give way to stagecoaches and automobiles, seen pilgrims and pioneers, businessmen and bombers. Now change is coming once again to the iconic Jerusalem route. Supplemented by a network of designated buses and pedestrian malls, a new light-rail train along the city's main thoroughfare will "revolutionize transportation and the city too," said Nadav Meroz, acting director of the Jerusalem Transportation Master Plan. » Read more

How the Arabs Turned Shame Into Liberty ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Fouad Ajami - (Opinion) February 26, 2011 - 1:00am PERHAPS this Arab Revolution of 2011 had a scent for the geography of grief and cruelty. It erupted in Tunisia, made its way eastward to Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain, then doubled back to Libya. In Tunisia and Egypt political freedom seems to have prevailed, with relative ease, amid popular joy. Back in Libya, the counterrevolution made its stand, and a despot bereft of mercy declared war against his own people. » Read more

Israeli Airstrikes on Gaza Wound Man and Baby ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Ben Weyl - February 26, 2011 - 1:00am Israeli warplanes bombed a half-dozen targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, wounding a 7-month-old girl and a Palestinian man, medics in the coastal territory said. An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that there were at least two airstrikes aimed at militant targets, saying they were in response to rocket and mortar attacks on Israel. Medics said one strike was carried out on a military post of Hamas, the Islamic militant group, in Rafah, which is on Gaza’s border with Egypt. In a home nearby, a baby was hit in the head by fragments, though medics said the injury was slight. » Read more

Israeli Panel Finds No Crime in 2002 Assassination ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - February 27, 2011 - 1:00am Nearly nine years after an Israeli assassination of a Hamas leader in Gaza killed at least 13 civilians and led to widespread international condemnation, a government-appointed panel of inquiry concluded Sunday that the operation was flawed but that the consequences “did not stem from disregard or indifference to human lives.” » Read more

Palestinians Seek New Path to State ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal by Richard Boudreaux - February 26, 2011 - 1:00am Palestinian leaders here say they have lost faith in U.S. mediation with Israel and are weighing a new strategy to press for independence, including an appeal for United Nations recognition of a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The evolving strategy, inspired in part by uprisings across the Middle East, also envisions stepping up nonviolent protest against Israeli occupation and trying to end a deep schism between the West Bank's secularist-led Palestinian Authority and the Islamist group Hamas that governs Gaza. » Read more