March 16th

Israel unveils seized arms cache from cargo ship ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Josh Lederman - March 16, 2011 - 12:00am Rows of boxes, crates and containers filled with weapons stretched out on a dock Wednesday alongside a ship commandeered by Israel's navy, a display of what Israel said was a shipment of arms, some sophisticated, to Palestinian militants in Gaza. Israel intercepted the ship Tuesday in international waters in the Mediterranean, saying it was carrying weapons sent by Iran via Syria. Israel says the advanced anti-ship missiles found on board could alter the region's balance of power by impeding its ability to enforce a naval blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. » Read more

Israeli strike kills two Hamas security men ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Allyn Fisher-Ilan - March 16, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli warplanes fired two missiles at a security compound in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing two Palestinian militants, Hamas and Palestinian medical officials said. The Israeli military confirmed it had struck a militant target in the coastal territory in response to a rocket fired at Israel earlier, which caused no casualties. Hamas officials and medics said both men killed were security guards at the compound. Hamas's armed wing said both were members of it. » Read more

Gaza security forces violently disperse rally ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 16, 2011 - 12:00am Security forces forcefully dispersed protesters from a square in central Gaza City late Tuesday, witnesses said. Protesters in Gaza said security forces set up hundreds of barriers around the main square of demonstrations and were patrolling the area. They beat people with batons and set fire to tents that were set up by the demonstrators, according to activists in Gaza City. The March 15 Coalition said hundreds of Hamas security forces stormed the protests and tried to evacuate it by force. » Read more

Abbas 'ready to travel to Gaza' for unity ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 16, 2011 - 12:00am President Mahmoud Abbas says he is ready to visit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in an effort to promote reconciliation between his Fatah party and Hamas Abbas also said he was ready to postpone the formation of a cabinet in order to give Hamas a chance to join a unity government. "I am ready to delay the formation of the new government to give Hamas a chance to join," he said in a speech at the start of a two-day meeting of the PLO Central Committee, a PLO legislative body of 130 members in which Hamas holds the majority. » Read more

Palestinians rally for unity in Gaza, West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Joel Greenberg - March 16, 2011 - 12:00am Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on Tuesday to demand an end to the rift between the Hamas and Fatah factions that has left the two Palestinian territories in the control of rival governments. "The people want an end to the division!" the demonstrators chanted in the largest such push to date. "National unity!" » Read more

Hamas Forces Break Up Pro-Unity Protests in Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Fares Akram - March 15, 2011 - 12:00am Mass protests in Gaza on Tuesday were violently broken up by Hamas police officers and security officers, many in plainclothes, witnesses said. The demonstrations, organized by independent Palestinian youth activists, called for national unity. At least five people, including three local journalists, were treated at a hospital after being beaten at the demonstration, employees at the hospital said. » Read more

Neighbors’ Blood Binds Settlers to West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - March 15, 2011 - 12:00am To outsiders, this Jewish settlement clinging to a hill in the northern West Bank would seem to offer a precarious existence. Surrounded by Palestinian villages and near one of the largest Palestinian cities, Nablus, with a population of more than 120,000, Itamar has about 1,000 residents, many of them children or transient students studying at its religious academies. » Read more

A MAN, A PLAN ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New Yorker by David Remnick - (Opinion) March 21, 2011 - 12:00am Psychobiography in politics is ordinarily a mug’s game. Sometimes, though, an assessment of inherited traits and ideologies can be telling. For years, Israeli and American commentators have been waiting for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave behind the right-wing Revisionist ideology of his father, Benzion, a historian of the Spanish Inquisition, and, like Nixon leaving for China, end the occupation of the Palestinian territories. » Read more

March 15th

Danish company halts equipment supply to West Bank in wake of public protest ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Shuki Sadeh - March 15, 2011 - 12:00am The Israeli security firm Hashmira, which is owned by the Danish concern G4S, announced last weekend it will stop providing equipment to security installations over the Green Line. The move comes in the wake of public pressure in Denmark following a report from the Coalition of Women for Peace, which runs the "Who Profits?" project monitoring Israeli companies operating in the territories. The report, released in November, says that Hashmira provides baggage scanning equipment and body scanners for the Qalandiya, Bethlehem, Sha'ar Efraim and Eyal checkpoints. » Read more

Netanyahu's exploitation of the murders at Itamar ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Nehemia Shtrasler - (Opinion) March 15, 2011 - 12:00am The horrific murders in Itamar were a crime against humanity. Entering a home in that manner and slaughtering five people in their sleep is a base, cowardly act, and it makes no difference whether the victim is an adult or an infant. Murder is murder is murder. Motti Fogel, brother of Udi Fogel, said at the Har Hamenuhot cemetery on Sunday that the funeral should have been a private affair. "A person is born for himself, to his parents and siblings, and dies for himself, he is not a symbol or a national event, and death must not be allowed to become an instrument of something." » Read more