April 7th

Bid for State of Palestine Gets Support From I.M.F. ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - April 6, 2011 - 12:00am The Palestinian Authority, which is working toward global recognition of its statehood in September, got an endorsement on Wednesday from the International Monetary Fund, which said that the authority was fully capable of running the economy of an independent state. » Read more

Building a Stage for Mideast Peace Before the Final Curtain ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - April 6, 2011 - 12:00am Juliano Mer Khamis lived a paradox. The internationally renowned actor, director and political activist, who was killed here this week, was both an Israeli and a Palestinian, born to a Jewish mother and an Arab Christian father in the Israeli Arab town of Nazareth. Mr. Mer Khamis embodied the Israeli-Arab conflict and embraced its complexities in a way that few could. He was regarded as an Arab by many Israelis, and by some in this West Bank city, his adopted home, first and foremost as a Jew. » Read more

Sudan Says Israel Launched a Missile Strike on a Car, Killing 2 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Josh Kron - April 6, 2011 - 12:00am The government of Sudan accused Israel on Wednesday of carrying out a fatal airstrike on a car traveling from the Red Sea city of Port Sudan. Sudan is considered a transit point in the weapons route to Hamas, the Palestinian faction that runs Gaza. Israel has not yet responded to the accusation. Sudanese officials said a missile struck the car around 10 p.m. on Tuesday, obliterating the vehicle and killing two people who were inside. » Read more

Sudan Says Israel Launched a Missile Strike on a Car, Killing 2 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Josh Kron - April 6, 2011 - 12:00am The government of Sudan accused Israel on Wednesday of carrying out a fatal airstrike on a car traveling from the Red Sea city of Port Sudan. Sudan is considered a transit point in the weapons route to Hamas, the Palestinian faction that runs Gaza. Israel has not yet responded to the accusation. Sudanese officials said a missile struck the car around 10 p.m. on Tuesday, obliterating the vehicle and killing two people who were inside. » Read more

April 6th

EU: Approval of East Jerusalem settlement expansion is deeply disappointing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz April 6, 2011 - 12:00am European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton said on Wednesday that she was "deeply disappointed" by Israel's approval of new settlement building in East Jerusalem. "The actions taken by the Israeli Government contravene repeated and urgent calls by the international community, including the Quartet, and run counter to achieving a peaceful solution that will preserve Israel’s security and realize the Palestinians’ right to statehood," Ashton said in a statement released on Wednesday. » Read more

Israel was wrong to boycott Goldstone probe ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Shlomo Avineri - (Opinion) April 6, 2011 - 12:00am Even after Richard Goldstone retracted his statement that Israel deliberately targeted civilians in Gaza, the diplomatic and moral damage to Israel caused by the Goldstone report will not disappear, just as the Supreme Court's acquittal of Israel Kastner back in the 1950s didn't erase the terrible things said by Judge Benjamin Halevy in the district court ruling. ("He sold his soul to the devil." ) That's the power of metaphors as opposed to dry facts. As far as Israel is concerned, the lesson is simple: It shouldn't boycott international forums, even if they are clearly biased against it. » Read more

Goldstone won't seek Gaza report nullification ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Steven R. Hurst - April 5, 2011 - 12:00am South African jurist Richard Goldstone said Tuesday that he did not plan to seek nullification of his highly critical U.N. report on Israel's 2008-2009 offensive in the Gaza Strip and asserted that claims to the contrary by Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai were false. » Read more

Poll: One-third of Palestinians support Itamar attack ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post April 6, 2011 - 12:00am One-third of Palestinians support the attack in Itamar in March, in which an Israeli family of five was murdered while 63 percent opposed it, according to a Hebrew University poll released on Wednesday. The survey was conducted by Prof. Yaacov Shamir of the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace and the Department of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University, and Prof. Khalil Shikaki, Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR). » Read more

The bookseller of Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by B. Wasserstein - (Opinion) April 6, 2011 - 12:00am It’s often the small injustices that stab us in the heart, even in a world of monstrous tsunamis, nuclear emergencies and despotic repression. Last week, Munther Fahmi told me he is in imminent danger of deportation. Fahmi, a friend for the past 15 years, is a bookseller in Jerusalem. One might better say he is the bookseller there, since his shop is almost the only serious foreign-language one left in a city that once boasted many. » Read more

Israel to lobby Germany against Palestinian plan ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Josef Federman - April 6, 2011 - 12:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will ask Germany's leader to drop her support for a proposal endorsing a Palestinian state in virtually all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem when he meets with her this week, Israeli officials said Wednesday. » Read more