Close encounters of the unwanted kind ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - March 19, 2012 - 12:00am "At the demonstration today in Kafr a-Dik, I noticed looks and finger-pointing from the shabab (nickname for young Palestinians ) that made me feel some uncomfortable" wrote an Israeli leftist activist recently, referring to a West Bank protest last month. "There was some 'accidental' touching, and some incidents in which people called me a 'slut'...it was a very unpleasant experience," the activist wrote to her friends at Anarchists Against the Wall, which holds pro-Palestinian protests at Kafr a-Dik and other places in the West Bank. » Read more

Israeli textbooks foster hate, says author ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Vita Bekker - March 19, 2012 - 12:00am TEL AVIV // One asserts that Israel's Palestinian citizens shun modernisation and are building houses illegally. Another alleges the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank steals water from Israel. And elsewhere, that Palestinians have been a "terrifying demographic problem" for Israel. Such statements are part of mainstream schoolbooks in Israel that teach an "anti-Palestinian" approach in a bid to prepare Jewish children to be aggressive towards Palestinians once they serve in the army, according to a new book. » Read more

UN: Settlers taking over Palestinian-owned springs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Tovah Lazaroff, Sharon Udasin - March 19, 2012 - 12:00am Amid the sprawling olive groves that surround Ein Al Ariq – or Ein HaGvura – outside of Nablus, Jamal Daraghmeh recalled the days of the 1970s, when he and fellow community members used to come to the basin to collect water for their village drinking needs and livestock. “We [now] have access only after coordination for the olive harvest, once a year,” Daraghmeh, the mayor of nearby village al Luban al Sharqiya, told reporters during a United Nations field tour of the area last week. Information from the tour was embargoed until Monday. » Read more

Israeli official: Iranian military experts operating in Gaza, Sinai ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - March 19, 2012 - 12:00am Iranian military experts are active in the Gaza Strip and in Sinai, according to a high-ranking official in Jerusalem. The official said the Iranians entered the areas via Sudan and Egypt, and added that some of the rocket-launching systems in Gaza were manufactured under Iranian supervision. The senior source also claimed that Islamic Jihad continued to fire rockets at Israel even after the recent cease-fire was announced because the Iranians pressured that organization, and the popular resistance groups, to continue acting against Israel. » Read more

IMF warns Palestinians may face cuts without more aid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Lesley Wroughton - March 17, 2012 - 12:00am WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund on Saturday urged donors to meet their aid pledges to the Palestinian Authority, warning that unless funding was forthcoming it would be forced to cut public wages and social benefits to address a deepening fiscal crisis. The IMF said the aid-dependent Palestinian economy had entered a "difficult phase" with a severe liquidity crunch worsening since last year due to a drop in aid from Western backers and wealthy Gulf states and Israeli restrictions on trade. » Read more

PA, Israel negotiate revenue collection ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters March 19, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH (Reuters) -- The Palestinian Authority and Israel are holding economic talks despite frozen peace negotiations in a bid to revamp revenue collection and help relieve the PA's deepening debt crisis, officials said on Sunday. Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and interim peace deals have tasked it with levying taxes and customs duties on the Palestinian Authority's behalf, amounting to around $100 million a month, on goods imported into the territories. » Read more

Israeli president sends Iran greeting for Persian new year, urges against threats ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press March 18, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Israel’s president has sent Iranians his traditional greeting for the Persian new year, wishing for “peace and coexistence” despite tensions over their country’s nuclear program. Shimon Peres also urged Iranian leaders not to threaten anyone or make their “children flee home” — an apparent reference to the possibility of war. Peres’ greeting for Nowruz was broadcast Monday over Israeli Radio’s Farsi service, which is popular in Iran. He spoke first in Farsi and then in Hebrew, » Read more

In Israel, prospect of war with Iran raises questions about home-front defense ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Karin Brulliard - March 17, 2012 - 12:00am TEL AVIV — Two young government workers had set up shop in the patio section of an Ace hardware store the other day, and many Israelis were waiting. The product: free gas masks, from a dwindling national supply that is set to dry up by month’s end. » Read more

Hawks Steering Debate on How to Take On Iran ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Mark Landler, Eric Lichtblau - March 18, 2012 - 12:00am WASHINGTON — Even before President Obama declared this month that “I have Israel’s back” in its escalating confrontation with Iran, pro-Israel figures like the evangelical Christian leader Gary L. Bauer and the conservative commentator William Kristol were pushing for more. » Read more

Palestinians are up to ears in debt ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - March 18, 2012 - 12:00am Reporting from Ramallah, West Bank— Ayman and Rahma abu Hussein can't help but feel they are moving up in the world. The database engineer and his wife just bought their first home, and it's large enough for both of their children to have their own rooms. There's a Hyundai parked outside and a flat-panel TV hangs in the living room, one of many new appliances decking out the place. » Read more