March 19th

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

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

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

March 16th

Stop Humiliating Palestinian Refugees ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Sari Hanafi - (Opinion) March 16, 2012 - 12:00am In a recent talk at the American University of Beirut, Chile’s former president, Michelle Bachelet, described how her country’s parliament was forced to issue a general amnesty in 1978, as a condition imposed by the dictator Augusto Pinochet to abandon power. Yet Chilean judges have refused to implement the law. Along with a vibrant civil society, they refuse to grant immunity to those who violated human rights. » Read more

Jewish Donors Can Influence Israel’s War on Arabic ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Ron Gerlitz - (Opinion) March 16, 2012 - 12:00am Last week, I had to spend some time at the new children's wing of Hadassah University Hospital in Ein Karem, Jerusalem. The hospital serves Arabs as well as Jews, and it was my impression that all its patients are treated professionally and with equality. But Arabic-language signs are almost nonexistent in this brand-new and impressive wing. » Read more