March 21st

Fatah: Iran Paid Hamas to Block Unity Deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Ali Sawafta - March 21, 2012 - 12:00am GAZA CITY (Reuters) -- Iran paid Hamas to block a deal with the rival Fatah movement that would have ended a five-year rift between the two main Palestinian factions, a Fatah spokesman said Tuesday. He said Tehran recently resumed financial aid to Hamas which it had suspended six months ago over the movement's failure to back their mutual ally Bashar Assad of Syria in his military campaign to crush dissent. » Read more

Israeli Group Shows Rise in Palestinian Civilian Deaths ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 21, 2012 - 12:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli forces killed 115 Palestinians last year, including 18 minors, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem. The death toll of 2011 shows a marked increase on 2010, when Israeli forces killed 68 Palestinians in Gaza and 12 in the West Bank. Further, 47 of the casualties in 2011 were killed while not taking part in hostilities, an increase from 30 in 2010. » Read more

Peter Beinart calls for a ‘Zionist BDS,’ but he’s not finding many takers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ron Kampeas - (Opinion) March 20, 2012 - 12:00am WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Should Jews shun other Jews? And should they shun Jews who call on Jews to shun other Jews? Peter Beinart’s call in Monday’s New York Times for a boycott of goods manufactured in West Bank settlements reignited a debate not just about what works and doesn’t when it comes to advancing a two-state solution, but also about what should and should not be said during the debate. Beinart, a journalist and essayist whose book “The Crisis of Zionism” is about to come out, tried to cast his call in pro-Israel terms. » Read more

Iran’s Supreme Leader Warns of Retaliation if Israel or U.S. Strikes ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Emily Alpert, Ramin Mostaghim - March 20, 2012 - 12:00am REPORTING FROM TEHRAN -- Iran will strike back with equal force if the United States or Israel attacks it over its nuclear program, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned in an address from the eastern city of Mashhad in observance of Nowruz, the Persian new year. "The holy Koran states that if an enemy attacks you first, the enemy will certainly be defeated," he said. “This is divine law. We are not thinking of attacks and aggression, but we are attached to the existence and identity of the Islamic republic." » Read more

When 'pro-Israel' means comparing Israel to the Nazis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Bradley Burston - (Blog) March 20, 2012 - 12:00am Question: What do you call a foreign-based activist organization which compares Israeli security policies to those of Nazi extermination camps? What do you call a not-for-profit organization that denounces Israel for its policies in Jerusalem's holiest shrine, voicing outrage that the devout endure humiliation, discrimination, draconian bars to religious expression, oppressive denial of access to holy sites, physical mistreatment, enforced thirst, arrests and beatings at the hands of Israeli police? » Read more

Israel Indicts Hamas Militant Suspected in Kidnap and Suicide Bombing Plot ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press March 21, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Israel’s internal security service says a Palestinian militant has been indicted in an alleged plot to capture an Israeli soldier and carry out a suicide bombing. The Shin Bet service said Wednesday that Mohammed Abu Adra of the militant Hamas group was arrested in February while trying to infiltrate Israel from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. It accused him of being involved in planning the capture of an Israeli soldier and a suicide bombing in the southern city of Eilat. He was indicted Wednesday on charges including conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to kidnap.

Israel should notify its citizens before striking Iran ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) March 21, 2012 - 12:00am Will Israel coordinate any attack on Iran with the United States, or at least give it advance notice? What exactly did President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree to at their recent meeting in Washington, D.C.? We can at least hope that both leaders know what they signed off on, and there will not be a repeat of the awkward situation in the first Lebanon War, in 1982, when Defense Minister Ariel Sharon claimed to have obtained the nod from U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig. Both countries agree that Iran should not be allowed to posses nuclear arms. » Read more

‘Extremists Mustn’t Use Palestine to Market Terror’ ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post March 21, 2012 - 12:00am Extremists must stop marketing their terrorist acts in the name of Palestine, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Wednesday, condemning the murder of four French Jews at a school in Toulouse. French Interior Minister Gueant earlier Wednesday said the gunman wanted revenge "for the Palestinian children and he also wanted to attack the French army because of its foreign intervention." "Extremists must stop pretending to stand up for the rights of Palestinian children who only ask for a decent life," AFP quoted Fayyad as saying. » Read more

Fayyad: Stop Using Palestinian Cause to Justify Terror ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP) by Elior Levy - March 21, 2012 - 12:00am Extremists must stop using the Palestinian cause to justify their acts of violence, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Wednesday after a deadly attack on a French Jewish school. "It is time for these criminals to stop marketing their terrorist acts in the name of Palestine and to stop pretending to stand up for the rights of Palestinian children who only ask for a decent life," the Palestinian premier said in a statement. » Read more

March 20th

Decisions in the Interregnum in Palestine and Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post by Ziad Asali - (Blog) March 19, 2012 - 12:00am The year 2011 will go down in history as the year when the two-state solution went into deep freeze. Yet even during this hibernation there is much that can, and indeed must, be done to prevent an even graver crisis. » Read more