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."

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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.

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Netanyahu fails to appease Jewish settlers outraged by brutal attack
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - March 14, 2011 - 12:00am

The stabbing deaths of an Israeli couple and three of their children Friday night in the Jewish settlement of Itamar has stoked concern about a deterioration of a broad calm prevailing in the West Bank, as well as new blow to negotiations. Palestinian militants are suspected to be behind the attack, which took place in the northern West Bank near Nablus.

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Hooded settlers throw stones in Palestinian village
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yair Altman - March 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Some 200 settlers marched on Monday from the West Bank settlement of Itamar to the nearby Palestinian village of Awarta as an act of protest in the aftermath of Friday night's brutal murder of five members of the Fogel family. Earlier, the Palestinians reported that two officers of the Palestinian security establishment were arrested in connection with the massacre. Police said 14 of the settlers, who, according to the Palestinians, were masked, infiltrated the village and threw stones at homes. Border Guard and IDF forces entered the village and dispersed the rioting settlers.

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Gaza govt: Settler attackers may not be Palestinian
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
March 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinians may not be responsible for killing a family of five Israelis in Itamar settlement overnight Friday, the Gaza government said Sunday. Israeli authorities immediately blamed Palestinians for the attack, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Palestinian Authority of "daily incitement" against Israel in his response to the killings. However, Gaza government spokesman Taher An-Nunu said the Israeli government should not rule out the possibility that the attack was perpetrated by Israeli criminals. Hamas has denied any involvement in the attack.

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Settlement killings inhuman, Abbas tells Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
March 14, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday the killing of a Jewish settler couple and three of their children was "inhuman", telling Israel he was determined to help catch those responsible. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had complained that Abbas's administration insufficiently condemned the attack and even encouraged such bloodshed through "incitement" in official Palestinian forums. "This was inhuman and immoral. We deplore this incident, without a doubt. It is an abomination," Abbas told Israel Radio.

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Abbas: PNA would have prevented deadly attack if it had early information
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 14, 2011 - 12:00am

The Palestinian National Authority would have prevented a deadly attack on a Jewish settlement if it had information in advance, President Mahmoud Abbas said Monday. "If we had known, we would have prevented it using all our ways, " Abbas said in an interview with Israel Radio. "We want to know who committed the operation," Abbas added, referring to the stabbing of five Israeli settlers, members of one family, to death in the West Bank settlement of Itamar early Saturday.

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Palestinians Embarrassed, Not Proud, of Settlement Attack
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by David Miller - March 13, 2011 - 1:00am

Far from gloating over a terrorist attack Friday night that left five Israeli family members dead in Itamar, a Jewish town located beyond Israel’s pre-1967 borders, Palestinians across the political spectrum reacted with embarrassment. Many preferred to put the blame for the attack on hidden Israeli hands than put the onus on any Palestinian group.

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Israel to Step Up Pace of Construction in West Bank Areas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - March 13, 2011 - 1:00am

Israel said Sunday that it would build hundreds of new housing units within the populous West Bank settlement blocs, ending a slowdown in government-supported construction that had lasted several months. The move is meant to assuage settlers’ anger, particularly after the killings of five family members in the Itamar settlement late Friday. But it is also likely to complicate international efforts to revive the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

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Brutal West Bank killings shock Israel, stir fears of renewed violence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - March 13, 2011 - 1:00am

A grisly trail of toys and blood led paramedics to the first three bodies: a mother, father and their 4-month-old infant, stabbed to death in their bed. In the next room, medics say they found the body of an 11-year-old sibling. Finally, with growing dread, they reached the last bedroom, where a 4-year-old boy with knife wounds and a faint pulse was fighting for his life, ambulance workers said Saturday on Israel Radio. The medics worked frantically, but unsuccessfully, to resuscitate the toddler. One called it a scene of "incomprehensible horror."

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