No Israeli strike on Lebanon soil - Lebanese security source
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Oliver Holmes - January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

A Lebanese security source said on Wednesday that a reported attack by Israeli forces on a convoy near the Syrian-Lebanese border overnight had not occurred on Lebanese territory. A western diplomat and regional security sources said earlier that Israeli forces had hit a convoy in the border area, a few days after Israeli Vice Premier Silvan Shalom said that any sign that Syria's grip on its chemical weapons was slipping could trigger Israeli intervention. There were no details of precisely where the action had occurred.

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Israel to Transfer Tax Funds to Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

Israel has decided to transfer tax and customs revenues collected last month on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to help ease the economic crisis there, a senior Israeli government official said on Wednesday.

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PNA criticizes Israel for limited release of tax revenues
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) on Wednesday criticized Israel's decision to release only parts of withheld Palestinian tax revenues. "The decision is incomplete because it only transfers the funds of one month out of four," said an official from Palestinian Ministry of Finance, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official added that the released amount, estimated around 100 million U.S. dollars, would help ease the PNA's financial crisis, which deepened in the past two years due to a drop in international aid.

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Israel jets increase activity in Lebanese airspace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Zeina Karam - January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

The Lebanese military said Wednesday that Israeli warplanes have sharply increased their activity over Lebanon in the past week, including at least 12 sorties in less than 24 hours in the country's south.

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Palestinian, Israeli officials 'to discuss tax transfers'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
January 29, 2013 - 1:00am

Palestinian Authority Ministry of Finance officials will meet with their Israeli counterparts on Wednesday to discuss resuming the transfer of taxes withheld by Israel since November, an official said. Rami Mahdawi, PA finance ministry spokesman, told Ma'an Tuesday that the meeting will discuss Israel's position to resuming the transfer of Palestinian tax revenues, which have been withheld as punishment for the UN's acceptance of Palestine as a non-member state in November.

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The role of Israel in Syria
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed - (Opinion) January 29, 2013 - 1:00am

THE war in Syria is also an Israeli concern and its results may be as dangerous as the October 1973 war. The fall of Bashar Assad’s regime can change the map and may perhaps threaten the existing balance of power formulated after the disengagement agreement signed by President Hafez Assad and Israel under Henry Kissinger’s auspices during the October war.

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Israel Skips U.N. Review on Rights, a New Move
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Nick Cumming-Bruce - January 29, 2013 - 1:00am

Israel became the first country to withhold cooperation from a United Nations review of its human rights practices on Tuesday, shunning efforts by the United States and others to encourage it to partic

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Mahmoud Abbas attends AU summit, reiterates position on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
January 27, 2013 - 1:00am




Mahmoud Abbas attends AU summit, reiterates position on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
January 27, 2013 - 1:00am

Leader of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday attended the African Union Summit as a special guest and restated Palestine's policy, calling Israel's withdrawal from occupied territory. Abbas was speaking in Addis Ababa during the opening of the 20th African Union Summit at which some 40 African heads of state and government and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon were present.

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Putting Bibi and Barack on the Couch
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - January 27, 2013 - 1:00am

As Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama look toward new terms in office, their long, tense relationship will now feature a new twist: The re-inaugurated American leader launches his second term greatly emboldened, while the Israeli prime minister emerges from a jolt of an election that has greatly weakened him. Nevertheless, psychiatrists and political analysts alike believe that the impact on their forced marriage will be four more years of pretty much the same thing — pronounced disagreements alongside pragmatic attempts to prevent their relationship from falling apart.

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