Israel renews ban on key West Bank bus line
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 23, 2010 - 1:00am

A month after Israel rescinded a ban on foreign nationals using a main Bethlehem bus line, travelers say authorities are again pulling internationals off buses en route to Jerusalem. Mid-December, for reasons that remain unclear, tourists leaving the central West Bank city were banned from line 21, a route used predominantly by Palestinian holders of East Jerusalem residency cards.

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Israel relies on a deadly specialty
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - February 22, 2010 - 1:00am

When Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman faced questions Monday from European diplomats over Israel's suspected role in the Dubai assassination of a Hamas militant, he responded with familiar indignation: Why is Israel always the first to be blamed, he asked.

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From Israel, a plan to win friends and influence people by working on its image
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - February 22, 2010 - 1:00am

Acknowledging that Israel's image in the world these days is perhaps not at its apex, the Israeli government is asking its citizens to be more proactive in shaping the image of the Jewish state around the globe. The government is launching a media campaign to get Israelis to "change the picture" of how they are portrayed through the global media, and dozens of workshops on how to conduct one-on-one discussions with people they meet when they travel abroad.

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UN official "concerned" as Palestinians outraged over West Bank shrines
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
February 22, 2010 - 1:00am

A senior UN official on Monday voiced his concern over the Israeli government's decision to include two West Bank shrines into the Jewish state's list of heritage sites. In a statement sent to the media, Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said he was " concerned" since the two sites are located "in occupied Palestinian territory and are of historical and religious significance not only to Judaism but also to Islam, and to Christianity as well."

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Israel's arrogance has boomeranged
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Linda Heard - (Opinion) February 22, 2010 - 1:00am

A British columnist writing in The Telegraph referred to it as “the Keystone Spooks”, while ordinary Israelis who, initially, were gleefully patting one another on the back aren’t grinning any longer.

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Cartoonists in Israel take aim at Mossad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Political cartoonists working for Israeli newspapers this week turned their attention away from Rafiq Husseini, the Palestinian Authority official who disgraced by a sex tape. The new target of the cartoonists is a subject that is usually off-limits: Mossad. The shift in focus took place as suspicion mounted that the spy agency was involved in the assassination in January of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai.

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Palestinians guilty again?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Abir Kopty - (Opinion) February 19, 2010 - 1:00am

For many years Israel and members of the International community have claimed that Palestinians “do not take responsibility for themselves. All they do is whine, accuse Israel of everything and make suicide bombings.” That's what we have heard. Now, when those false claims have expired, Israel’s arsenal of claims is replaced quickly.

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The truth about the Mossad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ian Black - (Analysis) February 19, 2010 - 1:00am

Last November, a sharp-eyed Israeli woman named Niva Ben-Harush was alarmed to notice a young man attaching something that looked suspiciously like a bomb to the underside of a car in a quiet street near Tel Aviv port. When police arrested him, he claimed to be an agent of the Mossad secret service taking part in a training exercise: his story turned out to be true – though the bomb was a fake.

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Fake passports fuel questions about Israeli role in Hamas official's slaying
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider - February 18, 2010 - 1:00am

Pressure mounted Wednesday for Israel to respond to speculation that its Mossad spy agency killed a Hamas operative in a Dubai hotel last month, with Britain's prime minister promising to investigate the use of forged British passports by the alleged assassins and analysts in Israel taking unusual aim at the country's vaunted undercover organization.

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Use of citizens' identities in assassination roils Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - February 18, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel has seldom shied from attacking its enemies -- even if it takes years, even on foreign soil, even if it sours relations with allies. Israeli citizens for the most part have supported such policies and cheered their internationally respected spy agency, the Mossad, which obtained legendary status after hunting down and killing the terrorists responsible for the slaying of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics.

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