The No-Longer Temporary Occupation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Joseph Dana - (Opinion) June 5, 2011 - 12:00am

One particular success of Israel’s 44-year control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been the government’s ability to convince the Israeli population of the temporary nature of the occupation. Every sector of Israeli society, except religious settlers and the military establishment, understand the occupation to be an ephemeral security measure necessary only in the absence of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

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UK minister 'deeply disappointed' in settlements call
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 22, 2011 - 12:00am

UK foreign office minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt on Friday urged Israel to "cease unhelpful and destabilising activity" of settlement construction, in the wake of a decision to build 1,500 new Jewish-only homes in occupied East Jerusalem. "I am deeply disappointed with Israel’s announcement on 19 May to build up to 1500 settlement units in the East Jerusalem settlements of Har Homa and Pisgat Zeev," the minister said in a statement.

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Israel to hand over Palestinian tax revenues
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 16, 2011 - 12:00am

The Civil Servants' union said the Palestinian Authority would pay government employees' salaries on Monday, following confirmation that Israel would resume transfers of Palestinian tax revenues A PA government spokesman, however, said he could not confirm the announcement, adding that the salaries would be paid when Israel transferred the cash. Israel said it "got confirmation from the Palestinians that no [tax revenue] money will be transferred to Hamas or to terrorist operations," allowing the country's finance ministry to resume cash transfers, reports said Sunday night.

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Give Palestinians their tax cash, Israel told
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Hugh Naylor - May 8, 2011 - 12:00am

World leaders have opposed Israel's decision to withhold nearly $90 million in tax revenue owed to Palestinian officials, in response to a recent unity deal with Hamas. Yuval Steinitz, the Israeli finance minister, said last week he would suspend payment of customs duties and other taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which amounts to more than $1 billion (Dh3.67bn) in annual revenues for the West Bank's governing body.

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Israeli PM's military attache stays away from UK
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
May 5, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israeli army says the prime minister's military attache did not accompany him to Britain this week, fearing pro-Palestinian activists might try to have him arrested on war crimes charges. Maj. Gen. Yohanan Locker was deputy chief of the Israel Air Force during Israel's war in Gaza two years ago. Activists critical of Israel's conduct in Gaza have sought to arrest other Israeli officials under a British law that allows foreigners to be prosecuted for alleged war crimes committed anywhere in the world.

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Turkish Minister: Lieberman still acts like bouncer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
April 17, 2011 - 12:00am

Turkish Minister Egemen Bagis mocked Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman during a recent Television appearance on a local talk show. Speaking ahead of the upcoming elections in the country, Bagis said "In Israel, they have a foreign minister who flushes the toilet during a radio interview. In his youth, he was a bouncer at a nightclub in Moldova. He still thinks of himself as a bouncer, and can't make the transition into the role of a politician," he said.

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Goldstone report: Statement issued by members of UN mission on Gaza war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Christine Chinkin, Hina Jilani, Desmond Travers - April 14, 2011 - 12:00am

In recent days some articles and comments appearing in the press with respect to the report of the United Nations (UN) fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict of 2008-2009 have misrepresented facts in an attempt to delegitimise the findings of this report and to cast doubts on its credibility.

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U.S. Report Details Rights Abuses
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Josh Nathan-Kazis - April 13, 2011 - 12:00am

An annual report by the U.S. Department of State on human rights in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza paints a stark picture of human rights conditions among minority populations in Israel, and Palestinian populations in the West Bank and Gaza. “Principal human rights problems were institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against Arab citizens, Palestinian residents of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip… non-Orthodox Jews, and other religious groups,” begins the segment dealing with Israel and the Golan Heights.

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Israel violence complicates Gates' call for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Lolita Baldor - March 24, 2011 - 12:00am

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived Thursday in Israel, one day after an eruption in violence that has complicated his plans to urge progress in the peace process. The latest spike in attacks began Wednesday with a bus-stop bombing in Jerusalem, followed by Israeli strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza. The events have heightened tensions and added to Israel's anxiety over the wave of rebellion in the region.

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In Israel, Gates Condemns Recent Attacks From Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner, Tom Shanker - March 24, 2011 - 12:00am

A rocket fired by militants from Gaza overshot the Israeli port city of Ashdod on Thursday afternoon, landing in an open area to the north, as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was meeting with Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, less than 20 miles up the coast in Tel Aviv.

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