No excuse
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
June 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Displaying, yet again, utter disregard for international humanitarian law and contempt for the sanctity of life, Israeli commandos yesterday attacked the Gaza-bound aid flotilla and cold-bloodedly murdered several activists on board a Turkish ship. Their mistake: trying to deliver much-needed aid to the 1.5 million Gazans suffering under a prolonged Israeli blockade that constitutes, according to the Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, “collective punishment under international law”.

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Terror at dawn
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) June 1, 2010 - 12:00am

What Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has so rightly called “a massacre” saw the death of at least 10 peace activists on board the lead ship of the six-vessel Freedom Flotilla and the injury of scores others, as heavily armed Israeli commandos seized the convoy and sailed it toward their port of Ashdod. Israeli sources put the toll at nine. The full details of this outrage are not yet clear since the Israeli authorities are censoring all reports and used sophisticated jamming technology to halt media broadcasts from the vessels as they were assaulted.

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U.S. must deal with Benjamin Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) June 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel’s disastrous commando operation against the Gaza relief flotilla delays and complicates — but does not entirely derail — the kiss-and-make-up session that would have played out at the White House on Tuesday, had Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not canceled his planned meeting with President Barack Obama

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Why Israel's narrative of the flotilla attack is failing so badly
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog
by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) June 1, 2010 - 12:00am

To most of the world, this is a very simple story: elite Israeli counterterrorism commandos stormed an unarmed, civilian ship carrying aid supplies in international waters, in order to enforce a morally indefensible and politically counterproductive blockade, and as a consequence 10 civilians were killed and many others injured. The entire Israeli effort since these realities became known has been to try to complicate the picture and shift the responsibility for the bloodshed away from the military commandos who stormed the ship, or their commanders, and onto the passengers themselves.

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ATFP Advocacy Director in CNN Interview on Flotilla Attack
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNN
June 1, 2010 - 12:00am



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UN Security Council statement on Gaza flotilla
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
June 1, 2010 - 12:00am

UNITED NATIONS, June 1 (Reuters) - Following is the full text of a formal presidential statement adopted on Tuesday by the United Nations Security Council on Israel's action against an aid flotilla heading for Gaza. The Security Council deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries resulting from the use of force during the Israeli military operation in international waters against the convoy sailing to Gaza. The Council, in this context, condemns those acts which resulted in the loss of at least ten civilians and many wounded, and expresses its condolences to their families.

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Raid Complicates U.S. Ties and Push for Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Helene Cooper - June 1, 2010 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON — Israel’s deadly commando raid on Monday on a flotilla trying to break a blockade of Gaza complicated President Obama’s efforts to move ahead on Middle East peace negotiations and introduced a new strain into an already tense relationship between the United States and Israel.

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Israel says Free Gaza Movement poses threat to Jewish state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Scott Wilson - June 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Once viewed only as a political nuisance by Israel's government, the group behind the Gaza aid flotilla has grown since its inception four years ago into a broad international movement that now includes Islamist organizations that Israeli intelligence agencies say pose a security threat to the Jewish state.

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Israel, Egypt ease Gaza blockade after deadly raid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Josef Federman - June 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel and Egypt signaled a temporary easing of the Gaza Strip blockade Tuesday following harsh international condemnation of the deadly Israeli raid on an aid flotilla en route to the sealed-off Palestinian territory. Egypt said it was freely opening its border with Gaza for the first time in more than a year to allow in humanitarian aid, setting off a mad rush to the crossing by thousands of residents, while an Israeli official said there is an "ongoing dialogue" with the international community on how to expand the amount of goods entering the area.

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Hamas calls Amnesty report a joke
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 28, 2010 - 12:00am

Hamas' Salah Al-Bardawil said Amnesty International's comparison of resistance projectiles to Israel's war on Gaza last year must have been done in irony, given the total misalignment of consequences of the two. "Tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed or disfigured, their limbs were amputated or they lost their homes," the Hamas official said of Israeli strikes on Gaza and the impact of the country's Operation Cast Lead last winter.

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