Are boycotts and sanctions really effective?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yoni Eshpar - (Opinion) March 5, 2010 - 1:00am

When it comes to the Middle East and other areas of the world, a certain word seems to have taken over the current affairs agenda: sanctions. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is using every possible platform to call for painful sanctions against Iran, Israel's ambassadors are busy contending with a movement that is calling for the imposition of a boycott and sanctions on Israel.

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The power of nonviolence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ziad Abu Zayyad - (Opinion) March 5, 2010 - 1:00am

There are signs of mounting distress among the Israeli police and other security forces in the way they are dealing with the Palestinians who stage weekly demonstrations in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem. These protests, in which Palestinians are joined by foreign sympathizers and activists of the Israeli left, are intended to express opposition to the eviction of Palestinians from their homes, which are then inhabited by Jewish families.

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PLO defends AL's nod for indirect Palestinian-Israeli negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Thursday defended an Arab League (AL)'s decision authorizing Washington to lead indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians for four months. "This decision moves the ball in Israel's court," said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a member of the PLO's executive committee, in response to Islamic Hamas movement and other Palestinian factions that rejected any resumption of peace negotiations.

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How to handle Hamas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Adam Ingram - (Opinion) March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

The recent assassination of a founder of Hamas' armed wing, allegedly involved in the smuggling of weapons into Gaza, has strained relations between Britain and Israel, but is also a sad reminder of the wider repercussions of Hamas' control of the Gaza Strip. If Israel, the Palestinians and the Arab world are to find a way to resolve the Middle East conflict, it must be on the basis of politics, diplomacy and a respect for human life.

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Support for Palestinians grows in UN
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Sharmila Devi - March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

Two unrelated diplomatic upsets have underlined growing impatience with the behaviour of the Israeli government among western countries that are traditionally supportive. Backing from the European Union and Australia in the United Nations to sustain the issue of Israel’s alleged war crimes in Gaza more than a year ago has coincided with controversy over Israel’s apparent use of western passports in the assassination of Mahmoud al Mabhouh, a Hamas official, in Dubai.

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Israeli heritage, Jewish heritage or both?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

The most worrisome aspect of the decision by the Israeli government to recognise various West Bank-based sites as part of Israel’s heritage is the continuous mix and duplicity between the state of Israel and the Jewish religion. Many Arab and international media outlets mistakenly referred to the Israeli Cabinet's decision as a declaration to consider the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and Rachel's Tomb outside Bethlehem part of "Jewish heritage". No such declaration was made. The Israeli declaration on February 21 called these sites part of the state's "national heritage".

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Gaza a Year Later
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by MICHEÁL MARTIN - (Opinion) March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

Last week I visited Gaza, the first European Union foreign minister to do so in over a year. My purpose was very much a humanitarian one, to see for myself the impact of a blockade that has now been imposed on the people of Gaza for some two-and-a-half years and to meet with the courageous and dedicated staff of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), including its director of operations, Irishman John Ging. They play an indispensable role in maintaining vital humanitarian services to the people of Gaza.

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Occupation Turns Palestinian Women Into Breadwinners
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Mel Frykberg - March 4, 2010 - 1:00am

The World Bank (WB) warned over a year ago that unless Israel eased its restrictions on movement and access in the West Bank the Palestinian economy would further deteriorate. In February the WB released another report, ‘Checkpoints and Barriers: Searching for Livelihoods in the West Bank and Gaza, Gender Dimensions of Economic Collapse’. The report outlines the devastating impact Israel’s occupation has caused to Palestinians financially, and women in particular.

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Dubai assassination: Dubai wants Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu behind bars
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Carol Huang - March 3, 2010 - 1:00am

The Dubai police chief plans to seek the arrest of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the murder of Hamas leader here Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday. The warning adds to the series of threats that Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim has lodged in recent days against Israel, whom he said “insulted” the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by allegedly carrying out the Jan. 19 assassination here. Dubai, a trade, tourism and banking center is the second largest of the Emirates.

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Hamas: Jordan or Egypt likely behind Dubai hit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
March 2, 2010 - 1:00am

Hamas suspects the security forces of an Arab state were behind the assassination of a senior group operative in Dubai earlier this year, the Al-Quds Al-Araby daily reported on Tuesday. Mahmoud Nasser, a member of Hamas' political bureau, told the newspaper that slain commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was likely being tracked by agents from Jordan and Egypt prior to the January 19 killing. Nasser said he had been given information regarding such efforts to kill Mabhouh, adding that the evidence indicated that the assassination was carried out earlier than the alleged agents had planned.

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