Turkey seeks strong regional pressure on Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Tulay Karadeniz - June 7, 2010 - 12:00am

Turkey will seek the backing of its Middle Eastern and Asian neighbours at a regional summit on Tuesday to step up pressure on Israel over the killing of nine Turks on an aid ship bound for Gaza. Israel has already rejected a United Nations call for an international inquiry into its seizure of the ship last week, but Turkey, flexing its diplomatic muscle as one of the biggest military and economic powers in the region, is not giving up.

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EU, PNA contact to set plan for ending Gaza blockade: official
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
June 7, 2010 - 12:00am

A Palestinian official revealed Monday that there are contacts between Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and the European Union to submit a plan to the international Quartet for ending Gaza blockade. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that a number of European countries, including Spain and Switzerland, are contacting the PNA to discuss the ways possible to lift the blockade imposed on Gaza since 2007.

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After the flotilla attack, it's time for a new, kinder Israeli narrative
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Daniel Kurtzer - (Opinion) June 7, 2010 - 12:00am

Of the many confounding aspects of Monday's flotilla fiasco, one of the most curious is the monotone quality of Israel's response. Within hours of the Israeli assault on an aid ship bound for Gaza, while the dead and wounded were still being evacuated from the scene, Israel's deputy foreign minister delivered a verbal broadside that became his nation's public line: The flotilla organizers are terrorist sympathizers, they ambushed Israeli forces, and they are responsible for what followed.

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After the Israeli flotilla incident, Turkey is the new Palestinian champion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Alastair Crooke - June 7, 2010 - 12:00am

“This is language that we have not heard since the time of Gamal Abdul Nasser.” Thus wrote the influential chief editor of Al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, referring to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s fiery response to the Israeli assault on the Gaza flotilla – adding that such “manly” positions and rhetoric had “disappeared from the dictionaries of our Arab leaders (since the demise of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser).” He lamented that “Arab regimes now represent the only friends left to Israel.”

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Biden says US looking at 'new ways' to address Israel's Gaza blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Kristen Chick - June 7, 2010 - 12:00am

After meeting President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt Monday, Vice President Joe Biden said the US is looking for “new ways” to handle the situation in Gaza. “We are consulting closely with Egypt, as well as our other partners, on new ways to address the humanitarian, economic, security, and political aspects of the situation in Gaza,” Mr. Biden said after the meeting, according to a statement released by the White House.

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Israel Ambassador Rejects Flotilla Clash Inquiry
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - June 7, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel’s ambassador to Washington said Sunday that his country would reject an international inquiry into last week’s deadly raid on a Turkish ship, but there was still no formal announcement from Jerusalem on the matter. “We are rejecting the idea of an international commission,” Michael B. Oren, the ambassador, told Fox News Sunday. “We are discussing with the Obama administration the way in which our inquiry will take place.” He added, “At the end of the day, Israel has the right, the duty, as a democracy to investigate any military activity.”

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Erdogan and Nasrallah…And Pulling the Rug?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - June 6, 2010 - 12:00am

A while ago my father asked me about the role of Iran and Turkey in the region, and the Iranian nuclear file, and I began to explain this in detail, however my father interrupted me saying "the issue is simpler than this, my son!" I asked him "how?" He answered "for years the game has been the same game, however the ability of the two players is in decline."

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Israel and Outremer
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ross Douthat - June 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Watching the Israeli government’s botched, bloody attempt to enforce its blockade of Gaza, I kept thinking about Outremer. That’s the name — French for “beyond the sea” — given to the states that the Crusaders established in the Holy Land during the High Middle Ages: the principality of Antioch, the counties of Edessa and Tripoli, and the kingdom of Jerusalem.

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Iran Revolutionary Guards ready to escort Gaza ships
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Robin Pomeroy - June 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards are ready to provide a military escort to cargo ships trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza, a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday. "Iran's Revolutionary Guards naval forces are fully prepared to escort the peace and freedom convoys to Gaza with all their powers and capabilities," Ali Shirazi, Khamenei's representative inside the Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.

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Photos from Turkish aid ship show blood and chaos
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ayla Jean - June 6, 2010 - 12:00am

Turkish pro-Palestinian campaigners released photographs on Sunday showing terrified, bleeding Israeli soldiers cowering and surrounded by activists on the Turkish aid ship that they had stormed. Nine activists from Turkey were killed last Monday in the storming of the Mavi Marmara, part of a convoy trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza and deliver some 10,000 tonnes of aid. The photographs were taken by a member of the Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Aid, or IHH, which organised the convoy, said spokesman Salih Bilici.

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