PM's exit strategy: Easing naval blockade of Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - June 4, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prepared to consider easing the naval blockade of Gaza and involving international players in its enforcement. In so doing, he is acceding to pressure from Washington, which opposes continuing the blockade in its present format and demands that Israel make it easier to send civilian goods to Gaza.

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Israel Signals New Flexibility on Gaza Shipments
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - June 4, 2010 - 12:00am

While still insisting that its blockade of Gaza is essential to its security, the Israeli government is now shifting its position, “exploring new ways” of allowing goods to reach the coastal enclave, an Israeli official said Thursday.

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Israeli raid on Gaza Freedom Flotilla killed US citizen Furkan Dogan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Scott Peterson - June 3, 2010 - 12:00am

An American-Turkish dual citizen killed during an Israeli commando raid on a humanitarian aid flotilla was among activists buried in Turkey on Thursday. Furkan Dogan was struck by five bullets shortly before dawn on Monday while atop the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara ship, according to friends who were on board at the time of the Israeli raid and attended the funeral for eight of the nine Turks who died.

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IDF panel rules West Bank settlers not protected by Basic Law
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chaim Levinson - June 3, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's Basic Laws neither apply to nor protect settlers, the military appeals committee ruled in response to an appeal from a resident of Yitzhar, Akiva Hacohen, who was banned last October for six months from the West Bank except for Ariel. The ban was later extended for three months. Hacohen, represented by Yitzhak Bam of the Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, appealed the decision to the military appeals committee, which allows challenges to decisions of the IDF command in the West Bank.

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Flotilla attack: 'First the shots, then the ship was turned into a lake of blood'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Ben Lynfield - June 2, 2010 - 12:00am

The first accounts of activists involved in Israel's devastating raid on a flotilla of aid for Gaza sharply contradicted Israel's official version of events, with one passenger insisting that commandos opened fire before they boarded. Nilufer Cetin, a Turkish woman who had been on the Mavi Marmara, which bore the brunt of the Israeli raid, said that the ship had "turned into a lake of blood" and she and her one-year-old child had to hide in a bathroom.

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Gaza boat passenger says Australian photographer electroshocked by Israeli soldiers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
June 2, 2010 - 12:00am

Australian photographer Kate Geraghty was electroshocked on the arm by Israeli soldiers who stormed a flotilla of boats heading to Gaza, a fellow passenger said on Wednesday. One of the first to be released from detention center on Wednesday (AEST) was organizer with the Free Gaza Flotilla, Huwaida Arraf, a dual U.S./Israeli citizen who claimed she was aboard the U.S.-flagged vessel Challenger 1 along with Australian Fairfax journalist Paul McGeough and Geraghty.

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Don’t Save Israel this Time!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - June 2, 2010 - 12:00am

I preferred to follow the Western visual media’s coverage of the crime that was committed by Israel against the humanitarian aid ships headed for Gaza that caused the deaths of around 20 people from Arab and international organizations rather than following Arab visual media coverage. Our media wants to spread the spirit of provocation instead of presenting information. It wants to increase escalation instead of helping us understand the consequences of what happened and how this battle with Israel should be dealt with so that Israel does not escape the consequences.

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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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That's No Way To Enforce a Blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Slate
by Fred Kaplan - June 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's storming of the Mavi Marmara, killing at least nine Free Gaza activists and wounding several more, was an act of jaw-gaping stupidity—strategically and tactically, even leaving aside morally. You needn't be a partisan of Hamas to think so. Look at today's headlines on the editorial page of Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz: "The price of flawed policy," "Fiasco on the high seas," "Seven idiots in the cabinet," "A failure any way you slice it."

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That's No Way To Enforce a Blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Slate
by Fred Kaplan - June 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's storming of the Mavi Marmara, killing at least nine Free Gaza activists and wounding several more, was an act of jaw-gaping stupidity—strategically and tactically, even leaving aside morally. You needn't be a partisan of Hamas to think so. Look at today's headlines on the editorial page of Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz: "The price of flawed policy," "Fiasco on the high seas," "Seven idiots in the cabinet," "A failure any way you slice it."

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