Israel admission on white phosphorus doesn't settle larger debate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - February 1, 2010 - 1:00am

The revelation by Israel that two senior military officers have been reprimanded for using white phosphorus in last year’s Gaza war has been met with both criticism and measured applause; Haaretz columnist Amos Harel welcomed it under the headline, “At Last, A Real Response.”

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Iran blames Israel for Hamas commander killing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Fredrik Dahl, Reza Derakhshi - February 1, 2010 - 1:00am

Iran blamed Israel on Tuesday for the killing of a Hamas commander in Dubai last month. Israel's government has declined official comment on the Jan. 20 death of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, which the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Friday announced as an assassination. But Israeli security sources linked him to rockets and other arms that reach Gaza from Iran. "This is another indication of the existence of state terrorism by the Zionist regime (Israel)," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference.

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Jordan criticized for stripping Palestinian rights
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Dale Gavlak - February 1, 2010 - 1:00am

A U.S.-based human rights group criticized Jordan Monday for stripping the citizenship of nearly 3,000 Jordanians of Palestinian origin in recent years. Nearly half the kingdom's 6 million people are of Palestinian origin and Jordan fears that if Palestinians become the majority, it will disrupt the delicate demographic balance. Those concerns have been heightened by some Israeli hard-liners who argue that neighboring Jordan should become the Palestinian state and that more West Bank Palestinians should be pushed into Jordan.

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Obama: US backs Israel, sympathizes with Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
January 29, 2010 - 1:00am

US President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the United States would always ensure Israel's security but that Washington must also pay attention to the plight of the Palestinians. The president, speaking at a town-hall meeting on various issues, was responding to a question about why, if the US truly supports human rights, it has not called out Israel and Egypt for abuses against Palestinians, apparently in reference to the blockade of Gaza.

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Netanyahu to U.S.: I'll free Fatah prisoners to boost Abbas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - January 29, 2010 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to the release of hundreds of Fatah prisoners as part of efforts backed by the United States and Egypt to jump-start the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu expressed a willingness to release prisoners as a goodwill gesture in talks with the special U.S. Mideast envoy, George Mitchell. Under the plan, Israel would also embark on low-level negotiations with U.S. mediation.

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Holocaust remembrance is a boon for Israeli propaganda
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) January 28, 2010 - 1:00am

Israel's bigwigs attacked at dawn on a wide front. The president in Germany, the prime minister with a giant entourage in Poland, the foreign minister in Hungary, his deputy in Slovakia, the culture minister in France, the information minister at the United Nations, and even the Likud party's Druze Knesset member, Ayoob Kara, in Italy. They were all out there to make florid speeches about the Holocaust.

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Where the problem lies
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) January 28, 2010 - 1:00am

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is right to warn Europeans that the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, such as it is, is headed for failure. He is also absolutely right in his prescription. Israel is not serious about finding an equitable solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; until such time, talks are pointless. Moreover, while building the institutions of state is an important task and one that Europeans have been particularly keen on supporting, it is not an alternative to ending the occupation. This is a message that Europeans would do well to heed.

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Gaza's Agony
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Eyad El-Sarraj - (Opinion) January 28, 2010 - 1:00am

On the night Barack Obama won the U.S. presidency, he announced: "To all those ... who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world ... a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you.... The true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope." Obama's words made the world shiver with anticipation.

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Barak: Peace process failures greater threat than Iran nukes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
January 26, 2010 - 1:00am

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday said that Israel's failure to strike a peace deal with the Palestinians was a greater threat to the country than a nuclear Iran, Army Radio reported. "The lack of a solution to the problem of border demarcation within the historic Land of Israel - and not an Iranian bomb - is the most serious threat to Israel's future," Barak told a Tel Aviv conference.

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Only an idiot would say Israel has frozen settlement activity
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) January 26, 2010 - 1:00am

Monday morning, as George Mitchell was on the way home from another diplomatic mission short on breakthroughs, Saeb Erekat did not sound dismayed. On the contrary, the head of the Palestinian negotiation team vehemently argued that the American envoy's last visit actually moved up the moment of truth for the White House. The veteran adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's favorite move of throwing the ball into the Palestinians' court stopped working with the Americans.

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