Erekat: PLO to ask Security Council for settlement censure
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

JERICHO (Ma'an) -- PLO official Saeb Erekat said Tuesday that Palestinian leaders are examining ways to secure a resolution from the UN Security Council condemning Israeli settlement building, after Israel gave legal sanction to three settler outposts. In an interview with official PA radio Voice of Palestine, Erekat called on the Israeli government to choose between peace and settlement expansion, warning that sanctioning more settlements on Palestinian land will kill the two-state solution.

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Was Egypt’s Decision to Shut Down Gas Pipe to Israel Politics or Business?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Bradley Hope, Hugh Naylor - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

CAIRO / JERUSALEM // The Egyptian government's abrupt announcement on Sunday that it was ending its natural gas supply to Israel has left many analysts and businessmen wondering whether the decision was politics or business. Government officials on both sides tried to play down the decision yesterday, pointing to violations of contracts on either side of East Mediterranean Gas Company, the intermediary that manages the Egypt-Israel pipeline.

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Israel Media Fear Canceled Gas Deal Harbinger of Things to Come
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Egypt Independent
by Jordan Gerstler-Holton - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

Following reports that the Egyptian company responsible for exporting natural gas to Israel decided to cut off shipments, both Israeli and Egyptian officials have rushed to downplay the crisis, saying the move resulted from commercial considerations, not political ones. But despite these efforts, Israeli media fear the unilateral move represents a step toward Egypt deciding to shelve the two nations’ bilateral peace accord in place since 1979.

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Boycotting Israel and My Olive Tapenade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Leah Koenig - (Opinion) April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

n March, the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn made history, or at least the national media, when its members voted down a proposal to ban Israeli-made products in political protest of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians. Park Slope’s is not the first food cooperative to discuss such a boycott, nor the first to vote it down. But because it is among the oldest and largest member-run co-ops in the country (founded in 1973, the membership now tops 16,000 people), news outlets from The New York Times to The Associated Press covered the story.

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UN Chief “Deeply Troubled” by new West Bank Outposts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Michelle Goldberg - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

UNITED NATIONS, April 24 (Reuters) - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday that he was "deeply troubled" by Israel's decision to grant legal status to three settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, describing the activity as illegal under international law. The three outposts - Bruchin, Sansana and Rechelim - were built on land Israel declared "state-owned" in the West Bank, an area it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which Palestinians want as part of a future state.

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Airports in Scandinavia Ban Israeli Screening Methods
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ravit Naor - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli airlines cannot operate in Scandinavia due to the countries' refusal to allow profiling to be employed in security checks.

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Why Did Egypt Terminate Its Gas Deal with Israel?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Calcalist
by Zvi Mazael - (Opinion) April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

The termination of the gas agreement between Israel and Egypt deviates from the rules of normal commerce and from normal disagreements between supplier and purchaser.

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Palestine becomes member of IMF body
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced Monday that Palestine has joined an IMF initiative to disseminate statistics to the public. Palestine became a member of the Special Data Dissemination Standard, or SDDS, on April 19, becoming the fifth Arab state to join after Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan. SDDS is a standard by the International Monetary Fund to guide countries in the dissemination of national statistics to the public. Palestine's membership, listed as the West Bank and Gaza, indicates the maturity of PA institutions, Fayyad said.

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Termination of Israeli-Egyptian natural gas agreement serves dangerous precedent
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

Mohamed Shoeb, head of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company, announced Sunday evening that the company will terminate its agreement to provide natural gas to Israel, after a decision had been made on Thursday due to what he termed “Israel’s repeated breaching of the agreement.” Shoeb, in interview on Al-Hayat television, stressed that the termination of the deal was due to failure on the part of the Israeli side to transfer the payments owed by Israel for some months and “had nothing to do with the repeated attacks on the pipeline.”

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Why Europe should reject Israeli deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Kataryzna Lemanska, Stuart Reigeluth - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

From tomorrow, the Committees on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and International Trade (INTA) at the European Parliament will decide on the fate of the controversial proposed Agreement between Europe and Israel on Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products (ACAA). The meetings end on April 26. Those in favour of this agreement argue correctly that it will bring economic benefits to Europe as it would lift barriers to trade and lower the prices of specific industrial products entering the European market.

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