Girding For War With Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Times
(Editorial) April 4, 2008 - 6:09pm

Recent events serve as a reminder of how menacing behavior from Iran and Syria keeps the Middle East on a hair trigger. On Tuesday, Israel learned that Hezbollah was rapidly rebuilding its military capabilities and preparing for renewed conflict with Israel. The next morning, a London-based Arab newspaper reported that Syria was concentrating troops and tanks along its border with Lebanon and had massed troops in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley in preparation for an Israeli attack.

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Enlightenment Through The Enemy's Eyes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times
by Mel Frykberg - April 3, 2008 - 5:31pm

As the barrage of rockets fired from the northern Gaza Strip began to rain down on the Israeli border town of Sderot the warning sirens were already wailing, sending thousands of Israelis scurrying for their lives in the city's ubiquitous underground bomb shelters. A few kilometers north at the Barzilai medical center in the town of Ashkelon, staff were on high alert as they scrambled to evacuate patients to safety. One of the Grad rockets fired from Gaza landed a mere 50 meters from the hospital entrance.

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Israeli Rights Group Questions Military's West Bank Arrests
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
April 3, 2008 - 5:30pm

The killing of four armed Palestinian fugitives in a hail of Israeli gunfire is raising new questions about the military's practices during arrest operations in the West Bank. The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem is calling for a criminal inquiry into the shooting, citing witness accounts claiming the men were summarily executed. B'Tselem says that would violate a ruling by Israel's supreme court that troops must try to take wanted men alive.

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The Same Air, The Same Water
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Meron Benvenisti - (Opinion) March 27, 2008 - 6:59pm

Ecological issues have become central in public discourse, with almost all activity in the fields of transportation, infrastructure, industry and agriculture spurring a lively debate on their environmental impact. The discussion long ago went beyond the limited themes of protecting nature reserves, wild animals and plants, and has begun to bite into sacred myths about the "conquest of the wilderness" and the dressing of the land "in a frock of cement and concrete."

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Amnesty Urges Israel To Let Cancer Patient Leave Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
March 27, 2008 - 6:51pm

The Israeli military should allow cancer patient Karima Abu Dalal to leave the Gaza Strip to obtain desperately needed medical care in Israel, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. "Karima Abu Dalal's life now hangs in the balance because of the Israeli Army's failure to allow her a permit to leave Gaza to obtain specialist cancer treatment not available there," the rights group said in a statement. "The Israeli authorities should immediately allow her to access the treatment she needs."

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Olmert Upbeat On Mideast Peace Talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Ashraf Khalil - March 27, 2008 - 6:45pm

Amid ongoing rocket fire from Gaza Strip militants and efforts by the Israeli government to shore up the Palestinian Authority, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday said he was optimistic that current negotiations would produce a lasting peace with the Palestinians. "We want it. They want it. We have to agree. It's not easy. It takes time," Olmert said during a briefing with foreign journalists. "Those who want peace, those who want good neighborly relations, will prevail. . . . These are not empty talks. We are very serious."

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The Folly At Givat Ze'ev
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Amnon Rubinstein - March 27, 2008 - 1:27pm

The admonition delivered to Israel by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice regarding its resumption of the construction of 750 housing units in Givat Ze'ev raises afresh the question of establishing or expanding Jewish settlements in territories generally considered to be Palestinian. These admonitions were accompanied by strongly worded statements made by the secretary-general of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, and by the EU, referring to Israel's road map undertaking to cease such settlement activities.

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Olmert Threatens 'painful' Steps Against Hamas, Rules Out Truce
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - March 27, 2008 - 1:23pm

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed Wednesday that Israel would take 'painful' measures against Hamas, and ruled out any possibility of talks toward a cease-fire. "We are not talking to Hamas and we are not going to compromise with someone that is consistently shooting rockets on the heads of Israelis," Olmert told foreign journalists at a news conference, speaking in English. "We will deal with Hamas in other ways and these ways will be very painful."

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Gaza And The Failure Of Israel's Deterrence Strategy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Daoud Kuttab - (Opinion) March 27, 2008 - 12:20pm

Every day in the Gaza Strip, strategic deterrence - the inhibition of attack by a fear of punishment backed up by superior military power - is being put to the test. The escalating spiral of violence by Israel and Gaza militants indicates not only that deterrence is failing, but also that its effectiveness depends on adherence to fundamental standards of morality.

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Turning Words Into Concrete Actions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Middle East Progress
by Brigadier General (ret.) Ilan Paz - (Interview) March 27, 2008 - 12:17pm

Q: What is your current assessment of the Israel-Palestinian track since the Annapolis conference?

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