Noam Shalit slams Netanyahu over ease of Gaza blockade
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Jonathan Lis - June 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Noam Shalit, father of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, lashed out Monday at the government over its decision to ease the land siege on the Gaza Strip and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of surrendering to international pressure. "Yesterday, in a confident voice and without compromise Netanyahu announced the change in policy on the Gaza siege," said Noam Shalit. "In other words, he announced, 'I surrendered to international pressure that was applied to us' and we are asking where Gilad stands in this equation. We are asking where is Gilad, our son?"

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Clipped wings
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ze'ev Segal - (Opinion) June 21, 2010 - 12:00am

The Turkel Committee that is investigating the handling of last month's Gaza-bound flotilla - otherwise known as the "independent public committee" - convened last week for a preparatory meeting. The committee is a kind of Israeli council of sages whose purposes are to examine whether the naval blockade and the way it was enforced were compatible with international law, and to placate the world, especially the United States.

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MESS Report / Easing of Gaza blockade marks victory for flotilla activists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - June 18, 2010 - 12:00am

Despite the contradictory statements issued by the Prime Minister's Office yesterday, the general direction is clear. Whether the decision has already been made, as the English statement indicates, or will become official only at a later stage, as the Hebrew statement implies, Israel has folded.

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Turkey may not send Israel envoy back
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
June 17, 2010 - 12:00am

A government official says Turkey is considering downgrading diplomatic relations with Israel and reviewing economic and military cooperation unless Jerusalem takes steps to make amends for the deadly raid on Gaza-bound aid ships. The official said Thursday Turkey wants Israel to apologize for the raid, return the seized ships, agree to an international investigation and offer compensation for the victims. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government rules. The official said Turkey's envoy will not return if demands are not met "within a reasonable timeframe."

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Elia Suleiman: stories my father told me
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Steven J. Rosen - (Interview) June 16, 2010 - 12:00am

We're in a street in occupied Ramallah. A young Palestinian man is taking out his rubbish. An Israeli tank is parked nearby, its gun barrel pointed right at the man's head. As he walks to the bin and back, the tank turret tracks him in whirs and clanks, the barrel dipping when he steps off the pavement. The man is about to go inside when his phone rings. He starts talking to a friend about a party, pacing back and forth, ignoring the tank, which is still noisily following his every move. When he goes back inside, the gun swivels to point directly at the camera.

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Family of Palestinian driver killed by police demands investigation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Maher Abukhater - (Blog) June 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel on Monday was facing another demand for an investigation into its military's actions, this time from the Palestinian Authority and the family of a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem, who was shot and killed Friday. Ziad Joulani, 41, a shopkeeper and father of three with no criminal or history of political activism, was killed when police opened fire as he got out of his car, witnesses said. [For the record: An earlier version said Joulani was a father of four; he has three daughters.]

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Israeli troops kill drug smuggler from Egypt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
June 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a drug smuggler who infiltrated from Egypt on Wednesday, a military spokesman said. The smuggler was part of a group, some of whose members were armed, that crossed into Israel's southern desert carrying bags of drugs, the spokesman said. Some of the smugglers, he said, fled back into Egypt after the shooting, leaving the drugs on the Israeli side of the border. Israel coordinated its actions with Egypt, the official said. Egypt is one of two Arab countries with which Israel has a peace treaty, signed in 1979.


Amnesty criticizes proposed flotilla inquiry
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
June 16, 2010 - 12:00am

Amnesty International has criticized Israel’s proposed investigation into its military action against a Gaza aid flotilla on 31 May as lacking in transparency and unlikely to ensure accountability over the nine deaths of activists during the operation. The Israeli cabinet approved a three-man Israeli commission, with two international observers, to examine Israel’s military action off the Gaza coast in which nine international activists were killed by Israeli forces.

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Israelis have mixed feelings about flotilla inquiry
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - June 15, 2010 - 12:00am

With a sense of relief and a touch of anxiety, Israelis braced themselves Monday for another high-profile probe of their military's conduct. Relief stemmed from the hope that an Israeli-led commission, approved by the government Monday, will head off U.N. calls for an international inquiry into Israel's May 31 raid on an aid flotilla seeking to break its blockade of the Gaza Strip. Nine Turkish activists were killed in the operation. Anxiety persists, however, because recent inquiries into the military have led to political shake-ups and painful soul-searching.

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UN insists on int'l flotilla probe
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by E.B. Solomont - June 15, 2010 - 12:00am

The UN called on Israel to accede to demands for an international inquiry of the event surrounding the IDF raid of the Gaza flotilla Monday night, even as the Israeli Cabinet approved a committee to pursue an internal Israeli inquiry of the matter. "The Secretary-General [Ban Ki-moon] takes note of the Israeli announcement on their inquiry," UN spokesman Farhan Haq was quoted as saying by Reuters. Haq added, though, that Ban's "proposal for an international inquiry remains on the table and he hopes for a positive Israeli response."

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