Armchair warriors
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Press International (UPI)
by Arnaud De Borchgrave - (Analysis) April 8, 2010 - 12:00am

It is becoming increasingly difficult to sort fact from fiction between legacy media and the new media of libel-proof blogs sans editors. Blogmocracy is a time-consuming exercise in democracy. Media-watchers say to be well informed and up to speed one must scan at least 100 blogs. Also "Wikileaks," a Web-based investigative journalism outfit that recently released a video that showed a U.S. Apache helicopter opening fire on a group of men, killing 12, including two Reuters employees, on July 12, 2007. The Apache carried a gun camera. Wikileaks posted 38 minutes of what the gun was doing.

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Israel main threat to Mid-East peace: Turkish PM
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 7, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel was the main threat to peace in the Middle East, the visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said here on Wednesday before meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "Israel represents now the main threat to regional peace," Erdogan said before his around an-hour meeting with Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace, local media reported. "If a country makes use of disproportionate force in Palestine and use phosphorous bombs in Gaza ... We demand that how can it do that," the Turkish Prime Minister was quoted by local media.

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US can raise the pressure on Israel without cutting aid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by David R. Francis - April 5, 2010 - 12:00am

Come April 15, tax day, Josh Ruebner plans to send his group's members to post offices, dozens of them across the country, to "educate" people mailing in their tax forms that the United States should end military aid to Israel.

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New Barrier To Be Constructed Along Israel-Egypt Border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Jeffay - April 5, 2010 - 12:00am

Seven years after starting work on the controversial West Bank security barrier, Israel has decided to build another barrier — along its border with Egypt. In March, the Cabinet approved a plan to seal Israel’s southwest border, which is currently secured by only patrols and monitoring devices. Egypt has not raised any objection.

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PA officials in US for security consultation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ali Waked - April 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian Interior Minister Saeed Abu Ali has left for Washington together with the commander of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service, Ziyad Hab al-Rih, for security consultations. The meetings are aimed at examining the Palestinian Authority's preparedness for taking full security control of additional territories in the West Bank, which now belong to Areas B and C and will become part of Area A. The two officials will be joined by additional Palestinians officers later on.

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Israel gags news of soldier turned journalist under arrest
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - March 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel has held a journalist under secret house arrest since last December based on allegations that during her military service she leaked classified documents suggesting that the Israeli army violated laws dealing with targeted killings. Anat Kam, 23, was arrested last December and charged under Israel's espionage and treason laws, JTA has learned. Prosecutors are seeking a 14-year sentence, which is considered severe by Israeli standards.

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Palestinian security forces walk a careful line
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - March 26, 2010 - 12:00am

As the highest-ranking commander of nearly 8,000 Palestinian security troops, Maj. Gen. Diab Ali is accustomed to being top gun. But the salutes often stop when he leaves the military base and travels through the West Bank. Experience has taught the general to leave his gun behind and trade the uniform for civilian clothes, lest some young Israeli checkpoint guard decide to hold him for questioning or block his way. "It avoids problems," said Ali, commander of the National Security Forces of the Palestinian Authority.

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Despite row, U.S. and Israel sign massive arms deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel - March 26, 2010 - 12:00am

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington this week absorbing the full wrath of the Obama administration, the Pentagon and Israel's defense establishment were in the process of sealing a large arms deal. According to the deal, Israel will purchase three new Hercules C-130J airplanes. The deal for the three aircrafts, designed by Lockheed Martin, is worth roughly a quarter billion dollars. Each aircraft costs $70 million. The aircrafts were manufactured specifically for Israeli needs, and include a large number of systems produced by Israel's defense industry.

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US general reaffirms military bond with Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Hanan Greenberg - March 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Political crisis, but no military crisis: US General David Petraeus on Wednesday spoke with Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi and reassured him that he never said Israel's policies endanger US troops in the Middle East. Recent reports about Patraeus' alleged comments during a Congress hearing were denied by American security officials. However, the general insisted on clearing the air himself and called the Israeli chief of staff.

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Rocket fired by Gaza militants kills man in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
March 18, 2010 - 12:00am

A rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip killed a man inside Israel Thursday, Israeli medics said, in the first death from a rocket attack since Israel's Gaza offensive last year. Magen David Adom of Israel's emergency service said the man killed was about 30 years old and appeared to be a farm worker from Thailand employed in an agricultural community just north of Gaza. Such rocket fire was once common but has become rare since the Israeli military's Gaza campaign, which brought about a steep drop in the number of attacks launched from the Palestinian territory.

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