April 22nd

Ties that bind
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Economist
April 20, 2009 - 12:00am

AVOID a confrontation with the new American administration. That is what Israel’s defence minister, Ehud Barak, sought to persuade his prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, on Sunday April 19th. Rather, said Mr Barak, turn up in Washington, DC, next month with your own Israeli peace plan. This should recognise the Palestinians’ right to an independent state but only subject to stringent limitations and qualifications in the interests of Israel’s security.

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Former West Bank enemies find route to peace the Ulster way
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times
April 22, 2009 - 12:00am

The night before Shifa Alqudsi was going to blow herself up in a bomb attack on the Israeli town of Netanya she stayed up explaining it all to her seven-year-old daughter Diana, telling her to look for a star in the sky when she wanted to speak to her. Last week she told the story again, this time to the people she had wanted to kill, among them a soldier with a tale of how he once took part in an operation to murder Palestinians.

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Israel Puts Iran Issue Ahead of Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Howard Schneider, Glenn Kessler - April 22, 2009 - 12:00am

The new Israeli government will not move ahead on the core issues of peace talks with the Palestinians until it sees progress in U.S. efforts to stop Iran's suspected pursuit of a nuclear weapon and limit Tehran's rising influence in the region, according to top government officials familiar with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's developing policy on the issue.

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Lieberman: Right of return makes Arab plan unacceptable
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - April 22, 2009 - 12:00am

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday his opposition to an Arab peace initiative stemmed from its demand for a "right of return" for Palestinian refugees to Israel proper. "The clause on the right of return cannot be agreed to," he declared at a cabinet meeting on the government's diplomatic policy. "This is a subject upon which there is wide agreement in the government and in the public as well." Lieberman's criticism of various peace efforts has stoked consternation in Israel and abroad.

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Hopes for the Pope
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - April 22, 2009 - 12:00am

In a few weeks' time several dozen Catholics, perhaps 100, will travel the checkpoint route from the Gaza Strip to Bethlehem in the West Bank in order to greet Pope Benedict XVI. The pope will not go to them; they will come to him - assuming that Israel keeps its word and permits them to leave the besieged Strip for several hours. In a recent letter to the Vatican 40 prominent Christians from the territories begged the Holy See to add Gaza City to the Pope's itinerary. They want to show him and the dozens of cameras that will record his visit the destruction left by Israel in the city.

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Famed militant tries new tack as Jenin theater director
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - April 22, 2009 - 12:00am

The war being waged in Jenin over the last few days is completely different from the sort the West Bank city has known in recent years. It is a culture war between groups and individuals who wish to advance artistic projects, and those fighting them in the name of Islam. The entrance to the city's Freedom Theater, founded by actor Juliano Mer Khamis, was torched four days ago. Not long before that, a music center run by the al-Kamanjati organization also was set ablaze. An announcement at the city's mosque blasted Mer and theater employees as depraved and immoral. Advertisement

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Clinton: U.S. won't deal with Hamas until it accepts our terms
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
April 22, 2009 - 12:00am

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday the United States would refuse to deal with or fund a Palestinian government that included Hamas unless it met three international conditions. "We will not deal with nor in any way fund a Palestinian government that includes Hamas unless and until Hamas has renounced violence, recognized Israel and agrees to follow the previous obligations of the Palestinian Authority," Clinton told the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee.

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April 21st

Israeli Prime Minister denies claims that he demanded recognition of Israel as a Jewish state as a precondition for peace talks (1). A wiretap on U.S. Representative Jane Harman allegedly reveals her interceding in an investigation of two pro-Israel lobbyists facing trial on espionage charges (2), though the Congresswoman denies involvement (3). New York Times columnist Richard Cohen comments on the recently released Human Rights Watch report on Hamas’ treatment of political opponents during the Gaza War (4) Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s remarks yesterday at the Durban conference spark controversy (5) (6) (13). Israel and Egypt are set to discuss a new Gaza cease-fire this week (9).

Ahmadinejad, Durban and another fine mess
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Center For Strategic & International Studies
by Antony Lerman - (Opinion) April 20, 2009 - 12:00am

This is hardly the time for levity, but watching delegates at the Durban anti-racism review conference walk out while President Ahmadinejad served up his version of Zionist history, I couldn't help thinking of that immortal phrase from Laurel and Hardy: "Well, that's another fine mess you've gotten me into." The Geneva UN gathering is an event of high seriousness. It coincides with Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day and Hitler's birthday. It has been heading for disaster for months while western states and Jewish groups have been at loggerheads over strategy.

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Hamas's Bloody Hands
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Richard Cohen - (Opinion) April 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Some residents of Gaza were taken from their homes and shot in the legs or feet. Some were brutally beaten, and some were simply murdered, sometimes after hideous torture. If you are expecting -- based on everything that has happened -- that the awful Israelis did this, guess again. It was Hamas, the authentic and genuine government of Gaza. Well, no one's perfect.

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