NEWS: Israel is maintaining a block on transferring Palestinian tax revenues. The Israeli government is trying to limit foreign funding to liberal NGOs. An American activist badly injured by Israeli occupation forces during a protest files suit. As ultra-Orthodox religious groups gain power in Israeli society, women fear for their rights. Palestinians ponder their next step at the UN. A Hamas police officer is killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. PM Fayyad again says he is not, and will not agree to be, an obstacle to Palestinian reunification. Western officials suggest Israel may have been behind a huge explosion in Iran. Quartet efforts are unlikely to restart negotiations. The CSM looks at RIWAQ which preserves Palestinians' cultural heritage buildings. COMMENTARY: Akiva Eldar asks why anyone would ever believe PM Netanyahu, and Uri Avnery says lying is the essence of his political career, but Deborah Danino Harkham says he has been subject to unfair character assassination for many years. Amira Hass says Israel is always coming up with new ways to expel Palestinians, but nobody cares. Susan Hattis Rolef says the NGO Bill is a threat to Israeli democracy. Mourid Barghouti says he is a poet from a country with no name. Shlomo Ben-Ami says Israel inexplicably bolstered Hamas with the prisoner swap when it should be moving quickly towards a deal with Pres. Abbas. Alon Ben-Meir says the status quo is incredibly dangerous for Israel. Natasha Mozgovaya says Pres. Obama is going to have to work harder now on Jewish outreach. Ha'aretz says Israel's leaders are putting their political interests ahead of the law.

Israeli leaders choosing personal interests over law
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) November 14, 2011 - 1:00am

Late last week, another mark of disgrace was stamped on the foreheads of Israel's decision-makers and law enforcement authorities. The response that the state submitted to a High Court of Justice petition filed by Palestinian farmers demanding the return of their land, on which the settlement of Amona was built, is still more evidence of an incredibly serious phenomenon - the government and prosecution's collaboration with thieves and lawbreakers.

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Obama makes his Jewish outreach work harder
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - (Blog) November 12, 2011 - 1:00am

It's not nice to publicly use overheard conversation, but during tense elections, there is no chance that a dialogue between the French and the U.S. presidents will be easily dismissed. On Friday, Republican presidential hopeful, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, addressed the Obama-Sarkozy "hot mic" remarks at the opening of his New Hampshire campaign office.

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The Irony of Netanyahu's 'Success Story'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Alon Ben-Meir - (Opinion) November 14, 2011 - 1:00am

It is ironic how those loyal to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have created a narrative of a success story of Netanyahu's achievements where failure is clearly rampant. They point to the solidity of the governing coalition, the halting of the Gaza flotillas, the failure of the Palestinian UN gambit, the release of Gilad Shalit, the expansion of settlements and the standing ovation from Congress, all while defiantly opposing any of the peacemaking moves proposed by President Obama.

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Ransoming Israel’s chance for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Shlomo Ben-Ami - (Opinion) November 19, 2011 - 1:00am

The exchange of prisoners between enemies is often a prelude to political reconciliation. Unfortunately, the recent exchange between Israel and Hamas, in which the Islamist organisation gained the lion’s share of more than 1,000 prisoners in exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, does not augur well for the chances of an Israeli-Palestinian peace.

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I'm Palestinian - but where am I from?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Mourid Barghouti - (Opinion) November 11, 2011 - 1:00am

For years, the Facebook team has been reminding me that I have to edit my profile and add the country I come from. As a matter of fact, I deliberately left this out because of my irresponsible fancy that writers belong everywhere and to everyone. Fed up with the dogged persistence of that dialogue box, I finally complied and clicked the "edit" button to write down "Palestine". Oh, it was not as easy as I had thought. I am not allowed to type, I must select from an alphabetically prearranged list of countries.

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Reducing dangers to Israeli democracy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Susan Hattis Rolef - (Opinion) November 13, 2011 - 1:00am

Many observers, mostly left-wing liberals but not only, are worried about the state of Israeli democracy. The danger, they say, is coming from several directions. First on the list are legislative initiatives allegedly designed to discourage freedom of speech, human rights activities and a settlement of the conflict with the Palestinians based on territorial compromise, and to encourage a change in the make-up of the Supreme Court.

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It's not that Israel is finding new ways to expel Palestinians, it's that no one cares
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amira Hass - (Opinion) November 14, 2011 - 1:00am

The affair of the rapist president Moshe Katsav is always associated in my mind with my limitations as a journalist. And the mention of the week in which the affair became public (after July 8, 2006 ) brings to mind the Israeli expulsion bureaucracy.

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The anti-Bibi debacle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Deborah Danino Harkham - (Opinion) November 13, 2011 - 1:00am

“I cannot stand him anymore,” said S. “He is a liar.” “You’re fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!” added O. At first, this seems like an innocuous and banal exchange – albeit petty – between colleagues indulging in gossip for lack of better things to discuss. The problem here is that the characters of this scene are not your average men on the street, they are the heads of state of two of the world’s most powerful countries: US President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

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‘You are fed up with him?’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Uri Avnery - (Analysis) November 14, 2011 - 1:00am

With the Internet now everywhere, it has become impossible to suppress news YOU CAN lie to all of the people some of the time, and to some of the people all of the time, but you cannot lie to all of the people all of the time.”

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