August 12th

AN ISRAELI VIEW Building a future border ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by David Newman - (Opinion) August 8, 2011 - 12:00am The construction of the West Bank barrier has, in reality, been the construction of a border between Israel and a future state of Palestine. This does not mean that the location of the barrier will remain in situ and that there will not be changes in its course if and when a formal agreement is reached. » Read more

Editorial: The UN tactic ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News (Editorial) August 11, 2011 - 12:00am Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has provided no evidence to back his recent claim that the Palestinians were planning “bloodshed and violence the like of which we have never seen” in September as they push for UN recognition of an independent state. But when Lieberman said he feared the Palestinians could organize marches to coincide with the UN General Assembly in September, he was right. Palestinian leaders have drawn up a plan to stage rallies that would boost their drive for UN recognition. » Read more

Fight Over Jerusalem in the Pages of a Passport ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) August 10, 2011 - 12:00am Why is it, friends of Israel often ask, that the Jewish state is the only country in the world that’s not allowed to name its own capital city? King David chose Jerusalem as capital of the original Jewish state 3,000 years ago. And yet America refuses to place its embassy there, despite repeated acts by Congress requiring it. Neither does any other country in the world. The United States won’t even allow American citizens born in Jerusalem to have their passports show Israel as their birthplace. Their passports simply say “Jerusalem.” » Read more

Israeli protests fight injustice - as long as it's convenient ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Joseph Dana - (Opinion) August 12, 2011 - 12:00am Last weekend, more than 300,000 Israelis protested for economic reform throughout the country. In Tel Aviv, the epicentre of the housing protests, 250,000 Israelis marched to the defence ministry chanting the slogan "the people want social justice". The demonstrations were some of the largest in Israel's history and have pumped new life into the corpse of Israel's leftist political movement. » Read more

The Lessons of the Second Lebanon War ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal by Michael B. Oren - (Opinion) August 12, 2011 - 12:00am South of Lebanon's Litani River, many villages lay in ruin. Others were deserted, their inhabitants having fled northward to Beirut. Across the border, Israeli civilians emerged from shelters to find their neighborhoods ravaged by thousands of Katyusha rockets. The surrounding forests were scorched. Israeli troops deployed throughout southern Lebanon, poised to deal a decisive blow to Hezbollah, but they did not. At that moment, 8 a.m. on Aug. 14, 2006—five years ago this weekend—the guns of the Second Lebanon War fell silent. » Read more

Israeli leaders in hysterics ahead of September ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) August 12, 2011 - 12:00am As the UN vote on Palestinian statehood within the June 4, 1967 borders approaches, Israel's government is showing increasing symptoms of hysteria. » Read more

Israel protests show nation's beating heart ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Amos Oz - (Editorial) August 9, 2011 - 12:00am Israel has never been an egalitarian state. But in its heyday, it was more egalitarian than most states in the world. The poverty wasn't acute and the wealth wasn't ostentatious, and social responsibility toward the poor and needy was shown not only on the economic level but on the emotional level too. » Read more

In Prison, and Denied Education ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS) by Mohammed Omer - August 11, 2011 - 12:00am In the early morning hours, Fatima Abu Jayyab, mother of Palestinian prisoner Eyad Khalid Abu Jayyab, gets ready for morning prayers. For the past nine years, every Monday morning this 57-year-old mother has stood outside the International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) office in Gaza City with a poster displaying her son. The Israeli authorities have prevented her from seeing him for the last five years. Israeli authorities imprisoned Eyad Khalid Abu Jayyab for what Fatima calls affiliation to a political party. "I think of him every moment," she told IPS. » Read more

Abbas: We want settlements-free state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews August 12, 2011 - 12:00am Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with US lawmakers visiting the West Bank and Gaza Strip and urged them to lend their support to the formation of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, the PA's WAFA news agency reported on Friday. Abbas reportedly stressed that the future state must be "empty of settlements." The US delegation was led by Senator Steny Hoyer (D), who is the Minority Whip of the House of Representatives. They toured the area on Thursday. » Read more

Ashton: E. J'lem construction threatens two-states ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Khaled Abu Toameh, Herb Keinon, Melanie Lidman - August 12, 2011 - 12:00am Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s decision late Wednesday night to approve construction of 1,600 apartments in the northeast Jerusalem haredi neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo infuriated the Palestinians and brought sharp condemnations from overseas. At the beginning of next week, the Interior Ministry is expecting to give the final approval to two additional projects in east Jerusalem – 2,000 housing units in Givat Hamatos and 625 units in Pisgat Ze’ev, Yishai’s spokesman Roei Lachmanovich said. » Read more