World Must Act Urgently to Avert “Crisis” in Palestine, Experts Warn
Press Release - March 27, 2012 - 12:00am Washington, DC, March 27 -- The international community must act urgently support the Palestinian Authority and its institutions or face a looming “crisis” a panel of experts today warned at a Washington event today co-hosted by American Task Force for Palestine and The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. |
Show, Don't Tell: Why the Apartheid Analogy Falls Flat
In Print by Hussein Ibish - The Daily Beast (Opinion) - March 26, 2012 - 12:00am A series of recent articles have pointlessly debated whether or not Israel can accurately be described as “an apartheid state.” But the problem with the apartheid analogy is less its inaccuracy, and more that, however emotionally appealing some people may find it, it’s just not useful in ending the occupation and advancing the Palestinian cause. |
A settlement boycott can work
In Print by Hussein Ibish - NOW Lebanon (Opinion) - March 27, 2012 - 12:00am Peter Beinart’s recent call in the New York Times for Jewish Americans to boycott Israeli settlement goods has been met with angry responses from many Jewish Americans. This includes some who are opposed to the settler movement. The most important of these objections hold that a boycott cannot work because Jewish Americans won’t go along with such a program and there isn’t much to boycott anyway. Both arguments hold little water. |
Olmert to J Street: Abbas a partner for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yitzhak Benhorin - March 27, 2012 - 12:00am WASHINGTON - "Don’t tell me there is no partner. There is a partner. (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) wants peace with Israel," former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said during a J Street gala dinner on Monday. The former Israeli premier said Abbas was against terror during the Yasser Arafat era and was in favor of peace negotiations during Ariel Sharon's tenure as prime minister, as well as during his own. |
PNA to ratify budget with shortfall
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua March 27, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) will ratify its 2012 fiscal year budget at 3 billion U.S. dollars, with a shortfall of 1.3 billion dollars, a Palestinian official said Tuesday. Ghassan Al-Khatib, spokesman for the Palestinian government in the West Bank, blamed "unprecedented lack" of foreign aid for the deficit, warning that the shortfall threatens the PNA's ability to carry out its services, especially in the education and health sectors. |
Gazans blame Hamas for energy crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Elior Levy - March 26, 2012 - 12:00am Social justice? The recent energy crisis in Gaza has enraged many of the Strip's residents, who are now launching a new campaign on Facebook, calling to hold a general strike on Thursday. The campaign organizers are calling on all drivers, business owners, schools and universities to strike as an act of protest in the face of a growing rift between Gaza and the West Bank, and the deepening electricity and fuel crisis. |
Migron deal makes a joke of Israel's judicial system
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Nehemia Shtrasler - (Opinion) March 27, 2012 - 12:00am Here's one thing everyone in Israel agrees about: Benny Begin is a very honest guy. His unusual integrity is manifest in the agreement he forged recently with residents of the illegal Migron outpost, allowing them to stay there for three more years and then move to a new outpost to be built on state land. This is an agreement toward which the Supreme Court displayed disdain; the government winked as it signed the document with the settlers, and the agreement even received the blessing of the Knesset's most extreme right-wing member, Minister Daniel Hershkowitz of Habayit Hayehudi. |
J Street is like the 'Bizarro World' of AIPAC
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Chemi Shalev - (Opinion) March 27, 2012 - 12:00am The rhetorical question posed in the Book of Amos “would the two go together unless they have agreed” was answered in Washington on Monday night when former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared as the keynote speaker at the gala dinner of the leftist Jewish lobby J Street. Olmert and J Street, after all, have at least two important common denominators: both strongly support a two-state solution and both desperately seek public legitimacy. |
Hamas holds dozens of drivers in Gaza power crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Ibrahim Barzak - March 26, 2012 - 12:00am GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Police in Hamas-ruled Gaza have detained dozens of taxi drivers for allegedly spreading "rumors" about the territory's worst power crisis in years, officials said Monday, The detentions, which began over the weekend, signaled that the Islamic militant Hamas is increasingly concerned about the political fallout from crippling shortages of fuel and electricity. Authorities did not explain what got the drivers in trouble, beyond saying the "rumors" had to do with the energy crisis. |