March 29th

Arabs to Netanyahu: Hold your fire! ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) March 29, 2012 - 12:00am Allies in the Persian Gulf are telling American officials in Congress and the administration that the sanctions and other pressure on Iran are working and this is a time to ratchet up the pressure and keep the bombers on the ground. But if all else fails and the military option is the only way to prevent Tehran from getting nuclear weapons, it should be the Americans, not the Israelis, who do the job. » Read more

Open Letter to Peter Beinart: Boycotting the settlements will not save the two-state solution ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) March 28, 2012 - 12:00am Dear Peter Beinart, I read your book The Crisis of Zionism with as much interest as I read your New York Review of Books Essay two years ago. Both struck a deep chord in me, because you and I share a set of basic values: ethical universalism and a firm belief that the lesson of Jewish history and Jewish suffering is that only an uncompromising defense of human rights for everybody, anywhere, can prevent the type of horrors that the Jewish people went through. » Read more

Israel's plan to attack Iran put on hold until next year at the earliest ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amir Oren - (Opinion) March 29, 2012 - 12:00am At 8:58 P.M. on Tuesday, Israel's 2012 war against Iran came to a quiet end. The capricious plans for a huge aerial attack were returned to the deep recesses of safes and hearts. The war may not have been canceled but it has certainly been postponed. For a while, at least, we can sound the all clear: It won't happen this year. Until further notice, Israel Air Force Flight 007 will not be taking off. » Read more

Israel's High Court is halting the momentum of the Zionist enterprise ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Israel Harel - (Opinion) March 29, 2012 - 12:00am Beyond the pale. That was how Justice Miriam Naor described the government's request to postpone the verdict in the case of the Migron outpost, in order to prevent suffering and quarreling between brethren in Israel. But that is not so. [The High Court this week ordered the evacuation of the settlement by August 1.] A court that falls into the trap laid for it by anti-Zionist elements among the Jews, and hostile elements among the Arabs, is the one beyond the pale. » Read more

Open letter to Michael Oren ahead of Easter ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency (Opinion) March 28, 2012 - 12:00am As Christian leaders in Palestine, we were appalled by the baseless allegations you published in the Wall Street Journal on March 9. Your attempt to blame the difficult reality that Palestinian Christians face on Palestinian Muslims is a shameful manipulation of the facts intended to mask the damage that Israel has done to our community. As has been stated in our Kairos document, we Palestinian Christians declare that “the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is a sin against God and humanity because it deprives Palestinians of their basic human rights, bestowed by God.” » Read more

Jesus for Jews ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Shmuel Rosner - (Opinion) March 28, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Last week on Monday morning, in the busy dining room of the Inbal hotel, Tim Burt, an associate pastor at Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, told me a story of mistrust. Several years ago, his church held its first “Night to Honor Israel” — an opportunity, said Burt, for Christians “to demonstrate their love and support for Israel and the Jewish people.” » Read more

What’s the capital of Israel? Don’t ask the U.S. State Department ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Natasha Mozgovaya - March 28, 2012 - 12:00am The status of Jerusalem has long been a controversial issue – even in the U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland echoed that fact this week while answering a question about Israel's capital. Earlier this week, the Department of State issued a routine statement announcing the visit of the Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Kathleen Stephens to the Middle East. The statement said that Stephens was "to meet with a broad cross-section of government officials, students, NGOs, and exchange program alumni". » Read more

Joint Israeli Palestinian Poll, March 2012 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Konrad Adenauer Stiftung March 26, 2012 - 12:00am These are the results of the most recent Joint Israeli-Palestinian Poll conducted jointly by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah. This joint survey was conducted with the support of the Ford Foundation Cairo office and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Ramallah and Jerusalem. The poll was conducted in the backdrop of the recent round of violent clashes in Southern Israel and the Gaza Strip. » Read more

Fears of new Palestinian intifada mount ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Press International (UPI) March 27, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH, West Bank, March 27 (UPI) -- A call by imprisoned Palestinian icon Marwan Barghouti for his countrymen to launch a new wave of civil resistance against Israel's occupation has alarmed Israelis who see it as a battle cry for a new uprising. Barghouti, a senior leader of the mainstream Fatah movement and who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for masterminding terrorist attacks, has wide support across the Palestinian political spectrum. » Read more

Israel’s Secret Staging Ground ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Mark Perry - March 28, 2012 - 12:00am In 2009, the deputy chief of mission of the U.S. embassy in Baku, Donald Lu, sent a cable to the State Department's headquarters in Foggy Bottom titled "Azerbaijan's discreet symbiosis with Israel." The memo, later released by WikiLeaks, quotes Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev as describing his country's relationship with the Jewish state as an iceberg: "nine-tenths of it is below the surface." » Read more