March 2nd

Arab judge, Jewish words ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Noah Klieger - (Opinion) March 1, 2012 - 1:00am I just cannot understand the major assault on Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran, who refrained from singing our national anthem, HaTikva, in an official ceremony at the courthouse earlier this week. What do they want from him? After all, he is not Jewish, and the thing about our anthem is that its words are “blatantly Jewish.” How can an Arab Israeli, regardless of whether he is Muslim or Christian, sing about a “Jewish soul?” After all, Naftali Herz Imber wrote the words of our national anthem many years before the State of Israel’s inception as an anthem for the Zionist movement. » Read more

Gaza Marathon Draws Hundreds in Rainy Weather ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Ibrahim Barzak - March 1, 2012 - 1:00am KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — Some 2,200 school children and 300 adults ran a relay race Thursday traversing the Gaza Strip north to south, roughly the distance of an Olympic marathon, to raise money for U.N. summer camps. The race, sponsored by the U.N. aid agency for Gaza refugees, was held in rainy and unusually cold weather. The children ran segments of one kilometer (0.6 miles), while some of the adults ran full marathons, said Adnan Abu Hassna, a spokesman for the U.N. agency. » Read more

Seeking a new horizon for Palestinian prisoners ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Shawqi Issa - (Opinion) March 2, 2012 - 1:00am The thorny issue of the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails has numerous angles. First, it is a humanitarian cause. Many of the prisoners have spent decades, some more than 30 years in jail, with all the resulting social and economic ramifications for Palestinian society as a whole. Additionally, Palestinian leaders bear the moral responsibility for the fact that these activists have remained behind bars for periods far longer than logically acceptable. A full 121 of them have languished in prison since before the 1993 signing of the Oslo agreements with Israel. » Read more

Hamas Deputy: Political Operations Out of Damascus ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency March 2, 2012 - 1:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Speaking from Cairo, the deputy head of Hamas' politburo said Thursday that Hamas' offices would remain in Syria despite the relocation of all political and media activities out of Damascus. The violent crackdown on protests by Syria security forces have prompted Hamas to review its headquarters in Syria, and the movement's leaders-in-exile have steadily moved out of the country. » Read more

Hamas Deputy: Political Operations Out of Damascus ATFP World Press Roundup Article from December 31, 1969 - 8:00pm BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) -- Speaking from Cairo, the deputy head of Hamas' politburo said Thursday that Hamas' offices would remain in Syria despite the relocation of all political and media activities out of Damascus. The violent crackdown on protests by Syria security forces have prompted Hamas to review its headquarters in Syria, and the movement's leaders-in-exile have steadily moved out of the country. » Read more

Israel should consider altering its anthem to include non-Jews ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) March 2, 2012 - 1:00am Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran has the right not to sing the national anthem, "Hatikva." The law doesn't oblige him to do so, and the song's lyrics don't enable him to do so. As a loyal citizen of his country, the justice did not want to betray his conscience during the new Supreme Court president's inauguration by singing a song whose words are alien to every Arab citizen of Israel. And the uproar that erupted following Joubran's refusal damaged the delicate fabric of Israeli democracy far more than his silence did. » Read more

Israeli President to Protect Christian Sites ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press March 1, 2012 - 1:00am JERUSALEM — Israel's President Shimon Peres has promised the Roman Catholic Church that the country will step up efforts to combat the vandalism of Christian holy sites by suspected Jewish extremists. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who is the Vatican's custodian of religious sites in the Holy Land, asked the president earlier this week to intervene following the spraying of graffiti on two Christian churches in Jerusalem in February. » Read more

Move over, Egypt, Iraq and Syria ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) March 1, 2012 - 1:00am For the better part of the last century, three Arab states — Egypt, Iraq and Syria — dominated Middle East politics in matters of war and peacemaking and shaped the region's relations with the great powers. The kings of Jordan and Morocco — and, of course, Saudi Arabia (and the Persian Gulf states) when it came to oil — had their say too. But it was the three pseudo-republics, authoritarian military regimes really, that threw their collective weight around. » Read more

Peres Says U.S. Must Put All Iran Options on Table ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Jodi Rudoren - March 1, 2012 - 1:00am Days before Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, was to meet with President Obama, Mr. Peres said on Thursday that the United States must make clear to Iran that “all options are on the table,” but he acknowledged that there was disagreement over where to draw the “red line” that would set off military intervention. President Shimon Peres says the White House must be resolute or Israel may have to go it alone. » Read more

Holding a mirror to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) March 2, 2012 - 1:00am The treatment of Israeli prisoners by Palestinians and Hizballah, and correspondingly the treatment of Palestinian prisoners by Israelis, in many ways hold a kind of mirror to the conflict as a whole. » Read more