NEWS: Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal says the group intends to capture more Israeli soldiers to win the release of additional Palestinian prisoners. Israel bans German author Günter Grass from entering the country for criticizing its policies. Hamas executes three Palestinians in Gaza. Militants again attack Egypt's gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan. Pres. Abbas says he will seek non-member observer state status for Palestine at the UN if talks with Israel do not resume. PLO official Hanan Ashrawi says she is concerned at recent threats to free speech among Palestinians. A Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank accuses Israeli police of beating him and covering up the evidence. The JTA profiles the political rise and fall of former Kadima leader Tzipi Livni. The World Bank earmarks $55 million for Palestinian development this year. The Israeli military says it's ready for a major invasion of Lebanon in the case of any new conflict with Hezbollah. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood again promises not to tamper with the peace treaty with Israel. COMMENTARY: Ha'aretz says Israel has reacted with hysteria over Günter Grass. Salman Masalha says letting Israeli ex-pats vote from abroad is political manipulation. Anshel Pfeffer looks at Israeli and American policies towards Iran. Harriet Sherwood says PM Netanyahu's relentless support for settlers bodes ill for the peace process. Robert O. Freedman says China is split over continuing its present Middle East policies. Talal Okal says Sinai has been out of control for a long time, and Yoram Meital says the area provides challenges and opportunities for Israel. Richard Stearns says this was another dark Easter for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

Tzipi Livni’s fall followed a meteoric political rise
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Matthew Wagner - April 3, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Tzipi Livni's resounding fall in the leadership vote for Kadima, Israel's largest political party, was as dramatic as her rise to political power.

»

A dark Easter for Palestinian Christians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Religion News Service
by Richard Stearns - (Opinion) April 4, 2012 - 12:00am

Each year during Holy week, Christians around the world anticipate what come call the “Old Faithful” of miracles. At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — built over the traditional site that encompasses Jesus’ tomb and the place of his crucifixion — the archbishop enters the tomb after being inspected by Jewish authorities to ensure he has no means of lighting a fire. After saying prayers and worshiping the risen Christ, the candles miraculously alight.

»

Challenges and opportunities
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yoram Meital - (Opinion) March 29, 2012 - 12:00am

Developments in the Sinai Peninsula during the past year clearly reflect dramatic changes in Egypt and highlight the delicate situation at the Israeli-Gazan-Egyptian border junction.

»

A country of walls: an interview with Talal Okal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
(Interview) March 29, 2012 - 12:00am

BI: What do the conditions in the Sinai peninsula have to do with you and others in the Gaza Strip? Okal: The border that separates Sinai in Egypt and the Gaza Strip is the only border that is open for our use. The town of Rafah [where the main crossing is located] is actually split across the border between the two sides and many of Egyptian Rafah's residents are relatives of those who live on the Gaza side of the town. The connections there are extensive. Moreover, the tunnel network operating out of Gaza opens onto the Sinai.

»

Chinese Divided Over Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Robert O. Freedman - (Opinion) April 9, 2012 - 12:00am

In recent years, China’s foreign policy has turned more assertive than it has been in decades. When it comes to the Middle East, it has expressed this aggressiveness mostly through the veto power it wields in the United Nations Security Council, protecting Iran, for example, from tough sanctions over its nuclear program. With regard to the Syrian uprising, the Chinese, along with the Russians, have prevented the international body from sanctioning the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for its bloody repression of its own population.

»

Binyamin Netanyahu's support for settlers bodes ill for peace prospects
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - (Opinion) April 9, 2012 - 12:00am

On its own, it seemed like an encouraging omen to anyone alarmed by the increasing entrenchment of Jewish settlers on the West Bank. Israeli security forces last week forcibly evacuated hardliners from a Palestinian house in the volatile city of Hebron, to the fury of the settlers and their backers. Hours earlier, Binyamin Netanyahu had intervened to halt the eviction; now he said the rule of law must prevail. Had the prime minister had a change of heart? Did the Hebron drama signal a new tough approach against radical settlers and their supporters inside Netanyahu's cabinet?

»

Have Netanyahu and Obama agreed on the outcome of negotiations with Iran?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Anshel Pfeffer - (Opinion) April 8, 2012 - 12:00am

In two of his Pesach interviews, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined in unprecedented detail the diplomatic outcome with Iran that Israel could live with. Maariv's interviewers asked him specifically what would satisfy him in next week's P5+1 talks with the Iranians to which he answered –

»

Letting Israeli expats vote is political manipulation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Salman Masalha - (Opinion) April 9, 2012 - 12:00am

The Knesset elections are drawing near and associated issues are in the air. It is not only primaries, opinion polls and new parties that have sprung up like mushrooms after the summer social protests. Legislation is also being promoted about who has the right to vote.

»

Israel has reacted with hysteria over Gunter Grass
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) April 9, 2012 - 12:00am

Author Gunter Grass sees the State of Israel as a threat to world peace. He believes Israel is armed with nuclear weapons, and is threatening Iran as the Islamic Republic looks to obtain a nuclear arsenal. After the poem he published to this effect in the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung last week drew extensive criticism, he asked to distinguish between the state and its government. It's not Israel that worries him, he said, but the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017