April 12th

Palestinians need freedom in Jerusalem, not Israeli permits ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Hanan Ashrawi - (Opinion) April 11, 2012 - 12:00am It is Easter in Jerusalem. Newspaper pictures show scenes of Christians from all over the world celebrating and commemorating this holy occasion, with processions, special services and prayers. While most come freely with passports and tourist visas, the indigenous Christian population, many of them coming from towns and villages within few kilometers of the Old City, require special permits to visit their holy sites. The majority of these Christians do not receive the necessary permits and so are prevented from participating in the Easter celebrations of Jerusalem. » Read more

The Second-Term Illusion ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) April 11, 2012 - 12:00am It's 2013. Barack Obama has just been re-elected, the Democrats have retained their majority in the Senate. And the American president, freed from political constraints in a second term, decides to take on an issue that stymied him so badly in his first. "Israeli-Palestinian peace is critically important to our national interests," Obama tells his new secretary of state (Kerry, Rice, Donilon -- take your pick). "If we don't move now, the two-state solution is dead." "It means taking on Benjamin Netanyahu," the secretary responds. » Read more

The real Ben Gurion ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) April 12, 2012 - 12:00am There is no doubt that David Ben Gurion, who was born in 1886 in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, has correctly been recognised everywhere as the founder of Israel, created in 1948 by a UN resolution. But the issue that has recently been uncovered, touching off a damaging charge, emanates from the just revealed hard-line advocacy of Ben Gurion more than 10 years earlier on how to establish a firm Zionist foothold in Palestine where the majority of the population were then Arabs. » Read more

The summer of 2012 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Uri Savir - (Opinion) April 11, 2012 - 12:00am Some time ago we saw in the brilliant television satire, Eretz Nehederet, Israelis giving up on all their summer plans, “because of that thing that will happen with Iran this summer.” “Can I give you a delayed check for this summer?” says the customer. “No, of course not,” says the shopkeeper. “Don’t you know what will happen this summer? That thing with Iran.” “Oh yes, I forgot it’s this summer!” he replies, and pays immediately. » Read more

A Dose of Nuance: Peter Beinart's mis-identity crisis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Daniel Gordis - April 11, 2012 - 12:00am Peter Beinart is right. The relationship between American Jews and the Jewish state is indeed in crisis. Beinart and his title are just wrong about what the crisis is. What we face, as his book accidentally demonstrates, is not The Crisis of Zionism, but a crisis of American Judaism. » Read more

Egypt's army fills Sinai, but business runs as usual ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Anshel Pfeffer - (Opinion) April 12, 2012 - 12:00am Sinai, EGYPT - A bearded Bedouin approached a cab on the main street of Rafah, in Egypt. Right next to the taxi, at either end of the narrow street, were two armored personnel carriers and a squad of Egyptian army soldiers in full combat gear. » Read more

Israel's poetry critics ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times (Editorial) April 10, 2012 - 12:00am The people in Israel and Germany who are most outraged by Nobel Prize-winning author Gunter Grass' latest work have one thing in common: They think it's ridiculous, and possibly anti-Semitic, for Grass to assert a moral equivalency between Israel and Iran. Yet by overreacting to Grass' criticism, Israeli officials are acting like, well, Iranians. » Read more

Don't Give Up on Mideast Peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Jimmy Carter - (Opinion) April 12, 2012 - 12:00am The current focus of leaders in Washington and Jerusalem on Iran has obscured the near-death of the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations and the inevitable catastrophe toward which Israel is now moving. » Read more

Palestinian Authority blames Gaza for deficit mess ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press April 12, 2012 - 12:00am Paying for the upkeep of the Gaza Strip while its political rival actively blocks revenues flowing back is taking its toll on the deficit-racked Palestinian Authority. A barrage of mutual accusations in recent weeks has driven Hamas and Fatah ever further apart as stalled efforts at reconciliation and economic stagnation have jangled nerves on both sides. Crippling power cuts in the small coastal enclave have only added to the acrimony and lifted the lid on often opaque Palestinian funding. » Read more

Israel expels 'Palestinian collaborator' back to Gaza ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Catrina Stewart - April 11, 2012 - 12:00am Israel deported a Palestinian man to Gaza even though he faced almost certain execution there if caught by Hamas, which has charged him with spying for Israel, the man's lawyer said. Details of the case emerged just days after Hamas, the Islamist rulers of Gaza, hanged three Palestinian men, one of whom had been convicted of the identical charge – collaboration with Israel. » Read more