April 12th

Israel’s Defense Establishment: Overmanned?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Arieh O'Sullivan - (Analysis) April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel is one of just a few countries that subjects its women to mandatory draft and has a female major-general sitting on the army’s general staff. Until recently, the chief justice of the Supreme Court and the head of the parliamentary opposition were both women. From appearances, it would seem that women have a respectable role in Israeli establishment. But appearances can be misleading.

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Israeli Arab MK threatens to file libel suit against envoy to U.S.
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi submitted an official complaint to the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday, following an article by Israel's envoy to the U.S. Michael Oren, according to which Tibi had retained his position as deputy Knesset speaker despite his support of suicide bombers. In an article published last week in the Foreign Policy magazine, titled "Israel's Resilient Democracy," Oren claimed that Israel's Arab citizens enjoyed equal rights, and that Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion emphasized that Arab citizens must be allowed to vote and be elected to the Knesset.

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Hamas commander in solitary confinement goes on huger strike
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
April 12, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, April 12 (Xinhua) -- A Hamas commander who received the longest sentence from an Israeli court started a hunger strike Thursday, protesting against his solitary confinement, local sources said. Abdullah Al-Barghouti, 41, told his lawyer about the strike and said he will end it when the Israeli Prison Service returns him to the regular rooms, said a statement by the Palestinian Prisoner's Club. Al-Barghouti, head of Hamas' armed wing in the West Bank, also wanted his family members who lives in Jordan, to be granted permission to visit him regularly.

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PA official: 3 injured in Nablus settler attack
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 12, 2012 - 12:00am

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Three people were injured by settlers on Thursday in the northern West Bank village of Yanun, a PA official said. Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that settlers threw rocks and physically assaulted villagers who were tending their land in Nablus. Five villagers were arrested by Israeli forces and taken to an unknown destination, Daghlas said.

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Israel plans letter to Abbas on potential peace deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Allyn Fisher-Ilan - April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, April 11 (Reuters) - Israel will submit a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas outlining a position for a future peace deal, and proposing talks be held at a higher level than planned, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Wednesday. The statement said Netanyahu would "propose raising the level of talks to hold them directly with Abbas", a suggestion Abbas has rejected in the past unless Israel stopped building settlements on West Bank land Palestinians seek for a state.

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Palestinians spurn Netanyahu’s invitation to resume talks, demand settlement freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
April 12, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — The Palestinians have spurned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest invitation to resume peace talks, insisting the Israelis freeze settlement construction first. Netanyahu on Wednesday proposed to start direct talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, without any preconditions. The call followed an appeal from international mediators. Negotiations broke down in late 2010.

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Clinton Overrules Republican Lawmaker's Hold on Palestinian Aid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from National Journal
by Sara Sorcher - April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is allowing U.S. funds to flow to the West Bank and Gaza despite a hold by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., a rare display of executive-branch authority that angered the key lawmaker concerned about protecting her congressional oversight role.

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Middle East mediators seek to revive peace talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Arshad Mohammed - April 12, 2012 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - Middle East peace mediators on Wednesday criticized Israeli settlement building and called on donors to meet aid pledges to the Palestinians as they sought to revive moribund peace talks. The so-called Quartet - the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States - said they stood behind their Sept. 23, 2011, call for the parties to reach a peace deal by the end of 2012, an objective that seems increasingly remote.

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April 11th

NEWS: The Israeli government is scrambling to find ways to recognize "unauthorized" settlement outposts. The mayor of Bethlehem urges Israel not to humiliate vistors to the occupied Palestinian territories, as Israel is preparing to bar the entrance of hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists. Iran says it has arrested several "Israeli-linked mercenaries." Hamas accuses Egypt of blocking Qatari fuel bound for Gaza. An occupation soldier is accused of stealing gold from Palestinians during an Israeli raid in the West Bank. The Israeli military admits it has been barring Palestinian farmers from their lands in a West Bank village. Israel closes the center of the town of al-Ram in the occupied West Bank to traffic. Settlers clash with Israeli security forces. Expectations are low for an upcoming meeting of the MIddle East Quartet. Human rights groups call for a moratorium on executions by Hamas. COMMENTARY: Carl Perkal says Daniel Pipes has written an inexplicable and agressive attack against Palestinian citizens of Israel. Zvi Bar'el says the High Court and B'Tselem are crucial to Israeli democracy. Ha'aretz says Israel should stop public demands for the US to free convicted Israeli spy Pollard. Douglas Bloomfield says Republican candidates cannot reach most Jewish-American voters by grandstanding on Israel. Daniel Bettini says Israel's ban on Günter Grass is cynical and populist, but Daniel Goldhagen says Grass is the cynic. Osama Al Sharif says three letters now circulating sum up the present Palestinian dilema. Lara Friedman says the threats to Israeli democracy are all too real. Rashid Khalidi says plans by the Simon Weisenthal Center to build a "Museum of Tolerance" on the Muslim Mamilla cemetery are an effort to erase Palestinian history in Jerusalem. Benny Morris says the main obstacle to peace is "Palestinian rejectionism," not Israeli settlements.

Republicans have ‘a real Jewish problem’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) April 10, 2012 - 12:00am

Republicans found some encouragement in the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) 2012 Jewish Values survey released last week and quickly declared it evidence that Barack Obama’s Jewish support is falling. It is not an entirely invalid conclusion since he got 78 percent of the Jewish vote in 2008 and this survey shows 62% of Jewish voters say they would like to see him reelected and 30% prefer an unnamed Republican candidate.

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