State Dep’t Opposes Senate Bid to Determine How Many Palestinians Are Genuine Refugees
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNS News
by Patrick Goodenough - May 25, 2012 - 12:00am

(CNSNews.com) – After intervention by the State Department, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday reworked an amendment to a foreign operations appropriations bill, watering down language that sought to establish the actual number of Palestinians that could legitimately be called refugees.

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How Obama Missed an Opportunity for Middle East Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by PJ Dermer, Steve White - (Opinion) May 18, 2012 - 12:00am

"We were fond together, because of the sweep of the open places, the taste of wide winds, the sunlight, and the hopes in which we worked. The moral freshness of the world-to-be intoxicated us. We were wrought up in ideas inexpressible and vaporous, but to be fought for. We lived many lives in those whirling campaigns, never sparing ourselves: Yet when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to re-make in the likeness of the former world they knew." – T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

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NEWS: Israel upgrades security ties with China. Israel's Supreme Court has ordered the military to reconsider its ban on Gaza students studying in the West Bank. In the context of negotiations with Iran, the US reiterates its commitment to Israel's security. Pres. Abbas says Palestinians in Lebanon should not arm themselves. Palestinians say Israeli settlers from the settlement involved in the controversial shooting incident last weekend have torched large areas of agricultural land near the same Palestinian village they attacked on Saturday. The new State Department human rights country report criticizes Israel's treatment of African migrants. PM Netanyahu condemns attacks on African migrants. Amnesty International says Israel frequently uses excessive force against Palestinians. Peace Now says MKs should be investigated for incitement to violence. A Canadian group is helping people in Gaza build a giant ark. The Senate Appropriations Committee approves language that would attempt to strip most Palestinian refugees of their status and place restrictions on American funding for UNRWA, but State Department intervention forces revision. COMMENTARY: Hussein Ibish says Israel must stop settler violence. Eitan Haber says Israel must prepare itself to live with a nuclear-armed Iran. MK Danny Danon says Israel should expel African migrants. Jay Bushinsky says it's time for DM Barak to resign. Uri Savir says sports can be a means to promote Israeli-Palestinian coexistence. Stephen White and PJ Dermer say by not adequately supporting the training program for Palestinian security forces, the Obama administration missed a crucial chance to promote peace. Oren Kessler says Israelis are watching the Egyptian election results with deep trepidation. Daniel Kurtzer says in order to have a positive impact on political transformations in the Middle East, a second term Obama administration needs to develop a serious strategy on Israeli-Palestinian peace. Michael Sharnoff says Palestinians are likely to increasingly turn to nonviolent protests against the occupation. Lara Friedman says it's mean-spirited, quixotic and bad for peace efforts for some members of Congress to try to redefine who qualifies as a Palestinian refugee.

Sleepless in Jerusalem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Oren Kessler - (Opinion) May 24, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM – Egypt's first round of presidential voting wrapped up on Thursday with the crop of viable candidates down to just a handful. Official results won't be ready until Tuesday, but next door in Israel, policymakers are already scrambling to sort the bad options from the worse.

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Sporting pathways to coexistence
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Uri Savir - (Opinion) May 25, 2012 - 12:00am

There is much talk in Israel these days, and it is quite justified, about violence and racism in sports. Yet I believe that while these ugly phenomena must be eradicated, sport is globally, and also here, an important pathway to coexistence, integration and social cohesion. In ancient Greece, it was decided that during the Olympic sporting events, there would be a total truce. Sport became then the symbol of peaceful coexistence and for a different type of human relations: competition according to agreed-upon rules and values.

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Outsiders won’t decide Mideast realities
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Daniel Kurtzer - (Opinion) May 25, 2012 - 12:00am

“Revolutions revolve 360 degrees,” wrote the late Middle East economic historian Charles Issawi. What we didn’t know yesterday about Middle East revolutions – and we didn’t know a great deal – becomes less relevant as the days fly by, for these revolutions, like all others that preceded them, are works in progress, changing constantly.

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It’s time for Barak to go
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Jay Bushinsky - (Opinion) May 25, 2012 - 12:00am

Despite his frequent flights to Washington, D.C., Defense Minister Ehud Barak seems to be out of step politically with his American hosts. One day after he declared that Syrian President Bashar Assad (personally) will have to step down because of the ongoing revolt against his regime, but that his regime can remain in power, the US State Department said the incumbent Syrian regime would have to go too.

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Palestinian Attitudes Toward Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Michael Sharnoff - (Blog) May 24, 2012 - 12:00am

As the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East enter into their second year, how have these unprecedented events impacted Palestinian attitudes toward Israel? Will Palestinians be emboldened to mimic these revolts and collectively decide to embark on another intifada? Will they continue to pursue unilateral efforts to declare statehood in the United Nations? Or will they use a diplomatic approach and reach a negotiated settlement with Israel?

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Deportation Now!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Danny Danon - (Opinion) May 25, 2012 - 12:00am

What would you think if I told you of a country that, in the middle of its financial and cultural center, allowed the existence of an autonomous district in which the laws of the state do not apply? What would you say if I informed you that more than 25,000 residents of this urban area – the same population size as an average city in this country – are illegal residents of the State of Israel?

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Legislating the Refugee Problem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Lara Friedman - (Opinion) May 24, 2012 - 12:00am

You have to laugh, or it would make you cry. That is, if you are someone who genuinely cares about Israel and believes that the two-state solution is the only thing that can save Israel as a democracy and a Jewish state, and that can end the occupation and permit the Palestinians to live, finally, as a free people with dignity and self-determination.

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