May 9th

A Peace Legacy for Netanyahu’s Hard-Line Dad?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg
by Jeffrey Goldberg - (Opinion) April 30, 2012 - 12:00am

The historian Benzion Netanyahu, who died today at 102, was sometimes asked to explain the miracle of Jewish survival through millenniums of persecution. Netanyahu -- the father of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin -- would answer the question in a way his interlocutors did not at all expect.

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A Few Good Lawyers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Rajah Shehadeh - (Blog) April 27, 2012 - 12:00am

BILIN, West Bank — Earlier this month, I finally watched “The Law in These Parts,” a documentary by the Israeli film director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz, at the 7th International Conference for Popular Resistance. The film describes the legal system that Israel has applied in the Palestinian Occupied Territories since 1967, and it does so exclusively through interviews with members of the Israeli military legal corps who wrote and implemented the system.

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Response to Rashid Khalidi
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Gil Troy - (Opinion) April 30, 2012 - 12:00am

Professor Khalidi is anxious to bar me from the debate about the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem’s building site that adjoins an ancient Moslem graveyard by questioning my credentials. And I guess he is right. 

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Confession of an incorrigible optimist
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) April 30, 2012 - 12:00am

No ifs. No buts. No perhapses. Maybe it’s genetic. My father was an optimist. Even when, at the age of 45, he had to flee his native Germany to a primitive little country in the Middle East, his spirits remained high. Though he had to adapt to a new country, a hot climate, hard physical labor and grinding poverty, he was happy. At least he had saved his wife and four children, the youngest of whom was I. Now, on Israel’s 64th birthday (according to the Hebrew calendar), I am still an optimist.

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Israel is no safe place for Christians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Kamel S. Abu Jaber - (Opinion) April 30, 2012 - 12:00am

It has been a long time since I have written anything about Israel or the Arab-Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I told myself I should distance myself a little and think in a cool, dispassionate manner about our Semitic cousins who obviously have made up their mind to play down their, perhaps in their mind, racial relationship with us Arabs.

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NEWS: PM Netanyahu's new coalition has greatly increased his political power, while Kadima leader Mofaz will add a more moderate voice to the government. The new coalition is already arguing about Jewish religious privileges and exemptions. The CSM looks at how the new Israeli government's policies might change regarding Iran and the Palestinians. A second hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner is hospitalized. Pres. Abbas warns of a “disastrous” backlash if one of the hunger strikers dies. Abbas says he's ready to move forward with negotiations with Israel providing it offers “anything promising or positive.” Israel's attorney general is considering criminal prosecution against a Palestinian documentary filmmaker. An extremist Jewish Israeli organization takes out ads warning parents to keep their daughters away from Arabs. Palestinian citizens of Israel seem to be losing their enthusiasm for “National Service.” COMMENTARY: Reuters interviews PM Fayyad, who says Palestinians are internationally isolated and short on funds. The LA Times says it would be irresponsible and tragic to give up on a two-state solution. Shmuel Rosner says Netanyahu's new huge coalition majority can only be justified if it has similarly ambitious policies. Ha'aretz says the new coalition has stripped Netanyahu of any excuse not to move forward on peace. Carlo Strenger says Mofaz's two-stage peace plan could prove a moment of truth for both Netanyahu and Abbas. Uriel Epstein says self-determination for Israelis and Palestinians depends on a two-state solution. Ronald Tiersky says the answer might be a creative Israeli-Palestinian Confederation. The Jordan Times says Israel's new coalition is “dirty politics” and “temporary.” Barbara Slavin says Israel's new government will have to deal with a growing international boycott movement. Bernard Avishai says he should be appalled by the cynicism behind the new Israeli coalition, but he's actually relieved. Benny Morris says Israel's new coalition looks a lot like the one formed right before the 1967 war, and might be a prelude to an attack on Iran.

1967 All Over Again?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Tablet Magazine
by Benny Morris - (Opinion) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am

One thing’s certain: Tuesday’s sudden and dramatic expansion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government—he now has the support of 94 Knesset members in the 120-seat house—considerably strengthens Netanyahu’s mandate to take what commentators insist on calling “historic steps.” But it is unclear whether the cooption of Shaul Mofaz and his Kadima faction makes an Israeli preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities more likely or more remote.

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Netanyahu's Globalists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Bernard Avishai - (Opinion) May 8, 2012 - 12:00am

I know I should be appalled by Shaul Mofaz's opportunism and Benjamin Netanyahu's grin, but I confess to being just a little relieved.

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Israel Faces Challenges From Boycott Campaign
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Barbara Slavin - (Opinion) May 7, 2012 - 12:00am

As he consolidates his power with a new coalition, incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to continue his unremitting focus on Iran as an existential threat. However, a bigger challenge to Israel over the long run may be the international campaign to deny the country’s status as a Jewish-governed polity that rules a growing and disenfranchised Palestinian population in the West Bank.

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Temporary deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
(Editorial) May 8, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have succeeded in pulling a rabbit from his hat when he struck a deal, in the wee hours of Tuesday, with Shaul Mofaz, leader of the main opposition party Kadima, forging a national unity government and thus averting the need to hold snap elections.

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