May 9th

Toward confederation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Ronald Tiersky - (Opinion) May 8, 2012 - 12:00am Israel’s strategic problem in historical terms is, ultimately, how to win a war well. The Palestinian problem is to avoid losing this war in the most drawn-out, worst possible way. Palestinians (including any realistic Hamas leaders), know approximately what they will have to accept. Finding the least bad solution consonant with defeat is their unenviable task. Yet neither is Israel completely free, because victory can be dangerous. Israel needs a strategy that isn’t in the end self-defeating. » Read more

National freedom demands a two-state solution ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Uriel Epshtein - (Opinion) May 8, 2012 - 12:00am The one-state solution has suddenly reappeared in the discourse surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Harvard recently hosted an entire conference promoting this solution and the former Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, came out on Saturday in support of it. Though Qurei may have been pressed by political expediency, not only is this position completely unfeasible in practice, but it also represents a denial of the very purpose for Israel’s creation and a misunderstanding of the philosophy behind national movements. » Read more

Netanyahu’s and Abbas’ moments of truth ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am Yesterday’s political bombshell, for obvious reasons, has left both citizens and commentators dumbfounded. It has been pointed out that Netanyahu is now the undisputed king of Israeli politics: basically no single coalition party has any real power over him; each and every one of them now knows that Netanyahu can live without them. » Read more

Netanyahu-Mofaz unity deal provides a great opportunity for Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am Kadima's entry into the government puts Benjamin Netanyahu at the head of a broad coalition of 94 Knesset members. That gives him almost complete freedom of action over the remaining year and a half of the 18th Knesset's term. The parliamentary opposition has been dwarfed and neutralized, while coalition factions will have trouble threatening to topple the prime minister from power. » Read more

Coalition of the Willing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune by Shmuel Rosner - (Opinion) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Monday morning I was on the phone with Doron Avital, a smart if quirky Knesset back-bencher from the Kadima Party. The announcement that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party was forming a grand coalition with Kadima was still a day away. » Read more

Is a two-state solution dead? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times (Editorial) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when a comprehensive rapprochement between Israelis and Palestinians seemed not just possible but inevitable. In the mid-1990s, the two-state solution was gaining support on both sides. Hamas and Islamic Jihad were losing influence. » Read more

Palestinians isolated and short of funds -Fayyad ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Samia Nakhoul, Michael Stott - (Interview) May 8, 2012 - 12:00am RAMALLAH, West Bank, May 8 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Tuesday the Palestinians may have "lost the argument" on the international stage for an independent state but cautioned that continued Israeli occupation was unsustainable. In an interview with Reuters, Fayyad struck a note of discord with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by calling for elections that have long been delayed because of deep political divisions between the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. » Read more

Israeli-Arabs Grow Cooler to National Service ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by David Rosenberg - May 9, 2012 - 12:00am Five years after the government launched a program to encourage Israeli-Arab youth to take time off from school and work to perform volunteer work in lieu army service, Israeli-Arab support for the program is lower than ever. » Read more

Jerusalem: Ads warn parents – keep daughters away from Arabs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ari Galahar - May 8, 2012 - 12:00am Lehava, the extremist Jewish organization for the prevention of assimilation in the Holy Land, has come up with a new gimmick that is creating a stormy debate on the issue of mixed marriages between Jews and Arabs. » Read more

Israel's AG mulling charges against 'Jenin, Jenin' director ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Tomer Zarchin - May 9, 2012 - 12:00am The attorney general will soon decide whether to file charges against Mohammed Bakri, director of the controversial film "Jenin, Jenin," which implies that Israel Defense Forces soldiers committed war crimes in a 2002 military operation in the Palestinian refugee camp. » Read more