July 6th

Palestine: A hostage state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News (Editorial) July 6, 2012 - 12:00am he tragedy of the Palestinians has hung like a black cloud over the Arab world for almost 65 years. It is inconceivable that a people should be corralled like animals in their own country by a dominant, nuclear-armed neighbor, backed, through thick and thin, by a superpower. Yet that is what Israelis have done to the Palestinians. Moreover, there has been systematic theft of Arab land in the Occupied Territories, as a way of imprisoning the luckless Palestinians still further. » Read more

In death, Yitzhak Shamir is triumphant ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Michael Young - (Opinion) July 5, 2012 - 12:00am Yitzhak Shamir was the kind of person whom you didn’t remember was alive until learning that he was dead. The strange thing about many of the comments that followed the demise last week of Israel’s onetime prime minister was that he was portrayed as a relic – someone out of touch with the political temper in Israel today. » Read more

Arafat's nephew: Body should be exhumed if necessary ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 6, 2012 - 12:00am The nephew of Yasser Arafat said Thursday that the late president's body must be exhumed if necessary to determine the true cause of his death. Nasser al-Qudwa, who heads the Yasser Arafat Foundation, met with President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Thursday and discussed new allegations that Arafat was poisoned with the radioactive element polonium-210 in 2004. » Read more

London 2012: one minute to remember 11 Munich athletes - too much to ask? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Jennifer Lipman - (Blog) July 6, 2012 - 12:00am Seriously, in between all the running, jumping, swimming and sprinting, the Olympic organisers can't spare one measly minute to remember 11 men murdered for daring to compete for their country? You mean to tell me that there's no room for a brief interlude during Danny Boyle's opening extravaganza – not even when the rain is coming down from his fluffy fake clouds? Or during one of the minor events, the ones the organisers are practically giving away tickets to? » Read more

Aide: Palestinian leader wants more on Arafat ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Karin Laub - July 6, 2012 - 12:00am Digging up Yasser Arafat's bones may offer the best shot at learning if the legendary Palestinian leader was poisoned, as many of his old comrades-in-arms claim, but Palestinian officials signaled Thursday they're not rushing into an autopsy. Arafat's 2004 death remains shrouded in mystery, and this week's findings by Switzerland's Institute of Radiation Physics — that belongings linked to Arafat contained an elevated level of a radioactive agent — have revived speculation about foul play. » Read more

In Close Vote, Presbyterian Church Rejects Divesting in Firms That Aid Israeli Occupation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Laurie Goodstein - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am A deeply divided Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) on Thursday became the latest American church to shy away from divesting in companies that supply equipment to Israel to enforce its control in the occupied territories, after a passionate debate that stretched late into the evening and a vote that was nearly a tie. » Read more

Israeli Identity Is at the Heart of a Debate on Service ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Jodi Rudoren - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am On one level, the questions shaking the Israeli political system this week are pragmatic: how many ultra-Orthodox men and Arab citizens should be drafted into the military or national service, over how many years and how should those who resist be penalized? But the debate over these details masks a more fundamental and fractious one about evolving identity in this still-young state, where a “people’s army” has long been a defining principle, and about the growing cleavage among its tribes. » Read more

A warning to Hezbollah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Katz - (Analysis) July 5, 2012 - 12:00am A few months ago, after the IDF began a concrete wall between Metulla and Lebanon, an Israeli observation post spotted a group of men gathered on a rooftop just over the northern border. A closer look identified one of the men as the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) in southern Lebanon. Several of the other men were later identified as senior Hezbollah operatives, also from southern Lebanon. » Read more

Time for Israel to join the world ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Hirsh Goodman - (Opinion) July 6, 2012 - 12:00am Israelis in particular and Jews in general love to complain about how much the world hates us, as if the hatred of others is what makes Israel legitimate. It is time to move on, to take the victimhood out of the modern Jewish state, now approaching 65, and to live our lives without constantly having to explain ourselves to others, or to seek their approval. » Read more

Jewish, Palestinian American groups ‘swap’ summer interns ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times of Israel by Ari Ben Goldberg - July 6, 2012 - 12:00am When Waleed Issa walked into the Americans for Peace Now (APN) Washington, DC office on the first day of his summer internship in June, the 25-year-old Palestinian from the Dheisheh refugee camp south of Bethlehem was startled by what he saw. “I never saw so much blue and white in my life,” he says. “Everywhere you look, there’s a Star of David and the colors of the Israeli flag. As a Palestinian, I thought to myself, ‘This is not good news. How am I going to work here for the next six weeks?’” » Read more