NEWS: The US and Egypt increase security talks after the Sinai attack. The Israeli tourism industry is booming. Memorials for victims of suicide attacks proliferate on a road in Jaffa. The Knesset is considering a bill that would segregate prayer times at the al-Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. Palestinians remain divided over an official's visit to Auschwitz. More Gaza families visit relatives in Israeli prison. 11 Palestinians are killed and many more injured in a car pileup at Bala junction east of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank. A Palestinian media watchdog group says violations of media freedoms in the occupied territories were slightly lower in 2012 and 2011, the bulk still being committed by Israeli occupation authorities. Another Egyptian military official suggests Hamas probably knew about the Sinai attack in advance. Rhetoric and pro forma preparations for a potential attack on Iran are in full swing in Israel. Former Israeli settlers evacuated from Gaza are growing distant from the settler movement. COMMENTARY: Amira Hass says Palestinians are moving to exercise authority in “Area C.” Akiva Eldar says it's amazing that many Israelis still prefer the prospect of regional war over peace. Carlo Strenger says if things continue as they are, by the end of PM Netanyahu's term in office, the two-state solution will be dead as he has intended all along. Eitan Haber says Israel's present core of leadership lacks the experience to make momentous decisions such as those regarding Iran. Nathan Guttman looks at efforts in Congress to raise the issue of Jewish refugees from Arab states to offset the Palestinian refugee final status issue. Ben Caspit asks if Netanyahu and DM Barak are really determined to attack Iran, and Dimi Reider says military officials may defy them anyway. Brandon Davis looks at competing Israeli and Palestinian views of an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank built on privately owned Palestinian land. Pierre Klochendler looks at how Israelis and Palestinians struggle over archaeology and its interpretation in occupied East Jerusalem.

After seven years, Gaza evacuees are growing distant from the settler movement
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ben Sales - August 7, 2012 - 12:00am

From an overlooking road, the district of this desert town called Nitzan B seems like a unified mass of identical red-roofed single-family homes, reminiscent of a crowded American postwar Levittown. “From far away it looks nice,” says Galit Kakon, a Nitzan B resident. Like the rest of the district’s 600 families, Kakon used to live in Gush Katif, the bloc of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip that Israel evacuated seven years ago this week in an operation called "the disengagement."

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Preparations and Rhetoric for Possible Israeli Strike on Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Linda Gradstein - August 12, 2012 - 12:00am

Sometime this week, all Israelis will get the following SMS message in Hebrew on their cell-phones:  “Home Front, testing cellphone warning system.” The test is the final preparation before declaring the new warning system operational next month, according to military officials who explain that the mechanism is believed to be an effective way to transmit messages during wartime.

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Egypt: Hamas likely knew about Kerem Shalom attack
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avi Issacharoff - August 13, 2012 - 12:00am

Senior Egyptian officials expressed skepticism Sunday about Hamas claims that the Islamist group would shut down the tunnels connecting Gaza and Sinai if Egypt permanently reopens the Rafah crossing to people and goods.

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In Jerusalem the Past Is Alike, And Alive
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Inter Press Service (IPS)
by Pierre Klochendler - (Opinion) August 13, 2012 - 12:00am

“This is King David’s palace!” proclaims the Israeli tour guide with much fanfare, ignoring the cautionary “King David’s Palace?” legend on the sign. Opportunely opening the Bible, he reads from 2 Samuel 6:16, “As the Ark of the Lord came to the City of David…” “Everything fits so well with the biblical descriptions!” marvels Amir Brightman, an Israeli security guard who escorts the tourists. “I feel so connected.”

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Contesting history: A tale of two Tekoas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by Brandon Davis - (Opinion) August 13, 2012 - 12:00am

The Gush Herodion Development Corporation has big plans for Tekoa. Already boasting a pizza parlor, a swimming pool and a horse ranch, this idyllic "Jewish village" of approximately 1,600 will soon add six new buildings with eight "spacious" apartments each, designed by the architect Jacques Gabay.

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Press freedom group: Attacks on media decrease in 2012
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 11, 2012 - 12:00am

A Palestinian press freedom group has recorded over 100 violations of media freedom in the first half of 2012, a slight decline on last year, a report said this week. "The status of media freedoms in the occupied Palestinian territories remains under serious threat," the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms said Wednesday. MADA documented 102 press freedom violations in the first six months of 2012, compared to 113 in the same period in 2011, the group's report said.

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Will Netanyahu and Barak Risk a Coup?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Dimi Reider - (Opinion) August 10, 2012 - 12:00am

If there's anything that changed in our picture of the Israeli-Iranian stand-off after this morning's barrage of warlike headlines in all four Israeli dailies it's that the camps in the Israeli leadership were sharply brought to focus. In the pro-war corner: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. In the anti-war corner: Everybody. Literally everybody else. The punchline: They still wanna do it—and they just might.

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PA official: 11 killed in car crash near Tulkarem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 13, 2012 - 12:00am

Eleven people were killed and several injured on Sunday when two vehicles crashed in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian Authority official said. Minister of Health Hani Abdin told Ma'an that 10 people died and five were injured when a service taxi collided with a private car at Bala junction east of Tulkarem. One of the injured people succumbed to his wounds later bringing the death toll to eleven. Six of the victims' bodies were transferred to Thabet Thabet hospital and the injured were taken to al-Zakah hospital, both in Tulkarem.

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Gaza families visit relatives in Israeli jails
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 13, 2012 - 12:00am

Relatives of Palestinians jailed in Israel left the Gaza Strip on Monday to visit detainees, a prisoners group said, in the fifth such visit since 2007. As part of a deal to end mass hunger strikes in Israeli jails in May, Israeli authorities agreed to ease a ban on Gaza families visiting prisons. Fifty-seven people left Gaza on Monday to visit 42 imprisoned relatives in Israel, Gaza-based prisoners group Husam said.

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