NEWS: 21 people are killed during the shelling of a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. Israel urges its citizens to leave the Sinai Peninsula. A former head of Israel's military intelligence says a missile attack on the Tel Aviv area would elicit an unprecedented response, and another says any attack on Iran would be premature and unwise. The Israeli government calculates that an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities would delay the program by approximately 2 years. The murder of a battered woman by her husband continues to stir outrage among Palestinians in the West Bank. PLO officials say they still haven't decided a date on which to resume efforts at the UN. Israel is making contingency plans regarding the deteriorating situation in Syria. The UK ambassador to that country says Israel is rapidly losing international support. Israel has invested more than $2.5 billion in settlements between 2003-2011. COMMENTARY: Herb Keinon says the new Israel-PA trade agreement isn't sexy but it's extremely important. Ha'aretz interviews Brian Lurie, the new head of the New Israel Fund. David Grossman says Israelis cannot stay silent as their government is pushing them towards war with Iran. A new Israeli film profiles a group of Palestinians who make their living scavenging in rubbish dumps. Ron Ben-Yishai says Israel realizes only the United States can stop the Iranian nuclear program and increasingly thinks it will. Hirsh Goodman says it makes no sense for Israelis to dislike Pres. Obama. Zuhair Kseibati says Palestinians are no longer the only “tent people” in the Middle East. Yousef Al Kuwailet says it makes no sense for Arabs to continue to opt out of trying to influence the American political equation. Danna Harman looks at efforts by Russell Simmons and Marc Schneier to strengthen Muslim-Jewish relations. Lara Friedman says American politicians are exploiting Jewish migrants to Israel from Arab states. Zvika Krieger profiles settlement movement leader Dani Dayan.

Dani Dayan's War: Can Israeli Settlers Control Both the West Bank and Themselves?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Atlantic
by Zvika Krieger - (Opinion) August 3, 2012 - 12:00am

Dani Dayan has decided to come "out of the closet," he tells me as we sit in a coffee shop looking out onto the Judean hills earlier this summer. The head of the Yesha Council, which represents the approximately 300,000 Israelis who live in the West Bank, was not referring to his strident opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state; he's been an out-and-proud critic of the two-state solution for years, prominently showcased in an inflammatory op-ed last week. When we met in Jerusalem, he was actually in the process of coming out as a moderate.

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Exploiting Jews from Arab Countries
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Lara Friedman - (Opinion) August 2, 2012 - 12:00am

Last month saw an assault in Congress on Palestinian refugees—an effort to use legislation to re-define the Palestinian refugee issue out of existence.  This week the other shoe dropped, when a bipartisan group of members of Congress introduced a new bill embracing the cause of “Jewish refugees from Arab countries” in a way that Congress has never replicated on the Palestinian side (for more info, see this list of all bills/resolutions dealing with Palestinian and/or Jewish refugees since 1989). 

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Hip-hopping to tolerance in the Promised Land
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Danna Harman - (Opinion) August 3, 2012 - 12:00am

It’s a sweltering day in Jerusalem. Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, founder of a major record label and clothing company, sits fanning himself with a magazine. Next to him is Orthodox rabbi Marc Schneier, vice president of the World Jewish Congress.

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Zionists frighten US presidency
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Yousef Al Kuwailet - (Opinion) August 3, 2012 - 12:00am

American Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney seems more to be a cowboy than a person who can be considered to be in a responsible position as president of a great nation. He speaks in street slang, not the formal language of a diplomat. His remarks that questioned London's preparation for the Olympics sparked fury even among those with a cool temper (“A few things that were disconcerting” about London’s Olympics preparations). Both British officials and the media reacted strongly against Romney’s remarks.

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The Tent People
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Hayat
by Zuheir Kseibati - (Opinion) August 2, 2012 - 12:00am

The Palestinians no longer have the privilege of “monopolizing” tents as part of the history of their setbacks and the features of their identity. The people of the region now have a new landmark that is unifying them perhaps more than the Arab League ever did: the tents of the displaced and the refugees.

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Mitt or ‘mittout’ Romney
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Hirsh Goodman - (Opinion) August 3, 2012 - 12:00am

Mitt Romney comes to Israel for a few hours, speaks platitudes to a largely imported crowd against the backdrop of Jerusalem, mumbles something about Iran and collects a million bucks, rushes for a series of lighting photo-ops with appropriate Israelis and off again, this time to Poland. He did not come here to learn the issues, understand the intricacies of the evolving Middle East or even receive an in-depth expert briefing on Iran. Grin, flash, platitude, applause, photo, insult the Palestinians and away we go.

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Israel realizes: Only US can stop Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Ron Ben-Yishai - (Opinion) August 3, 2012 - 12:00am

It's a known secret that the IDF and the security establishment have been focused over the past few years on creating a viable military option for a strike in Iran. Israel has invested billions in this endeavor. The goal was to obtain operational capabilities that would serve as the basis for a strike, which, if launched, would set Iran's nuclear program several years back.

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Investment in Settlements Skyrockets Under Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Calcalist
by Shaul Amsterdamski - August 2, 2012 - 12:00am

The governmental investment in Judea and Samaria skyrocketed under the Netanyahu cabinet by 38% from 2010 to 2011, reaching its high levels on the eve of the disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Over the period spanning from 2003 to the end 2011, the Israeli governments invested more than $2.5 billion (more than 10 billion shekels) in the Jewish settlements across the Green Line. This sum reflects the overall governmental investment, including economic support for the local authorities, investment across infrastructures and tax benefits entailing loss of state revenues.

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Making art from trash
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yitzhak Laor - (Film Review) August 3, 2012 - 12:00am

Initially, I was afraid that "Zevel Tov" ("Good Garbage" ), a documentary produced and directed by Ada Ushpiz and Shosh Shlam, would be just another story about the atrocities of the occupation. At the very least, it would be an effort to prove that there is an occupation, despite the argument by emeritus Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy, who headed a committee that declared that the West Bank is not occupied territory.

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