September 13th

The Fayyad opportunity is fading
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ari Shavit - (Opinion) September 13, 2012 - 12:00am


The news generated by the Middle East in recent years has usually been bad. Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, the Muslim Brotherhood took over Egypt and Turkey became an aggressive neo-Ottoman power. The Iranian rebellion was quashed, Iraq was drawn into the Shi'ite sphere of influence and Syria turned into a gruesome slaughterhouse. Even in Libya, which raised hopes for a while, the American ambassador was murdered on Wednesday.


U.S. and Israel need mutual diplomacy, not recriminations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Daniel Kurtzer - (Opinion) September 13, 2012 - 12:00am


The United States and Israel do many things well together. We do strategic cooperation, security planning, intelligence sharing, economic and trade relations, and cultural interaction. Every day, scores of official and unofficial interactions take place between our governments and our two peoples, and for the most part, they are extraordinarily productive and mutually beneficial.


Netanyahu risks overplaying hand in Iran dispute
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Crispian Balmer - (Analysis) September 12, 2012 - 12:00am


JERUSALEM, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The public row between Israel and the United States this week will make it hard for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a unilateral strike against Iran and risks undermining his domestic standing. Despite years of warning about the dangers of Iran gaining nuclear weapons, the Israeli leader has failed to convince any major world power of the need for military action and has yet to persuade his domestic audience that Israel should go it alone.


Neocon Gambits
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New Yorker
by David Remnick - (Opinion) September 12, 2012 - 12:00am


It is hard to overestimate the risks that Benjamin Netanyahu poses to the future of his own country. As Prime Minister, he has done more than any other political figure to embolden and elevate the reactionary forces in Israel, to eliminate the dwindling possibility of a just settlement with the Palestinians, and to isolate his country on the world diplomatic stage.


September 12th

ATFP Mourns Victims of Consulate Attack in Benghazi
Press Release - Contact Information: Ghaith al-Omari - September 12, 2012 - 12:00am

The American Task Force on Palestine strongly condemns the heinous attack that claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi yesterday, and extends its deepest condolences to the families of Ambassador Stevens and his colleagues.


NEWS: While the PA says it's canceling tax increases to meet the demands of protesters, union leaders say demonstrations will continue. Protests in Ramallah continue, and focus on criticism of Palestinian leaders, especially PM Fayyad. Israeli officials say the US has refused a request by PM Netanyahu to meet Pres. Obama next month, although the White House plays down the report. Netanyahu orders the release of Palestinian tax revenues to the cash-strapped PA. Hamas leader Hanniyeh is visiting Egypt. Six Jewish Israeli teenagers are charged in an attack on a Palestinian man in Jerusalem. Israel is ranked the second-best educated country in the OECD. Hamas sentences a man in Gaza to death for collaboration with Israel. Palestinians who have fled Syria protest against conditions in a Lebanese refugee camp. The US is reportedly attempting to dissuade Palestinians from seeking non-member observer state status at the UN in September. COMMENTARY: Daniel Levy says Israel really does have to confront the choice between continuing the occupation and becoming a single, democratic state. Saud Abu Ramadan says both a free-trade agreement with Egypt and continued smuggling through tunnels would benefit Hamas. Amira Hass says the PA serves everyone except its own public. Oudeh Basharat says Israeli journalists show more sympathy for tomatoes than they do for Arabs. Moshe Arens says the US-Israel relationship doesn't depend on individual politicians. Steve Caplan says attempts to boycott Israeli academics and scientists are hypocritical and counterproductive. Ron Kampeas says US-Israel tensions regarding Iran are boiling over. David Amitai says Israel's Jews and Arabs are united by food, if nothing else. Mairav Zonszein says a new study shows violence begets violence among Israeli and Palestinian children.

Study: Violence Begets Violence Among Palestinian, Israeli Youth
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Mairav Zonszein - (Analysis) September 11, 2012 - 12:00am


Early on the morning of Aug. 17, a Palestinian youth was beaten unconscious by a mob of Israeli teenagers in West Jerusalem’s Zion Square. The assailants were teenagers, some as young as 13, and many more youths allegedly stood around and watched. One perpetrator told the press that as far as he is concerned, the victim should die because “he is an Arab." 


Food unites Israeli Jews and Arabs in ways politics cannot
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by David Amitai - (Opinion) September 12, 2012 - 12:00am


Every week for the past five months, a group of Arab and Jewish women from neighboring towns near Haifa, Israel, have come together to cook. Each week, they meet in a different woman’s home, discovering their commonalities and differences by sharing recipes, culinary traditions and childhood memories.


U.S.-Israel tensions on Iran are boiling over
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - (Opinion) September 11, 2012 - 12:00am


WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Between the red lines, the deadlines, the diplomacy and the dress downs, the vaunted cooperation between Israel and the United States on whether and when to strike Iran seems to be in a free fall.


Academic boycotts, science and hypocrisy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Steve Caplan - (Opinion) September 11, 2012 - 12:00am


I am a scientist and a citizen of the world. Born in the US, raised in Canada, trained in Israel and back again in the US. Now this is not a particularly unusual story. Even in Israel, as a graduate student, I encountered other graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and principal investigators from around the globe. In my own graduate lab in Israel, there was a Chinese-born woman who trained in the US and had been living and working as a senior investigator in Israel since the mid-1970s. Science is an international affair.



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