September 5th

Giving Up
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Peter Beinart - (Opinion) September 4, 2012 - 12:00am

When it comes to Israel, the American Jewish right won’t take yes for an answer. Today the Democrats released their party platform, and almost instantly, neoconservatives became apoplectic, with the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin dubbing it the “most radically unsupportive statement of policy on Israel by a major U.S. party since the founding of the state of Israel.”

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NEWS: PM Netanyahu reportedly cut short a national security meeting on Iran, accusing one of its participants of leaking information to the media. Israel is trying to downplay differences with the United States over Iran policy. A senior Palestinian security officer in Jenin is killed by gunmen. The PA asks Israel to facilitate the travel of a French team investigating the death of the late Pres. Arafat. Israel releases a Hamas leader in the West Bank. PM Fayyad will debate a Palestinian youth leader on television. The PA forms a committee to investigate the rising cost of living. A Jewish Australian businessman has big plans for occupied East Jerusalem. The Israeli government is paying hundreds of thousands of shekels to move settlers' mobile homes from one part of the occupied West Bank to another. Norway's FM says Israel and the Palestinians may be losing the chance at a two-state solution. Knesset Speaker Rivlin says Pres. Obama doesn't understand the Middle East, while FM Lieberman praises him. The Israeli campaign to “counterbalance” the final status issue of Palestinian refugees with the question of Jewish refugees and migrants to Israel from Arab states is continuing. Bedouin children again begin attending a school threatened with demolition by Israel. The Democratic Party platform is changed to better reflect occupied East Jerusalem's role as a final status issue to be negotiated between the parties. COMMENTARY: Haim Saban says Pres. Obama's support for Israel has been rocksolid in every way. Ha'aretz says Israel's police are serving as an unlikely bridge between Palestinian and Jewish citizens. Zvi Bar'el says the blockade of Gaza has been counterproductive and should be lifted. Linda Gradstein asks if Israel is preparing to attack Iran. The Forward says there's too much secrecy about funding in American politics, including among pro-Israel organizations. Tony Karon says Israeli plans to attack Iran have fallen apart because of the force of reason. Avner Cohen says Israel's constant threats against Iran are damaging its relations with the United States. Peter Beinart says it looks like the United States, including the Democratic Party, is giving up on Israeli-Palestinian peace for the meanwhile.

Platform Change on Status of Jerusalem Sparks Debate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal
by Naftali Bendavid, Jared Favole - September 5, 2012 - 12:00am

The Democratic Party released a 2012 platform Tuesday that omits previous language describing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, sparking an unexpected dust-up just as President Barack Obama is preparing to accept his party's nomination for a second term.

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Israeli Talk of Attacking Iran Damages Relationship with US
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Avner Cohen - (Opinion) September 4, 2012 - 12:00am

“When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk,” goes a famous line from the old Clint Eastwood movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

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Plans To Attack Iran Unravel In the Clear Light of Reason
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Tony Karon - (Opinion) September 5, 2012 - 12:00am

With bellicose theatrics between Israel and Iran nearing fever pitch, US President Barack Obama recently received some sage advice from the Bush administration's point man on dealings with the Islamic Republic. Former ambassador Nicholas Burns warned that the European-led negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme were going nowhere, and that the United States urgently needs protracted, direct negotiations with Tehran's leadership, putting all issues of conflict on the table.

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Palestinian bedouins return to threatened school
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
September 5, 2012 - 12:00am

Dozens of children returned to school this week, taking part in an annual ritual that has taken on a special meaning in this Bedouin tent camp. The makeshift school buildings, cobbled together from mud and old tyres, were built over the objections of the Israeli authorities, who are now threatening to demolish the structures. Israel says it will not tear them down until alternative facilities are available.

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Push for recognition of Jewish refugees from Arab lands seeks to counterbalance Palestinian claims
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ben Sales - September 4, 2012 - 12:00am

Naim Reuven was only 8 when he left Baghdad more than 50 years ago, but he still remembers going with his father to catch fish in the Tigris River. His dad worked in a laundromat, a middle-class father of six and one of Iraq’s more than 100,000 Jews. Baghdad’s Jewish community suffered a pogrom in 1941, but Reuven, born a year later, has only fond memories of his childhood there -- until Israel declared independence in 1948.

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Too Many Secrets
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward
(Editorial) September 5, 2012 - 12:00am

Back in April, Stephen Colbert told his television audience about a new tax-exempt group he had created, one which “never has to disclose its donors, because it is a quasi-charitable organization called a 501(c)4.” As his own lawyer explained on the show, it’s a social welfare organization that is supposed to further public policy goals and is not supposed to engage too much in politics.

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Liberman praises Obama, talks tough on Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gil Hoffman - September 4, 2012 - 12:00am

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman issued praise for the policies of United States President Barack Obama’s administration Tuesday at a pre-Rosh Hashana toast for activists of his Yisrael Beytenu party at Jerusalem’s Shalom Hotel. Liberman’s comments come at a time when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been issuing veiled public criticism of Obama’s Iran policies. While the foreign minister did not mention the US president by name, his comments could aid Democratic efforts to market Obama as pro-Israel.

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Rivlin says Obama doesn't understand Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Lahav Harkov - September 5, 2012 - 12:00am

US President Barack Obama's administration does not understand the realities of the Middle East, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Wednesday, amid ongoing speculation of a rift in US-Israel relations. "The fact that the Democrats removed a united Jerusalem as Israel's capital from their platform is more worrying than the argument over Iran," Rivlin told The Jerusalem Post. "The change may have far-reaching consequences."

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