March 27th

Israelis Fear Blame For US-Iran War
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Barbara Slavin - (Opinion) March 27, 2012 - 12:00am

A thread of anxiety ran through a conference of liberal American Jews and Israelis Sunday [March 25]. The worry: that Israel would bear the blame for any military confrontation between the United States and Iran. Retired brigadier general Shlomo Brom, a former director of strategic planning for the Israeli Defense Forces General Staff, told an audience at the J-Street convention that he had participated in talks with the George W. Bush administration before it attacked Iraq in 2003.

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A settlement boycott can work
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) March 27, 2012 - 12:00am

Peter Beinart’s recent call in the New York Times for Jewish Americans to boycott Israeli settlement goods has been met with angry responses from many Jewish Americans. This includes some who are opposed to the settler movement. The most important of these objections hold that a boycott cannot work because Jewish Americans won’t go along with such a program and there isn’t much to boycott anyway. Both arguments hold little water.

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March 26th

NEWS: Israel's Supreme Court has rejected a government-brokered deal and ordered the removal of settlers from the largest “unauthorized” outpost. Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is reportedly pressuring Hamas to moderate, promoting Palestinian unity and willing to recognize Israel in its 1967 borders. Pres. Abbas approves the integration of security and civil authorities in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. PM Fayyad says Hamas officials failed to attend a Cairo meeting about resolving the ongoing fuel crisis. US lawmakers release about $90 million in aid to the Palestinians, and Fayyad says this may help ease the financial crisis. Palestinians ask for support at the Baghdad Arab League conference. Reports in Arab newspapers suggest that Hamas ordered gas station owners not to sell petrol in order to inflame passions against Egypt. Palestinians continue to build a theatrical tradition in the occupied territories. American pro-Israel advocates are training those in other countries. American evangelical Christians are traveling to the occupied territories to volunteer in Israeli settlements. COMMENTARY: Akiva Eldar says Israel missed a historic opportunity by ignoring the Arab Peace Initiative. Amira Hass says Israel's complaints to the donor-liaison group for Palestinian aid ring hollow. Aeyal Gross says the Migron case is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to settlement colonization. Yigal Sarna says PM Netanyahu's desire to attack Iran reveals an unconscious wish to smash Tel Aviv. Lara Friedman says it's important for Jewish Americans to boycott Israeli settlements. Pinhas Inbari and Charlotte Silver offer contrasting evaluations of the Palestinian financial crisis. Charles Glass says the Toulouse attacks unfairly tarnished the reputation of the Palestinian cause. Fateh Abdelsalam looks at Israeli policy towards the Syrian uprising. Barbara Slavin interviews Jeffrey Goldberg on Iran and boycotts. Alan Wolfe looks at liberal Zionists vs. leftist anti-Zionists with a critical eye on both, but ultimately sides with the former. Hussein Ibish says pro-Palestinian activists should detail the realities of life under occupation rather than just calling it apartheid.

Show, Don't Tell: Why the Apartheid Analogy Falls Flat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) March 26, 2012 - 12:00am

A series of recent articles have pointlessly debated whether or not Israel can accurately be described as “an apartheid state.” But the problem with the apartheid analogy is less its inaccuracy, and more that, however emotionally appealing some people may find it, it’s just not useful in ending the occupation and advancing the Palestinian cause.

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Israel's Moral Peril
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Chronicle of Higher Education
by Alan Wolfe - (Opinion) March 25, 2012 - 12:00am

In the past few years, a trickle of dissent with respect to Israel has turned into a running stream. Books, articles, and Web sites critical of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, its acquiescence in the messianic designs of its settlers, its foreign-policy decisions on Gaza, Iran, and much more, and the increasing influence of the ultra-Orthodox over the character of its domestic life have begun to appear in significant numbers in America. Some, but not all, of these efforts, moreover, come from writers unused to being in the critical camp.

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Atlantic's Goldberg Discusses Israel vs. Iran; Boycott Idea
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Barbara Slavin - (Interview) March 21, 2012 - 12:00am

Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic has become a major figure in the debate over whether and when Israel might attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Author of a provocative piece in 2010 that predicted that Israel would strike Iran the following year, Goldberg has shifted since then, even suggesting recently that Israel might have been bluffing.

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What Does Israel Want for Syria?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Zaman
by Fateh Abdelsalam - (Opinion) March 20, 2012 - 12:00am

The Syrian regime's defenders and opponents have been assessing where Israeli interests lie with regard to the Syrian conflict, the likes of which the country has not seen in a century. The regime’s defenders see that a weak Syrian government serves Israeli interests, and therefore the protests should stop and there should be dialogue and agreement to prevent its collapse, which seems near.

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Toulouse attacks harm Palestinians in their own name
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Charles Glass - (Opinion) March 26, 2012 - 12:00am

It started in France in 1894, when a Viennese journalist covered the Paris treason trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. "In Paris, as I have said, I achieved a freer attitude toward anti-Semitism," Theodor Herzl wrote in his diary. "Above all, I recognised the emptiness and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-Semitism." That futility led him to propose an escape from anti-Semitism to a nation-state in Palestine.

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West Bank's economy at crossroads
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English
by Charlotte Silver - (Analysis) March 26, 2012 - 12:00am

Ramallah, West Bank - The economy of the West Bank has reached a crossroads, and with it so has the Palestinian Authority (PA). As Palestinian lending banks close their doors, development contracts are shelved and everyday spending slows to a trickle, the PA and international institutions speak of an economic crisis in the West Bank. Conventional analysis blames the failure of donors to fulfill promised pledges for the paralysing PA budget deficit that has reached $.5bn. Meanwhile, Israel blames financial mismanagement by the PA.

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The Palestinian financial crisis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from World Jewish Congress
by Pinhas Inbari - (Analysis) March 26, 2012 - 12:00am

The community of donors to the Palestinian Authority met in Brussels over the weekend. Both the government in Ramallah, sponsored by the donors, and the Hamas government in Gaza are in dire financial straits and progressively more dependent on foreign aid and susceptible to political pressure. In Ramallah, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is unable to put together a budget that would pay for Palestinian salaries. In Gaza, Hamas’ government has sunk into even deeper trouble. It is unable to provide for the steady flow of electricity, gasoline, or home cooking gas.

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