NEWS: The UN Human Rights Council says Israel should face sanctions over its settlement activity. Hamas says media reports it accepts a two-state solution are inaccurate, since it does not. Some claim bigoted Jewish Israeli soccer fans reflect broader intolerance throughout their society. Israel's two largest political parties endorse PM Netanyahu for another term in office. The Syrian government claims Israel attacked a military research center near the Lebanon border. Lebanese authorities confirm there was no attack inside Lebanon. Hamas says it's going to try to teach more Gaza schoolchildren Hebrew, "the enemy language." A family of six in Gaza dies in a tragic fire. Netanyahu says only US military strike can stop Iran's nuclear program. COMMENTARY: The New York Times says Israel was unwise to boycott the review of its record by the UN Human Rights Council. Zvi Bar'el says Palestinians still don't see an Israeli partner for peace. Rachel Shabi says criticism of Israel is legitimate, but offensive cartoons are not. Alex Fishman says Israel's military action along the Lebanese-Syrian border was a calculated risk. Shlomo Ben-Ami says Israel's recent election took place inside a social and political bubble. Alon Ben David says Israeli investment in deterrence against Iran would be wise. Meir Javedanfar looks at Israel's and Iran's redlines on Syria. Peter Beinart asks why Arab parties are excluded from Israeli coalition talks. Time interviews Israeli political newcomer and power-broker Lapid. JNS interviews the controversial pro-Israel Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh. Bernard Gwertzman of CFR interviews David Makovsky of WINEP about the recent Israeli election.

Political Pivot in Israel?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Council On Foreign Relations
by Bernard Gwertzman - (Interview) January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

In the wake of the January 22 Israeli parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking the largest coalition government he can secure, says expert David Makovsky, because "the biggest government means no one faction can hold him by the throat." He says that U.S. officials were pleased by the surge of votes toward the center and the likelihood that newspaper columnist and radio host Yair Lapid is destined to play a major role in the new government.

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Khaled Abu Toameh, Journalist Forges On As Lonely Dissenting Arab Voice On PA
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Baltimore Jewish Times
by Alex Trainman - (Opinion) January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

In an environment where criticism of Israel is not only common, but also encouraged, Arab-Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh is a lonely voice of dissent on issues relating to the Palestinian Authority (PA).  “I believe that a journalist should be loyal to the truth, as opposed to a president or a prime minister,” Abu Toameh said. “I do not wish to be a mouthpiece for any leader, an organ of any structure or a coverup agent for anybody. A journalist should be free to criticize anyone as long as he is telling the truth.”

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Yair Lapid: An Interview with Israel’s New Power Broker
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Time
by Karl Vick - (Interview) January 31, 2013 - 1:00am

Yair Lapid is the Israeli anchorman and columnist who stunned Israel’s political world by finishing second in Jan.

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Why Arab Parties Are Excluded From Israeli Coalitions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
(Opinion) January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

The media reports out of Israel these days are all about coalition-wrangling. Will Benjamin Netanyahu reach the magical 61 Knesset seats necessary to form a government by combining his 31 Likud-Beiteinu seats and the 19 from Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid with those of ultra-Orthodox parties like Shas (11 seats) and United Torah Judaism (7), which might create new opportunities to advance the peace process but could stymie efforts to force ultra-Orthodox Jews to serve in the military?

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Iran, Israel and Their Red Lines Over Syria
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Meir Javendanfar - (Opinion) January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

On Saturday [Jan. 26] the government of Iran drew a red line around Syria.

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Israel Must Invest to Deter Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Alon Ben David - (Opinion) January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

It’s a safe bet that investing in building military capabilities vis-à-vis Iran will continue in the next government, regardless of its composition.

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Israel’s election in a bubble
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Shlomo Ben-Ami - (Opinion) January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

Forty-five years into Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, and four years after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government became the undertaker of the two-state solution, an electoral campaign run in utter denial of Israel’s Palestinian conundrum has just ended with yet another Netanyahu government in office.

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Calculated risk
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Alex Fishman - (Opinion) January 31, 2013 - 1:00am

Israel, according to the foreign press, attacked at dawn Wednesday a Hezbollah weapons convoy along the Lebanon-Syria border. If an attack did in fact take place, was it a prelude to a broad military conflict on the northern front? We should look for the answer to this question, first of all, in the IDF's General Staff.

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Criticize Israel – but without the vile and offensive cartoons
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Rachel Shabi - (Opinion) January 30, 2013 - 1:00am

It’s a rare event for me to be in agreement with the U.K. Jewish Chronicle's editor, Stephen Pollard, but that is what happened after the publication of a cartoon by Gerald Scarfe in last weekend's London Sunday Times, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

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