February 19th

NEWS: ATFP celebrates its 10th anniversary and announces its Seventh Annual Gala on October 23, 2013. (ATFP) Israel and the Palestinians are intensifying diplomatic activity with the United States in preparation for Pres. Obama's visit to the region. (Jerusalem Post) Israelis are being asked to choose their favorite logo for the Obama visit on PM Netanyahu's Facebook page. (AFP) Former FM Lieberman pleads not guilty in a fraud case. (New York Times) Israel treats five Syrians injured in the Civil War. (Reuters) Jordan denies it has been importing gas from Israel. (Xinhua) A Palestinian prisoner is continuing what is the purportedly longest-ever hunger strike by any detainee, as Israel reportedly detains his brother. (Xinhua/Ahram Online) A Gaza engineer reportedly held in isolation by Israel for over two years is reportedly losing his ability to speak. (Ma'an) The PLO criticizes an ill-fated visit to Bulgaria by a delegation from Hamas. (Xinhua) Hamas officials confirm they are in indirect negotiations with Israel. (Ma'an) Teachers become the latest group of Palestinian public employees to stage a strike. (Ma'an) Palestinian farmers are struggling in the occupied West Bank. (The National) Israeli officials say only "a handful" of prisoners are being held without public knowledge. (Ha'aretz) The surprise alliance between Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett is greatly complicating efforts by Netanyahu to form a new coalition. (LA Times) Netanyahu hints he wants the broadest coalition to push forward on peace with the Palestinians. (Ha'aretz) Israelis are luring Christian tourists with "Holy Land hikes" on the "Jesus Trail." (CSM) The Gaza blockade is snuffing out the area's camel industry. (Al Monitor) Israel says it will return Palestinian farmland to its owners after trying to grant it to a Jewish kibbutz. (Ha'aretz) Hamas condemns Egypt's flooding of Gaza smuggling tunnels. (Al Arabiya/AFP) COMMENTARY: Hussein Ibish asks how long the charade of Palestinian national unity talks can continue. (The National) Thomas Donilon says Hezbollah revealed its true face in the bombing of an Israeli tour bus in Bulgaria. (New York Times) Aluf Benn says Netanyahu might be interested in recognizing a provisional Palestinian state along the lines of the status quo, but this won't be stable. (Ha'aretz) Al-Ahram interviews Egyptian writer Ali Salem. (Ha'aretz) Robert Fattal says Israeli policies are helping Palestinian secure a demographic majority in the areas under Israel's control. (YNet) Yitzhak Laor says the Israeli media is excited about the secret detention of the late Ben Zygier, but indifferent to analogous Palestinian secret detainees. (Ha'aretz) Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed says the Prisoner X scandal shows Israel is being ruled by those with out of date mentalities. (Asharq Al- Awsat) Ben Lynfield says Israel's Jewish and Arab citizens are deeply divided over MK Zoabi. (The Forward) Tariq Al Maeena says Washington should beware of undue pro-Israel influence. (Gulf News) Emily Hauser says Palestinian media appear woefully slow to understand what anti-Semitism is and how much damage it causes. (Daily Beast/Open Zion) Hassan Barari says, as long as there is no real "peace camp" in Israel, Lieberman is right that conflict management is all that can be accomplished. (Arab News) Shlomi Eldar says hunger striking Palestinian prisoners are invisible to almost all Jewish Israelis. (Al Monitor) Sharif Nashashibi asks why Palestinians are hesitating to try to file charges against Israel at the ICC.

Israelis, Palestinians and ‘managing the crisis’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Hassan Barari - February 17, 2013 - 1:00am

A few days ago, the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said that chances to reach an agreement with the Palestinians on the issue of permanent borders would be modest. He argued that whatever happens, parties will be left only with “managing the crisis.” Difficult as it may look, Liberman has articulated what many observers already know. Ever since the peace process has run aground following the advent of Sharon’s first government, events unfolded have only reinforced what Liberman had said.

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Palestinians Need To Learn The Lesson On Antisemitism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Emily L. Hauser - (Opinion) February 15, 2013 - 1:00am

On January 31, Ma’an News Agency ran an opinion piece on its Arabic-language website in which the author, Ghassan Mustafa al-Shami, unleashed his decidedly vile opinion that the Holocaust is a “myth” spread and exploited by Jews for our own nefarious ends:

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Israel is the sleeping enemy within the US
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Tariq A. Al-Maeena - (Opinion) February 16, 2013 - 1:00am

When writers daringly break barriers and put out reports on the dangers of Israeli manipulation of US politics for self-serving interests, their pieces are quickly dismissed as anti-Semitic hysteria. But historical events justify the alarm raised by a few western writers against a deeply embedded menace within the US political system. It is a menace that singularly promotes Israeli interests above American ones, and effectively uses US politicians for that purpose.

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On eve of Israeli visit, renowned academic Zygmunt Bauman laments protracted occupation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Avner Shapira - February 16, 2013 - 1:00am

Professor Zygmunt Bauman last visited Israel some 20 years ago, during the period of the second government of Yitzhak Rabin. “I came to Israel during the tragically brief episode of Rabin’s government − the time of hope that the nation was about to come to its senses, stop the rot and follow the road out of the impasse,” he recalls now. “That episode, though, was brought to a violent end shortly after − not by a Palestinian, but by a Jewish bullet.

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Joining the ICC: What is the P.A. waiting for?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Arabiya
by Sharif Nashashibi - (Opinion) February 18, 2013 - 1:00am

Palestine’s upgraded status at the U.N. to non-member observer state handed it a potent weapon against the longest military occupation in modern history: the ability to join the International Criminal Court. So what has the Palestinian Authority done with this weapon in the months since? Absolutely nothing, and for no discernible reason.

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Haneen Zoabi, Israeli Lawmaker, Is Reviled by Jews — and Adored by Arabs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward
by Ben Lynfield - (Opinion) February 16, 2013 - 1:00am

At the Knesset in West Jerusalem, she has been threatened, denounced as a terrorist and stripped of her parliamentary privileges. Israel’s new kingmaker, Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid, has cited her as the reason he would never join a coalition that depended on support from Israeli-Arab political parties. But at the Ambassador Hotel in East Jerusalem, chatting earnestly over a cup of espresso and a slice of cake, Haneen Zoabi is interrupted repeatedly by waves and smiles, and by requests by passers-by to have their picture taken with her.

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Hunger Striker Samer Issawi Invisible to Israeli Society
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Shlomi Eldar - (Opinion) February 17, 2013 - 1:00am

Palestinian prisoner Samer Issawi from the village of Issawiya has been on hunger strike for more than 200 days now. “Two hundred days? How is he still alive?” I asked Khader Adnan. If anyone could give me a reliable answer to this question, it's Adnan. After all, he started the wave of hunger strikes in Israeli prisons about a year ago, and since his release he has emerged as one of the most prominent activists on behalf of Palestinian prisoners.

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Israel's Cover-ups
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed - (Opinion) February 16, 2013 - 1:00am

We are usually highly critical of Arab governments, accusing them of being outdated. We also blame them for their rigid commitment to policies of suppression and silence. But then we witness a country, such as Israel, displaying traits that are just as bad as those we have been criticizing. We typically assume Israel is a modern and strong country that can deal with everything in a transparent manner. It has larger universities, larger research centers and more advanced media institutes than us.

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Fitting Palestinian prisoners into the excitement of the Ben Zygier affair
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yitzhak Laor - (Opinion) February 18, 2013 - 1:00am

Samer Issawi was sentenced by a military tribunal to nearly three decades in prison, freed after six years in the 2011 prisoner swap that secured the release of Gilad Shalit, and re-arrested in July and sent back to jail for another 20 years because he went from Jerusalem, where he lives, to A-Ram, on the other side of the road. Issawi has been on a saline drip to keep him alive since August.

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