Obama: No 'grand peace plan' during Israel trip ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Julie Pace - March 8, 2013 - 1:00am President Barack Obama is playing down expectations for a Mideast peace breakthrough during his upcoming trip to Israel, telling American Jewish leaders that he won't be carrying a "grand peace plan" when he arrives in the region later this month. » Read more

The Rise Of Palestinian Non-Violent Resistance: A Conversation With Mustafa Barghouti ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Raja Shehadeh - (Opinion) March 7, 2013 - 1:00am Last Friday, I spoke to Dr. Mustafa Barghouti after he returned from commemorating the eighth anniversary of the weekly protests in the Palestinian village of Bil’in against the Separation Wall, which has denied the village large tracts of its agricultural land. Dr. Barghouti is the General Secretary of the Palestine National Initiative, the Mubadara, which he, along with others, was instrumental in establishing in 2002 to introduce new political thinking. » Read more

Jerusalem's Begin Expressway plan angers Arab neighborhood ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - March 7, 2013 - 1:00am Construction of a freeway extension through one of Jerusalem's most-prosperous Arab neighborhoods is igniting tension in the once-quiet community and reviving complaints about how the city treats Palestinian residents. If completed as planned in 2015, the nearly 1-mile extension of Jerusalem's Begin Expressway will slice through the neighborhood of Beit Safafa, home to about 12,000 Arabs. » Read more

Israeli Authorities Mostly Ignore Settler Attacks on Palestinian Village ATFP World Press Roundup Article from (Editorial) March 7, 2013 - 1:00am Hilmi Hassan lies in the intensive care unit of Hadassah Hospital, while Osama Rami has been transferred to the eye hospital in Jerusalem a few days after he was in Rafidia Hospital in Nablus. The two young boys are from the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, and were wounded by settlers who attacked Qusra’s villagers at the end of February 2013. » Read more

Israeli police disperse Palestinians at key site ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press March 8, 2013 - 1:00am Israeli police have entered Jerusalem's holiest site to disperse hundreds of Palestinians who were throwing rocks. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Palestinian worshipers rioted after Friday Muslim prayers at the hilltop site in the Old City of Jerusalem. It's known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque stands. » Read more

Europe can engineer peace in Middle East ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Patrick Seale - March 7, 2013 - 1:00am The Middle East is experiencing some of its greatest political upheavals since the creation of the Arab state system after the First World War. Right across the region, regimes have been toppled and authority challenged. In one country after another, people have gone down into the street in their tens of thousands to demand jobs, bread, respect, an end to corruption and police brutality, a greater say in how they are governed. » Read more

Israeli police, Palestinians clash at Jerusalem mosque ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Ori Lewis - March 8, 2013 - 1:00am Israeli police fired stun grenades to disperse Palestinian worshippers who had thrown rocks and firebombs at them after Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City, police said. Dozens of officers entered the politically sensitive area, one of Islam's holiest sites to break up several hundred protesters. A number of policemen were lightly hurt, a police spokesman said, and Palestinian media said at least 15 protesters were injured. » Read more

Who is an Israeli? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ranan Hartman - March 8, 2013 - 1:00am Legendary US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said that "the task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” These days, while the uproar of an equal share of the national burden is bubbling again as the main issue in the coalition negotiations for the establishment of a new government, the Israeli public is waiting for leaders to get » Read more

The empty debate on Zionism in Britain ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Anshel Pfeffer - (Opinion) March 7, 2013 - 1:00am Who is a Zionist? Once upon a time the answer to this question was simple. A Zionist was someone who believed there were moral justifications and a need for a Jewish sovereign state in the historical Land of Israel. If you recognized this, you were Zionist and all the rest was just nuance. But the definition of a Zionist has become hopelessly murky in the more than six decades since Israel's establishment amid the never-ending debate over Israel's definition, borders and values. » Read more

US, Israeli threats of force against Iran are illegal and harm chances for a deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from by Reza Nasri - (Opinion) March 7, 2013 - 1:00am These threats were issued at a time when the latest round of nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 in » Read more