October 9th, 2012

Lebanon Says Israeli Planes Circled Its Airspace for an Hour
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Jodi Rudoren - October 7, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — The morning after the Israeli Air Force shot down an unidentified drone in the Negev Desert, the Lebanese government said that four Israeli warplanes spent an hour on Sunday illegally circling in its airspace. The Israeli Defense Forces refused to confirm or deny the report from the Lebanese Army, which said the planes entered above the village of Kfar Kila at 10:10 a.m. and left above Naqoura an hour later.

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Israel Launches Airstrikes After Attacks From Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram, Isabel Kershner - October 8, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Gaza militants fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells into Israeli territory on Monday, causing no casualties but some property damage, after an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza on Sunday killed one Palestinian and wounded at least nine others.

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October 5th

Anti-Semitism—Bad for Palestinians, Too
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Emily L. Hauser - (Opinion) October 5, 2012 - 12:00am

Pro-tip: If your goal is to help the Palestinian people, anti-Semitism is a really poor tool. I happen to be among those who feel that the anti-Semitism accusation is often made far too lightly, flung about at the drop of a settlement boycott or a Goldstone Report, as if any criticism of anything that any Israeli ever does is, by definition, gratuitous Jew hatred.

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NEWS: Violent clashes erupt at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount in occupied East Jerusalem after extremist Israelis repeatedly enter Muslim holy areas. Some Jewish extremists in Israel dream of establishing a “Third Temple” on the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, and they are moving closer to Israel's social and political mainstream. Independent Israeli newspapers are under severe pressure from market and political forces. An unidentified American citizen kills one Israeli worker at an Israeli resort before being shot by police. A Lebanese man pleads not guilty in Cyprus to charges of planning to attack Israelis. A 20-year-old man is in hospital in Gaza after immolating himself. The PA says it's now starting to distribute public employees' August salaries. Large groups of American evangelical Christians march in Jerusalem in support of Israel. A prominent member of Ramla's Muslim community is found murdered inside the city's Great Mosque. Former Defense Secretary Gates says the US must prevent an Israeli attack against Iran. Israelis and Palestinians cooperate to lay optical cable for Internet services in Gaza. UK FM Hague expresses concern about Israel's West Bank separation barrier. COMMENTARY: Salman Masalha claims Jordan is meddling in Israeli politics. Ha'aretz profiles Marwan Makhoul, a poet who is a Palestinian citizen of Israel. Linda Gradstein says Israeli concerns about the consequences of the conflict in Syria are increasing. Tariq Alhomayed considers the absurdity of Syrian government condemnations of Hamas. Alex Fishman says the Israeli government is being hypocritical in its purported determination to fight settler “price tag” violence. Chuck Freilich says PM Netanyahu is stacking his cabinet in favor of an attack against Iran. Emily Hauser explains how poisonous anti-Semitism is for the Palestinian cause.

Inside Bibi's Bunker
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Chuck Freilich - (Opinion) October 4, 2012 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's use of a cartoon bomb to illustrate Israel's red lines regarding the Iranian nuclear program may have elicited guffaws among the foreign-policy punditocracy, but the issue is no laughing matter. In fact, Israel's entire defense bureaucracy has long been engaged in an exhaustive assessment of what is undoubtedly among the most difficult decisions Israel has ever faced -- and perhaps the most difficult since David Ben-Gurion declared independence.

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Where Settlers' 'Price Tag' Policy Meets Israel’s Mask of Hypocrisy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Yedioth Ahronoth
by Alex Fishman - (Opinion) October 4, 2012 - 12:00am

When it comes to [the acts of vandalism perpetrated by Israeli right-wing extremists] "price tag" policy, the government of Israel is hiding behind a mask of pretense and double standards. On the one hand, it requests the law enforcement bodies to crush the phenomenon, the same way they are dealing with Arab terror. On the other hand, it refrains from putting at their disposal the legal measures that would enable them to do so.

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Khaled Mishal the “Zionist agent”!
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Tariq Alhomayed - (Opinion) October 4, 2012 - 12:00am

During the Israeli war on Gaza in early 2009, the Hamas movement was criticized for its recklessness in exposing Gaza to destruction and havoc only to serve the goals of Iran, Hezbollah and Bashar al-Assad in the region. Wise commentators said that the war was not justified, and that it was just another adventure for Hamas after Hezbollah’s adventure in Lebanon in 2006.

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Israelis Look Nervously Across to Syria
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Linda Gradstein - (Opinion) October 4, 2012 - 12:00am

Fears that Syria’s Violence Could Spill Over Border into Israel

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Both Israeli and Arab, a poet straddles a conflict
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Eli Eliyahu - (Interview) October 3, 2012 - 12:00am

Our interview has barely begun when Marwan Makhoul says to me, “It’s not easy for me to be interviewed by an Israeli newspaper. We, the Palestinian residents of Israel, are threatened by both sides, the Arab and the Israeli. We’re neither here nor there. We haven’t found a fitting definition for ourselves.” Makhoul, an Arab poet, and I, a Jewish journalist, are together to discuss the Hebrew-language publication of his book, “Land of the Sad Passiflora.” Many of the poems in this volume, he tells me, come straight out of his own biography.

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Royal corruption
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Salman Masalha - (Opinion) October 5, 2012 - 12:00am

Is it conceivable that foreign governments are buying political parties and public figures in Israel? This no doubt sounds like an unthinkable fabrication to you. But such corruption is indeed taking place here, far from the eyes of the public. His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan buys political parties and spiritual leaders in Israel. This is done quietly without anyone here showing the least bit of surprise.

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