September 17th, 2012

Mistreatment of refugees in Israel doesn't stop at border
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Mya Guarnieri - (Opinion) September 17, 2012 - 12:00am


Earlier this month, 21 Eritrean asylum seekers, including a 14-year-old child and two pregnant women, spent over a week trapped between fences on the Israeli side of the Israeli-Egyptian border. As the temperatures soared, one of the women reportedly miscarried. The group was not provided with any shelter; the "most moral army in the world" gave the refugees only small amounts of water and scraps of cloth to protect themselves from the sun.


U.S. will go to war with Iran in 2013, says ex-U.S. ambassador to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Interview) September 17, 2012 - 12:00am


Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk said on Sunday that he thinks the U.S. will go to war with Iran over its nuclear program in 2013. Speaking during a panel on the CBS program Face the Nation, Indyk said, "I'm afraid that 2013 is going to be a year in which we're going to have a military confrontation with Iran."


Zahhar: Gaza more secure than West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
(Interview) September 15, 2012 - 12:00am


BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – Seven years after Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip, several things have changed both at the political and the economic level, Hamas official Mahmoud Zahhar said Friday. Speaking to Ma’an, Zahhar asserted that “Gaza is free of occupation, and contiguity with the outside world is easier as visitors from all over the world visited the coastal enclave.”


Under Obama or Romney, U.S. Mideast policy won’t change much
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) September 14, 2012 - 12:00am


A presidential campaign focused largely on domestic economic issues veered into foreign policy after the killing of America’s ambassador to Libya on Tuesday and the eruption of anti-U.S. protests from Egypt to Yemen. Both presidential candidates responded — and their differences have produced debates over which would be stronger on the world stage. Was President Obama forceful enough?


The forgotten massacre
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Robert Fisk - (Opinion) September 15, 2012 - 12:00am


The memories remain, of course. The man who lost his family in an earlier massacre, only to watch the young men of Chatila lined up after the new killings and marched off to death. But – like the muck piled on the garbage tip amid the concrete hovels – the stench of injustice still pervades the camps where 1,700 Palestinians were butchered 30 years ago next week.


Israeli Leader Makes Case Against Iran on U.S. TV
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Steven Lee Myers - (Editorial) September 16, 2012 - 12:00am


WASHINGTON — Having been rebuffed privately by President Obama last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took to the airwaves in the United States on Sunday to warn that Iran was only six or seven months from having “90 percent” of what it needed to make an atomic bomb.


NEWS: On American TV, PM Netanyahu makes the case for war against Iran. On the Jewish new year, many Israelis express concern about the possibility of war. A Hamas court sentences four Salafist extremists to death over the killing of an Italian activist. An all-female bloc is running in local Palestinian elections. Hamas claims an investigation has discovered that no Palestinians in Gaza were connected to an attack on Egyptian forces in Sinai. An Egyptian soldier is killed in a new clash with extremists in Sinai. Palestinians complain that 30 years after the massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon, no one has been brought to justice. Palestinian trade unions are divided over the prospect of a new strike. The EU pledges €100 million for the PA. Former Israeli military intelligence chief Yadlin says the country would need international and American support before any attack against Iran. PM Fayyad posts a protest song calling for his resignation on his own Facebook page. The BBC looks at Jewish Israeli extremists who engage in “price tag” violence. Israelis defend their campaign on Jewish refugees as a way of “counteracting” the Palestinian refugee issue. COMMENTARY: Seth Anziska says American pressure might have prevented the massacre at Sabra and Shatila. Robert Fisk recalls the massacre. Aaron David Miller says the upcoming election won't change US Middle East policy much. Hamas leader Zahhar claims Gaza is "free of occupation" and more secure than the West Bank. Former US Amb. Indyk says he thinks the US may go to war with Iran in 2013. Mya Guarnieri says Israel's mistreatment of migrants doesn't stop at the border. Pierre Klochendler looks at a home in occupied East Jerusalem divided between Palestinians and settlers. Michael Melchior claims a surprisingly wide range of Islamists are ready for peace and coexistence with Israel. Ben Sales looks at the political implications for Israel and the PA of the Palestinian economic crisis.

Israel hits back over refugee campaign
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Vita Bekker - September 17, 2012 - 12:00am


TEL AVIV // Levana Zamir, a 74-year-old Jew born in Egypt, bitterly recalls her experiences on the day in May 1948 when David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, declared the country's independence.


‘Price tag’ tactics of West Bank Jewish settlers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Jane Corbin - September 16, 2012 - 12:00am


With their hoodies, covered faces and cans of spray paint, they may in some ways look like average teenage vandals out for a night of trouble.


Fayyad posts protest song on his Facebook page
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roi Kais - September 17, 2012 - 12:00am


In wake of the Palestinian social protest, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad decided to take matters into his own hands: Fayyad on Sunday posted a popular anti-government protest song, which calls on the prime minister to resign, on his own Facebook page.



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