April 20th

World Bank: Israelis get four times more water than Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - (Analysis) April 20, 2009 - 12:00am The water-supply regime used by Israel and the Palestinians must be changed, according to a World Bank report that is to be published today. The report notes that an average Israeli gets four times as much water as the average Palestinian, and warns that the Palestinian Authority water system is "nearing catastrophe." It concludes by recommending that the current water-distribution arrangement, mandated as part of the Oslo II accords, be changed to improve the Palestinian system. » Read more

West Bank violence set to escalate ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Vita Bekker - April 20, 2009 - 12:00am A wave of violence in the West Bank last weekend, in which three Palestinians were killed, has prompted some activists and analysts to warn of increased clashes in the Israeli-occupied territory amid a stalled peace process and the rise of a new hardline government in Israel. » Read more

Israel's discriminatory policy out in the open ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Adel Safty - (Opinion) April 19, 2009 - 12:00am First, there was the openly racist anti-Arab campaign platform of Avigdor Lieberman, who called for stripping Palestinian Israelis of their citizenship and requiring them to take an oath of allegiance. The strong showing of Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel Our Home} in the recent Israeli election validated for many Israelis, Lieberman’s racist views and led some Israeli commentators to wistfully observe that racism was now an acceptable Jewish value in Israel. » Read more

Why I carry a little red light ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Uri Avnery - (Analysis) April 20, 2009 - 12:00am Perhaps Avigdor Lieberman is only a passing episode in the annals of the State of Israel. Perhaps the fire he is trying to ignite will flicker briefly and go out by itself. Or perhaps the police investigations into the grave corruption affair of which he is suspected will lead to his removal from the public sphere. But the opposite is also possible. Last week he promised his acolytes that the next elections would bring him to power. » Read more

Chop Shop Economics ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Khaleej Times by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) April 17, 2009 - 12:00am The Opinion article ‘Chop Shop Economics and Stealth Zionism,’ (KT, April 14), casts the economic recovery programme in the United States being led by the Obama administration as a ‘premeditated attempt to loot and destroy the US financial system,’ and lays the blame for this conspiracy squarely at the feet of what the author calls a ‘corrupt network’ of Jewish Americans. This seeks to exploit the current financial crisis facing the American and global economies, and links it to traditional themes of anti-Semitism in a transparent effort to promote fear and hatred ?of Jews. » Read more

Peres to meet Obama before Netanyahu? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yitzhak Benhorin - April 20, 2009 - 12:00am Will President Shimon Peres be the first Israeli leader to meet with US President Barack Obama at the White House? Such an option is being looked into in Washington these days, as Peres may replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and address the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference. Netanyahu met with Peres during the Passover holiday, informed him that he would not be able to attend the AIPAC conference in early May, and asked him to represent Israel at the event in his place. » Read more

The American Change ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat by Abdullah Iskandar - (Opinion) April 19, 2009 - 12:00am The US has taken a big step forward in its outlook on the Arab-Israeli conflict and how to resolve it, ending decades of complete adherence to Israel's stance. It has begun to sense the need to look into the demands of Arabs, i.e. into the demands of the other party to the conflict. Perhaps for the first time in the history of the US dealing with the conflict in the region, Presidential Envoy George Mitchell expressed a truth the Arabs have been pointing out for decades: peace in the Middle East is in the US's interest, with the Arab peace initiative constituting one of its bases. » Read more

Bibi’s ‘Economic Peace’ Faces Key Test at Quarries ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Jeffay - April 15, 2009 - 12:00am Complaints over Israel’s conduct on Palestinian land are well-known. Less commonly heard, however, is the accusation that Israel is actually removing the land. “How is it that they are taking our land to Israel?” asked Ibrahim Abder, a Palestinian man standing at a stone quarry near his home a few miles south of Bethlehem during an interview with the Forward. » Read more

Israel, Iran and Fear ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) April 19, 2009 - 12:00am When I lived in Germany in the 1990s, the return of the capital from Bonn to the scene of the crime, Berlin, prompted agonizing over how to memorialize the Holocaust. Germans thirsted for a “Schlussstrich” — closure with Hitler — even as they acknowledged its impossibility. A large Holocaust memorial was built in Berlin, but not before a leading writer, Martin Walser, had prompted outrage by railing against “the permanent presentation of our shame” and use of Auschwitz as “a moral stick.” » Read more

Recent UCR speaker accused of anti-Semitism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Press Enterprise by David Olson - April 18, 2009 - 12:00am The director of an Inland-based hate-monitoring group is calling on UC Riverside Chancellor Timothy White to denounce a recent campus speaker whom the organization accuses of anti-Semitism. White said through a spokeswoman he will not comment on past statements made by Abdel Malik Ali, who appeared April 11-12 at the Muslim Students' Association western regional conference at UCR. » Read more