October 26th

Rights of Return and Recognition Cannot Be Swapped ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Leonard Fein - October 20, 2010 - 12:00am In a recent New York Times essay, published Oct. 14, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael B. Oren, argues forcefully on behalf of the call by Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. “Affirmation of Israel’s Jewishness,” he writes, “is the very foundation of peace, its DNA.” » Read more

Vatican rejects “chosen people” claim, calls on Israel to end “occupation” ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Russia TV October 25, 2010 - 12:00am A high-ranking Israeli official on Sunday slammed a statement from Catholic bishops, who called for international organizations to lead the cause of Palestinian statehood. Greek-Melchite Archbishop Cyrille Bustros sparked an interreligious firestorm when he suggested that Israel was “using Scripture” to continue its occupation of Palestinian territory. » Read more

October 25th

Wrong path ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News (Opinion) October 24, 2010 - 12:00am It is high time Israel and Jews realized that the path they continue to tread is not calculated to achieve a Middle East settlement that is just and durable. Though the world community, the peace brokers and the parties involved have repeatedly called on Israel to be more flexible and settle for an acceptable and just peace in the region, the Jewish state’s intransigence and unbridled quest to change the demographics of the region with new settlements dashes all hopes for peace. » Read more

Wrong path ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News (Opinion) October 24, 2010 - 12:00am It is high time Israel and Jews realized that the path they continue to tread is not calculated to achieve a Middle East settlement that is just and durable. Though the world community, the peace brokers and the parties involved have repeatedly called on Israel to be more flexible and settle for an acceptable and just peace in the region, the Jewish state’s intransigence and unbridled quest to change the demographics of the region with new settlements dashes all hopes for peace. » Read more

A 'Jewish and democratic' state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Gwynne Dyer - (Opinion) October 25, 2010 - 12:00am "With this law Israel buys an exit ticket from the family of nations," wrote Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea last week in the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. “The proposed loyalty law... is really racist. It obliges non-Jews to declare that they would be loyal to the Jewish state but exempts Jews from this obligation.” But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed new law is not racist, just shortsighted and nasty. » Read more

The Negotiations and the Illusion of the Palestinian State ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat by Abdullah Iskandar - (Opinion) October 24, 2010 - 12:00am When former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to unilaterally withdraw from the Gaza Strip, he resorted when implementing the step in August 2005 to evacuating the settlements and the Jewish settlers by force. Sharon intentionally did not coordinate with the Palestinian Authority when taking this step, in spite of all of the US’s, and especially Egypt’s, attempts. This was in order to assert that dismantling these settlements had no connection whatsoever to the peace process or to negotiations with the PA, but rather was connected to Israeli interests alone. » Read more

Gaza, The Wright Way ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward by Zohar Tirosh-Polk - October 20, 2010 - 12:00am Lawrence Wright, the renowned author and longtime staff member of The New Yorker, seems surprisingly fragile standing alone onstage in New York City’s 3-Legged Dog Art & Technology Center. Considering he is about to take a long, hard look at the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially as it pertains to Gaza, one can forgive the jitters. » Read more

'Even if the Israelis confess, I don't expect any justice from them' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Said Ghazali, Donald MacIntyre - October 23, 2010 - 12:00am Maysa Samouni, whose husband Tawfiq, 21, was killed and baby daughter Jumana, now two, was injured in the building struck by missiles on 5 January, 2009, was unmoved yesterday by the progress of the investigation into the attack. "The court wouldn't bring back my husband," she said. "Even if they [the Israelis] confessed that they shot at the warehouse crowded with the civilians, I didn't expect any justice from them." » Read more

It was the Gaza assault's worst atrocity. Now the truth may finally be told ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Donald MacIntyre - October 23, 2010 - 12:00am Israeli military police are investigating whether an air strike which killed 21 members of the same family sheltering in a building during the Army's Gaza offensive in 2008-9 was authorised by a senior brigade commander who had been warned of the danger to civilians. » Read more

Israeli army officers investigated over Gaza air strike that killed 21 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Harriet Sherwood - October 22, 2010 - 12:00am Senior Israeli army officers are under investigation by military police over the authorisation of an air strike that killed at least 21 members of one family during the three-week Gaza war in 2008-9. The officers are reported to include the commander of the Givati Brigade, Colonel Ilan Malka. No decision has been made on whether they will be charged. The air strike took place on 5 January 2009, nine days after the war began. The extended Samouni family were ordered to gather in one house after a three-storey property belonging to them was taken over as a military position. » Read more