On Passover, Israel concerned over world standing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Aron Heller - March 29, 2010 - 12:00am Nearly one out of every two Israelis thinks the country's international standing is poor following Israel's most serious crisis with the United States in decades, according to a poll published Monday on the eve of the Passover holiday. As Jews around the world were making last-minute preparations for the spring festival — which marks the biblical story of the Hebrews' exodus from Egypt — a poll in the Maariv daily showed increasing concern following the open rift between the governments of the world's two largest Jewish centers. » Read more

After US dustup, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing challenges ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Ilene Prusher - March 28, 2010 - 12:00am On the eve on Israel's Passover holiday, which celebrates liberation from oppression, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looked so mired in his mounting, multi-faceted crises that he might need a miracle to survive them. » Read more

PNA urges Arabs to maintain peace offer with Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua March 28, 2010 - 12:00am he Palestinian National Authority (PNA) said Sunday that Arabs should maintain the Arab peace initiative with Israel. The Arab peace initiative "is still the strategic choice of the Arab League (AL)'s summit" that is wrapping up on Sunday in Libya, said Nabil Abu Rdineh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. However, he added that the Palestinians "will be committed to any other option the summit takes." » Read more

Israel fears Obama heading for imposed Mideast settlement ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Ari Shavit - March 29, 2010 - 12:00am U.S. President Barack Obama's demands during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Tuesday point to an intention to impose a permanent settlement on Israel and the Palestinians in less than two years, political sources in Jerusalem say. Israeli officials view the demands that Obama made at the White House as the tip of the iceberg under which lies a dramatic change in U.S. policy toward Israel. » Read more

Israel is sliding toward McCarthyism and racism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by David Landau - (Opinion) March 29, 2010 - 12:00am "In every generation a man is to consider himself as if he personally experienced the Exodus from Egypt." That is the central message of the Haggadah, of the seder night and indeed of Passover itself - the Festival of Freedom. The message isn't necessarily confined to the experience of the Hebrew slaves, who were delivered from bondage. The entire epic of the Exodus is meaningful. Our generation, in particular, the generation of renaissance and occupation, might do well to consider the narrative from the Egyptian perspective. » Read more

East Jerusalem house is a home divided ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Edmund Sanders - (Opinion) March 29, 2010 - 12:00am A tiny brick house. A disputed neighborhood. And a Solomon-style court ruling that has placed two sets of strangers -- with nothing in common but hatred -- under the same flat roof. Since December, Israelis have resided in the front part of a house where Palestinians have long lived. All that separates them is a bedroom wall, a sealed door and, lately, the police, who visit regularly to break up the fights. » Read more

PM: Remarks about Obama inappropriate ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Roni Sofer - March 28, 2010 - 12:00am The cabinet convened on Sunday for the first time since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from his tense visit to Washington. At the opening of the meeting, the prime minister asked to soften tone toward US President Barack Obama. "I have been hearing inappropriate remarks in the media recently with regards to the American president and his administration. Even when there are disagreements – these are disagreements among friends, which are based on a longtime relationship and tradition," Netanyahu said. » Read more

Fierce debate on Israel underway inside Obama administration ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico by Laura Rozen - March 28, 2010 - 12:00am Since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tense visit to the White House last week, an intense debate inside the Obama administration about how to proceed with Netanyahu to advance the Middle East peace process has grown more heated, even as Israeli officials are expected to announce they have reached some sort of agreement with Washington as soon as tonight. » Read more

J’lem posters call for 3rd Temple ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Abe Selig - March 29, 2010 - 12:00am While tensions continue to simmer around the Temple Mount after riots in and around the capital’s Old City earlier this month, a new campaign calling for the construction of the Third Temple atop the holy site has made its way to the sides of 200 Egged buses in the city, which now sport posters featuring a picture of a rebuilt temple on the Mount, and nothing else. » Read more

PA purges Hamas-linked educators ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Khaled Abu Toameh - March 29, 2010 - 12:00am The Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank has over the past two years fired hundreds of school teachers and imams suspected of being affiliated with Hamas, Palestinian sources in Ramallah disclosed on Sunday. The firings are seen in the context of the PA’s efforts to prevent Hamas from taking control over the West Bank. The teachers and imams have threatened legal action against the government on the grounds that their dismissal was “politically motivated.” » Read more