April 19th

Israeli defense minister says occupation must end ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Amy Teibel - April 19, 2010 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Israel must recognize that the world will not put up with decades more of Israeli rule over the Palestinian people, the country's defense minister said in unusually frank remarks Monday. Ehud Barak's comments came against the backdrop of severe friction between the U.S. and Israel's hawkish government over an impasse in peacemaking. » Read more

Fayyad sets out to fulfill vision ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ali Waked - April 19, 2010 - 12:00am As Palestinian prime minister advances his plan for independent state next summer, even his greatest opponents find it difficult not to give him credit for recent calm and order in West Bank » Read more

April 16th

'No need to remove any settlements' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Herb Keinon - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Israel should not have to remove any settlements in a peace agreement with the Palestinians, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon has told The Jerusalem Post, adding that just as Arabs live in Israel, so, too, should Jews be able to live in a future Palestinian entity. “If we are talking about coexistence and peace, why the [Palestinian] insistence that the territory they receive be ethnically cleansed of Jews?” Ya’alon asked during a wide-ranging interview that will appear in the Post’s Yom Ha’atzmaut supplement on Monday. » Read more

Multiple battlegrounds in fights over eastern Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Marcy Oster - April 13, 2010 - 12:00am The day that Zacharia Zigelman, 26, moved into a home in the Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, in eastern Jerusalem, he got beaten up, he says. “You get used to it," Zigelman said of the incident, which occurred about six months ago. » Read more

Report: Goldstone banned from grandson's bar-mitzvah ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Aviel Magnezi - April 15, 2010 - 12:00am Justice Richard Goldstone, whose UN report on Operation Cast Lead accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza, has been prohibited from attending his grandson's bar-mitzvah by the South African Zionist Federation, the Writing Rights blog reported Thursday. It said recent negotiations between the federation, the Sandton synagogue at which the ceremony will take place, and the bar-mitzvah boy's family concluded that the judge will be banned from attending the event. » Read more

Wexler reaches out, and likes his Jewcy lifestyle ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ron Kampeas - (Blog) April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Robert Wexler, the unstoppable congressman from Florida who stopped everyone in their tracks a few months ago when he, um, stopped being a congressman came out tonight in his new incarnation, as the president of the Center for Middle East Peace. » Read more

Pupils in east Jerusalem get half funding of those in west ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Ronen Medzini - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Does the city of Jerusalem discriminate between educational institutions and students in the east of the city and the west? Absolutely yes, at least according to a professional opinion written by Jerusalem's municipal legal advisor Attorney Yossi Havilio. » Read more

At Berkeley, Students Fail to Overturn Veto of Bill Calling for Divestment From Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Josh Nathan-Kazis - April 15, 2010 - 12:00am An effort by members of U.C. Berkeley’s student senate to overturn the veto of a resolution calling for university divestment from some companies doing business with Israel failed earlier today, but the debate is far from over. In mid-March, the student senate passed a resolution that called for the University of California at Berkeley to divest from two companies with Israeli military contracts and create a committee to suggest additional companies for divestment. A week later, the president of the student government vetoed the bill, saying the decision was made too hastily. » Read more

Clinton: Israel must do more for peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters April 16, 2010 - 12:00am Israel must do more to pursue peace with the Palestinians and to strengthen their institutions or risk empowering militant groups such as Hamas, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday. US President Barack Obama's efforts to revive peace talks have been stymied by a disagreement over Jewish settlement construction that has strained ties between Washington and its close ally Israel and by divisions among the Palestinians. » Read more

Gaza tunnel is cash cow for smugglers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Omar Karmi - April 16, 2010 - 12:00am The last time Ibrahim Qishta did any business through the vast tunnel network under the Egypt-Gaza border it involved three sheep. Unusually, however, for the underground trade that constitutes Gaza’s lifeline to the outside world, the 60-year-old farmer was exporting. “It’s not a huge trade,” Mr Qishta said on Monday. “The Egyptians are not looking to import livestock for meat, but in order to breed them.” » Read more