August 30th

In Israel, Settling for Less ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Gadi Taub - (Opinion) August 29, 2010 - 12:00am WILL Israel remain a Zionist state? If so, what kind? These are the important questions in Israeli politics today, and will be looming over the direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority scheduled to begin Thursday in Washington. » Read more

In Israel, Settling for Less ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Gadi Taub - (Opinion) August 29, 2010 - 12:00am WILL Israel remain a Zionist state? If so, what kind? These are the important questions in Israeli politics today, and will be looming over the direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority scheduled to begin Thursday in Washington. » Read more

Actors’ Protest and Rabbi’s Sermon Stoke Tensions in Israel Ahead of Peace Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - August 29, 2010 - 12:00am Israel was in an uproar on Sunday over a refusal by Israeli theater artists to perform in West Bank Jewish settlements, and Palestinians were outraged by a virulently anti-Palestinian sermon by a Jerusalem rabbi, further fueling the atmosphere days before the expected resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in Washington. » Read more

Early Obstacle, and Test, at Start of Mideast Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Helene Cooper - August 29, 2010 - 12:00am President Obama will begin his one-year effort to achieve Middle East peace on Wednesday, joining a long list of his predecessors who have tried to achieve a comprehensive peace between Israelis and Palestinians. But unlike the presidents before him, Mr. Obama will know within three weeks whether the two sides are serious this time about reaching a deal. » Read more

Early Obstacle, and Test, at Start of Mideast Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Helene Cooper - August 29, 2010 - 12:00am President Obama will begin his one-year effort to achieve Middle East peace on Wednesday, joining a long list of his predecessors who have tried to achieve a comprehensive peace between Israelis and Palestinians. But unlike the presidents before him, Mr. Obama will know within three weeks whether the two sides are serious this time about reaching a deal. » Read more

August 27th

Abbas needs to be backed ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Ahmad Majdoubeh - (Opinion) August 27, 2010 - 12:00am In the Arab world, most people who talk or write about the envisaged involvement of Palestinians in direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions or a clear roadmap express either much fear or much scepticism. While these are justified to a degree, they should not prevent the Arabs from backing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas fully, since go he will. » Read more

West Bank Security Barrier Draws Artists and Advertisers ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Daniel Estrin - August 25, 2010 - 12:00am What many Israelis see as a security barrier, and many Palestinians see as a prison wall, Majd Abdel Hamid sees as a blank canvas. “It’s really tempting as an artist,” said Abdel Hamid, a 22-year-old Ramallah-based painter. Back in 2007, Abdel Hamid and two assistants spent two 10-hour days painting a 130-foot-long portion of the barrier that separates Israel from the West Bank. On the concrete slabs, they stenciled a jumble of Arabic letters. Unscrambled, the letters spell out the Palestinian Declaration of Independence, written in 1988 by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. » Read more

A Grim Teaching ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Ideas Daily by Yehudah Mirsky - August 27, 2010 - 12:00am Every first-year law student knows that hard cases make bad law. In Israel, a particularly hard case lies in the ongoing controversy around an inflammatory Hebrew-language volume of Jewish religious law (halakhah) that offers justifications for violent treatment of non-Jews in general and of Israel's foes in particular. The debate has highlighted longstanding divisions within Israeli society; now that the courts and the police have gotten into the act, it has also highlighted the difficulties of drawing meaningful lines between free speech and incitement. » Read more

A Grim Teaching ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Ideas Daily by Yehudah Mirsky - August 27, 2010 - 12:00am Every first-year law student knows that hard cases make bad law. In Israel, a particularly hard case lies in the ongoing controversy around an inflammatory Hebrew-language volume of Jewish religious law (halakhah) that offers justifications for violent treatment of non-Jews in general and of Israel's foes in particular. The debate has highlighted longstanding divisions within Israeli society; now that the courts and the police have gotten into the act, it has also highlighted the difficulties of drawing meaningful lines between free speech and incitement. » Read more

Lebanon's law on Palestinian workers does not go far enough ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Ahmed Moor - (Opinion) August 27, 2010 - 12:00am Beirut pulses with expatriate lives. Foreign nationals come from everywhere for lots of different reasons. Some of them are here to teach, others come to learn Arabic, and still others come to write. Few of them stay for 62 years. » Read more