November 17th

Is the Mideast peace mission impossible? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) November 17, 2011 - 1:00am The headline in The Jerusalem Post read, “Israel upset by PA’s refusal to renew talks.” Count me among the skeptics. I’m not convinced the Netanyahu government is at all disappointed that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas isn’t ready to return to the peace table. » Read more

No religious conflict in Hebron ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Musa Abu Hashhash - (Opinion) November 17, 2011 - 1:00am Palestinian history is made up of different layers and it is wrong and unfair to dig up one layer and ignore the others. This view was voiced by Dr. Albert Algazarian from Bir Zeit University, who wanted to prove the futility of arguing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in historical terms. I would argue that it is equally futile –and in fact dangerous – to turn it into a religious conflict. » Read more

Israel would be a backward country without the left-wing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Ari Shavit - (Opinion) November 17, 2011 - 1:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to his senses at the last minute. He remembered that he's a Jabotinsky-ist and a democrat, so he blocked the bill that would have subordinated the judicial authority to the elected authority. But the bill that is designed to interfere harshly in choosing the Supreme Court president was passed. The bill that is designed to harm the funding of human rights organizations was almost passed. Channel 10 is still being pursued. » Read more

Netanyahu is now the last hope for Israeli democracy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) November 17, 2011 - 1:00am Benjamin Netanyahu is a democrat, though of course there are people who are more democratic than he. He is imbued, from his youth, with a dangerous ambition to destroy Israel's "old elites," but he doesn't claim to want to destroy its democracy. Let's give him credit for that. Likud's prime ministers before him knew how to inflame passions - Menachem Begin in the street, and Ariel Sharon in the party central committee - but somehow they also knew how to preserve the democratic framework. » Read more

US and Israel haven't learned their history lessons. Palestinians and Abbas have. ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Michael Cohen - (Opinion) November 17, 2011 - 1:00am Edmund Burke famously said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” The Arab-Israeli conflict, steeped in history, is a case in point. A major piece of US Middle East policy presents a clear example of history being forgotten, while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s recent statehood bid at the United Nations serves as an example of history being remembered. » Read more

Israel’s Secret Iran Attack Plan: Electronic Warfare ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Eli Lake - November 16, 2011 - 1:00am For much of the last decade, as Iran methodically built its nuclear program, Israel has been assembling a multibillion-dollar array of high-tech weapons that would allow it to jam, blind, and deafen Tehran's defenses in the case of a pre-emptive aerial strike. » Read more

Palestinians Rethink Statehood Bid ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Guttman - November 17, 2011 - 1:00am Israelis warned of a “diplomatic tsunami,” Palestinians promised a game changer that would reshape Middle East peacemaking, and the White House and Congress geared up for an all-out battle inside and beyond the United Nations. But on November 11, the Palestinians’ initiative to gain statehood recognition from the U.N. Security Council ended finally not with a bang, but with a whimper. » Read more

Concerns over rising settler violence in the West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC World News by Jon Donnison - November 17, 2011 - 1:00am "These trees are holy to me. They're so old you can't put a value on them," says Nidam Qaraweq, a Palestinian olive farmer from the West Bank village of Awarta. He pokes at the blackened, and gnarled trunks which are hundreds of years old. A large piece of what is now charcoal breaks off in his hand. "They're all dead," he says angrily. Last month, around 20 of Mr Qaraweq's olive trees were destroyed by fire. He says Jewish settlers from the adjacent settlement of Itamar deliberately set his fields alight in an arson attack. » Read more

Israel Faces Chill Wind From Europe, Central Banker Warns ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by David Rosenberg - November 16, 2011 - 1:00am For the second time in three years Israel’s economy is threatened with the prospect of being pushed into a slowdown or even a recession not of its own making, prompting Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer to warn the government against boosting spending or raising taxes. » Read more

Suha Arafat: I never took money from Palestine ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Roee Nahmias - November 17, 2011 - 1:00am I didn't take money from Palestine, says Suha Arafat, the widow of former Chairman of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO Yasser Arafat. Speaking in an interview with Egyptian journalist Wael Al Abrashi she said, "I didn’t take lands from the state of Palestine." » Read more