No, Newt and JPost, there is no Santa Claus: how national identities are really formed ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ibishblog by Hussein Ibish - (Blog) December 14, 2011 - 1:00am What's most interesting about the brouhaha regarding Newt Gingrich's outrageous comments about Palestinians being “an invented people” -- which he then augmented by describing them in general as “terrorists" -- isn't the rebuttals or defenses of these comments. Almost every responsible, sane and rational actor has dismissed Gingrich's remarks as preposterous, not because the Palestinians are not in some sense “invented” but because all modern national identities plainly are, in the same ways. » Read more

The GOP on the Palestinians as an "invented people" ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNN by James Lindsay - (Opinion) December 12, 2011 - 1:00am Apparently 7.6 million people like me had nothing better to do Saturday night than watch the twelfth GOP presidential debate. That’s the biggest audience by far to watch the Republicans to spar over who should lead the party against Barack Obama. » Read more

A sorry state of affairs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Hussein Shobokshi - (Opinion) December 15, 2011 - 1:00am The race to find US Republican Party presidential nominee has recently turned into a cheap circus, full of farce and ridicule. The candidates are bending over backwards to please the influential Christian neo-conservative trend, personal firearms manufacturers, anti-abortion groups, and of course the supporters of the state of Israel in all their forms, whether Jewish pressure lobbies or Zionist-Christian extremist blocs. » Read more

Uprisings opportunity for new Israel foreign policy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Andrew Friedman - (Opinion) December 15, 2011 - 1:00am The explosion of popular protests last December against the ruling order in the Arab world was one of those moments in world history that caused observers to watch with bated breath. As the protests spread from Tunisia to Egypt to Yemen and beyond, those of us old enough to remember the 1989 Velvet Revolution could not help but wonder where it all would lead, whether dictators like Hosni Mubarak would use their militaries to quash the protests and what true democracy in the Arab world would mean for the West in general, and for Israel in particular. » Read more

The (other) 'N word' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Nahum Barnea - (Opinion) December 15, 2011 - 1:00am There is one word, just one word, that no decent American would dare speak out loud unless he happens to be a black stand-up comedian. That forbidden word is "nigger" – a racial slur for African-Americans. The interdiction is so grave that all one needs to say is "The N word" and everyone immediately knows what it's all about. "For top officials in the Obama Administration," a participant of the Saban Forum in Washington told me last week, "Netanyahu is now the 'N word' – the name best not mentions." » Read more

Israel's extremist threat ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Hanoch Daum - (Opinion) December 14, 2011 - 1:00am The lawbreakers from the hills threaten Israeli society, but much before that they threat me and those like me, members of the Religious-Zionist camp. They threaten us, a community that for dozens of years now attempted to passionately argue that there is a way to combine Torah and work, Judaism and culture, nationalism and morality. These lawbreakers from Samaria’s hills are cutting the ground under our feet. » Read more

Blame it on the rabbis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Yakir Elkariv - (Opinion) December 15, 2011 - 1:00am We should keep things in proportion: A bunch of religious nutcases do not threaten Israel’s very existence. After all, if the army really wishes to do so, it can embark on a Cast Lead-style operation against them which they won’t forget for many years to come. However, the army is not a gang. It shows responsibility and restraint – even when these people produce smalltime provocations in order to divert attention away from the evacuation of outposts. » Read more

The Israeli leaders who denounce Jewish terror are responsible for it ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Yossi Sarid - (Opinion) December 15, 2011 - 1:00am The flood of condemnations has not put out the fire. The torch procession is still thundering toward the Temple Mount mosques, to the great conflagration that will rage in all corners of the Temple. The denouncers can prepare their fire extinguishers and fire-and-brimstone preaching. » Read more

Israel has never been so ugly ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Ari Shavit - (Opinion) December 15, 2011 - 1:00am We have never been so ugly. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu seeks to silence the call to prayer over the loudspeakers of the country's mosques, and to shut down Channel 10 television. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman expresses support for the Russian "democtator" who has just rigged elections. Defense Minister Ehud Barak stands by while Jewish settlers victimize Palestinians and ultra-Orthodox religious nationalists victimize female soldiers. » Read more

Palestinian rivals united by drift ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters by Tom Perry - (Analysis) December 15, 2011 - 1:00am RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Hamas and Fatah are Palestinian rivals facing the same dilemma: how to justify their role as leaders of the Palestinian people while making little headway in achieving their national goals. With elections overdue, questions over their legitimacy are only likely to increase unless they find a way to galvanise the Palestinians' struggle with Israel. » Read more