Moving backward in Palestine ATFP World Press Roundup Article from NOW Lebanon by Houriya Ahmed - (Opinion) February 16, 2012 - 1:00am After a year in which Arabs have fought and died for democracy, the Palestinian Territories seem to be the one place in the region where autocracy is on the ascendancy. » Read more

Israeli tribalism? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Tamar Hermann - (Opinion) February 16, 2012 - 1:00am No doubt, Israeli society is highly fragmented. Here we have a new society composed of a Jewish majority, mostly first, second or--at best--third generation immigrants from numerous countries. Alongside it is a native Arab-Palestinian minority belonging to the national collective dispossessed by Israel's independence and perceived by the Jewish majority as its arch enemy. Together, they can hardly be expected to become a harmonious human fabric. » Read more

Israel's severe right wing syndrome ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) February 16, 2012 - 1:00am Nobel laureate economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has recently published a column entitled Severely Conservative Syndrome, based on Mitt Romney’s recent pronouncement that he had been a "severely conservative governor." As Krugman points out, the term "severely" is generally used within the context of illnesses; and while Romney certainly did not consciously want to imply that conservatism was an illness, he certainly makes it sound that way. » Read more

Do not jump to conclusions in Iran-Israel row ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) February 16, 2012 - 1:00am Israeli diplomats and Iranian nuclear scientists now have something in common: the danger of being killed by a magnetic car bomb. The technique has now been used against members of both groups. Israel denies involvement in such murders, the most recent one last month, of Iranian scientists. Iran denies responsibility for car-bombings this week against Israeli envoys in Tbilisi and Delhi. Men reportedly carrying Iranian identity papers were arrested after a botched magnet-bomb attack in Bangkok on Tuesday; Thai officials say Israeli diplomats were the intended targets. » Read more

Iran uses terror to target civilians, and so does Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) February 16, 2012 - 1:00am A great miracle happened in Tbilisi, New Delhi and Bangkok, and alongside that miracle there was ineptitude that flies in the face of Iranian pretentions and ambitions. But the intentions were clear and grave: to take Israeli lives, especially diplomats and other official representatives of the state. That is terror. » Read more

Milestones along the road to a new Mideast peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Ari Shavit - (Opinion) February 16, 2012 - 1:00am The first basic assumption of the new peace is that, in the coming years, no Israeli-Palestinian peace deal will be signed. Of course, we must keep trying. Some secret diplomatic team must always be maintained to conduct hushed-up negotiations to check whether it is possible. But the working assumption is that, in the current strategic environment, there's no chance of resolving the problems of Jerusalem, the refugees or Hamas. Someday there will be peace, perhaps, but not in this decade. » Read more

Israel’s other reasons to bomb Iran ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Osama Al-Sharif - (Opinion) February 15, 2012 - 1:00am US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta predicts that Israel will direct a preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities “in April, May or June”, according to David Ignatius, the widely-circulated Washington Post columnist. In the view of many Western analysts, Israel has taken the decision to bomb Iran and is only waiting for an opportune time to direct its blow. » Read more

Israel a bigger concern ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf Times by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) February 16, 2012 - 1:00am The carnage under way in Syria, particularly in Homs, is reprehensible. The bloody conflict, which has so far cost the lives of some 7,000 people, threatens to precipitate a civil war in this key Arab state adjoining several other prominent countries in the Middle East. What it will take to bring about a cessation of hostilities in Syria is the 64,000-dollar question, as Americans would say. Despite the pleas of besieged Syrians, all attempts to end the crackdown on protesters have failed. » Read more

On Iran, a stark choice ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Benny Morris - (Opinion) February 14, 2012 - 1:00am Most people in the Arab world, according to opinion polls, believe that the Holocaust never happened, that it's a Jewish invention and trick to win the world's sympathy and support. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran is similarly minded; he has said so countless times. » Read more

How history lessons could deter Iranian aggression ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post by Fareed Zakaria - (Opinion) February 15, 2012 - 1:00am We are hearing a new concept these days in discussions about Iran — the zone of immunity. The idea, often explained by Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, is that soon Iran will have enough nuclear capability that Israel would not be able to inflict a crippling blow to its program. » Read more