February 17th

Fayyad: PA Operating in Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency February 17, 2012 - 1:00am RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The prime minister in Ramallah said Wednesday that the Palestinian Authority was working inside occupied East Jerusalem, despite Israeli restrictions on PA activities. The PA is continuously trying to allocate resources inside the city, which Israel occupied in 1967, Salam Fayyad said. The Israeli government is trying to impose its policies to control Jerusalem and its institutions, which is contrary to international law and signed agreements, Fayyad said. » Read more

Condolences Pour in After Deadly Crash ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency February 17, 2012 - 1:00am BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Condolences poured in from near and far Thursday, as Palestinians mourned the deaths of at least five children in a fiery accident south of Ramallah. Some 39 others were injured in addition to the five children and their teacher who perished when a school bus and truck collided on a field trip, Palestinian medical officials said. Israeli leaders were among the first to extend condolences; President Shimon Peres phoned his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas to express sorrow, Israeli media reported. » Read more

Airport security can't treat Arab Israelis like suspicious objects ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) February 17, 2012 - 1:00am Yara Mashour wanted to return to her home in Israel. A natural-born citizen and the editor of a popular Israeli weekly, she arrived at an El Al counter in a Milan airport this week, her passport and an airline ticket in hand. What happened next is what happens to almost every Arab Israeli traveler: She was singled out, put through rigorous security checks, asked ridiculous, humiliatingly intimate questions and had her baggage thoroughly searched. But when it reached the stage of a body search, Mashour, a proud citizen, refused, choosing instead to give up her flight. » Read more

Palestinians Mourn Schoolchildren in Bus Attack ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times by Maher Abukhater - February 17, 2012 - 1:00am REPORTING FROM RAMALLAH, WEST BANK –- At least six people, including five Palestinian chidren, were killed Thursday when their bus collided with a truck and overturned outside Ramallah during a school field trip. Palestinian police and medics said the children, ages 4 to 7, and their teacher were killed instantly and another 30 children were injured, seven seriously. The accident, in which the bus caught fire after the collision, took place in rainy and foggy conditions. » Read more

Muslim Brotherhood Threatens to Review Treaty With Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by David Kirkpatrick - February 16, 2012 - 1:00am CAIRO — The Islamist party that leads the new Egyptian Parliament is threatening to review the 1979 peace treaty with Israel if the United States cuts off aid to the country over a crackdown on American-backed nonprofit groups here. The pact is considered a linchpin of regional stability, and the statements, from at least two senior leaders of the party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, represent the first time that Egyptians have explicitly raised it during an escalating standoff over the crackdown. » Read more

February 16th

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