Show, Don't Tell: Why the Apartheid Analogy Falls Flat ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) March 26, 2012 - 12:00am A series of recent articles have pointlessly debated whether or not Israel can accurately be described as “an apartheid state.” But the problem with the apartheid analogy is less its inaccuracy, and more that, however emotionally appealing some people may find it, it’s just not useful in ending the occupation and advancing the Palestinian cause. » Read more

Israel's Moral Peril ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Chronicle of Higher Education by Alan Wolfe - (Opinion) March 25, 2012 - 12:00am In the past few years, a trickle of dissent with respect to Israel has turned into a running stream. Books, articles, and Web sites critical of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians, its acquiescence in the messianic designs of its settlers, its foreign-policy decisions on Gaza, Iran, and much more, and the increasing influence of the ultra-Orthodox over the character of its domestic life have begun to appear in significant numbers in America. Some, but not all, of these efforts, moreover, come from writers unused to being in the critical camp. » Read more

Atlantic's Goldberg Discusses Israel vs. Iran; Boycott Idea ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Barbara Slavin - (Interview) March 21, 2012 - 12:00am Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic has become a major figure in the debate over whether and when Israel might attack Iran’s nuclear facilities. Author of a provocative piece in 2010 that predicted that Israel would strike Iran the following year, Goldberg has shifted since then, even suggesting recently that Israel might have been bluffing. » Read more

What Does Israel Want for Syria? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Zaman by Fateh Abdelsalam - (Opinion) March 20, 2012 - 12:00am The Syrian regime's defenders and opponents have been assessing where Israeli interests lie with regard to the Syrian conflict, the likes of which the country has not seen in a century. The regime’s defenders see that a weak Syrian government serves Israeli interests, and therefore the protests should stop and there should be dialogue and agreement to prevent its collapse, which seems near. » Read more

Toulouse attacks harm Palestinians in their own name ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Charles Glass - (Opinion) March 26, 2012 - 12:00am It started in France in 1894, when a Viennese journalist covered the Paris treason trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. "In Paris, as I have said, I achieved a freer attitude toward anti-Semitism," Theodor Herzl wrote in his diary. "Above all, I recognised the emptiness and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-Semitism." That futility led him to propose an escape from anti-Semitism to a nation-state in Palestine. » Read more

West Bank's economy at crossroads ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Jazeera English by Charlotte Silver - (Analysis) March 26, 2012 - 12:00am Ramallah, West Bank - The economy of the West Bank has reached a crossroads, and with it so has the Palestinian Authority (PA). As Palestinian lending banks close their doors, development contracts are shelved and everyday spending slows to a trickle, the PA and international institutions speak of an economic crisis in the West Bank. Conventional analysis blames the failure of donors to fulfill promised pledges for the paralysing PA budget deficit that has reached $.5bn. Meanwhile, Israel blames financial mismanagement by the PA. » Read more

The Palestinian financial crisis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from World Jewish Congress by Pinhas Inbari - (Analysis) March 26, 2012 - 12:00am The community of donors to the Palestinian Authority met in Brussels over the weekend. Both the government in Ramallah, sponsored by the donors, and the Hamas government in Gaza are in dire financial straits and progressively more dependent on foreign aid and susceptible to political pressure. In Ramallah, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad is unable to put together a budget that would pay for Palestinian salaries. In Gaza, Hamas’ government has sunk into even deeper trouble. It is unable to provide for the steady flow of electricity, gasoline, or home cooking gas. » Read more

Stop the excuses, boycott the settlements ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Lara Friedman - (Opinion) March 25, 2012 - 12:00am WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Peter Beinart’s recent New York Times article advocating a settlement boycott has sparked a spectacular public display of Jewish angst. Apparently for many who view themselves as the judges, advocates and juries of what is “kosher” progressive Jewish activism, his suggestion is beyond the pale. They agree that settlements are a problem, even a shonda, but boycott fellow Jews? Heaven forbid. And even if it weren’t Jewishly distasteful, it wouldn’t work anyway, so don’t go there. » Read more

Netanyahu: The Man Who Won't Take "Yes" For an Answer ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Yedioth Ahronoth by Yigal Sarna - (Opinion) March 14, 2012 - 12:00am Things are bad. The prime minister is a gloomy man, a man without hope, a weak man, trapped in the hands of others, carrying childhood memories of a somber, subdued home, where the study of the Inquisition set the tone (his father was a historian who specialized in medieval Spanish Jewry). Forever feeling deprived, always suspicious and wary of others, keeping aloof, friendless, anticipating catastrophe where there is no threat, prone to improbable, pessimistic forecasts and casting his gloom over an entire nation. » Read more

Migron case only reveals tip of Israel's occupation iceberg ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Eyal Gross - (Opinion) March 26, 2012 - 12:00am In theory, Migron should have been an open-and-shut case. The state did not deny that Migron had been erected illegally, on private Palestinian land. Nor did it deny that the settlers' claims that they had purchased the land were found to be baseless. In the words of the High Court of Justice, the building of the outpost and its ongoing expansion were a blatant violation of the law that undermined the property rights of the Palestinian owners. It had to be demolished. Thus the court had ruled. » Read more