March 2nd

Peres Says U.S. Must Put All Iran Options on Table ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Jodi Rudoren - March 1, 2012 - 1:00am Days before Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, was to meet with President Obama, Mr. Peres said on Thursday that the United States must make clear to Iran that “all options are on the table,” but he acknowledged that there was disagreement over where to draw the “red line” that would set off military intervention. President Shimon Peres says the White House must be resolute or Israel may have to go it alone. » Read more

Holding a mirror to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) March 2, 2012 - 1:00am The treatment of Israeli prisoners by Palestinians and Hizballah, and correspondingly the treatment of Palestinian prisoners by Israelis, in many ways hold a kind of mirror to the conflict as a whole. » Read more

For Obama and Netanyahu, Wariness on Iran Will Dominate Talks ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Ethan Bronner - March 1, 2012 - 1:00am JERUSALEM — Nearly four years ago, when Senator Barack Obama was running for president and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was head of the opposition, they met here in what aides described as a warm atmosphere. President Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the Oval Office last July, will meet again on Monday. “Senator,” Mr. Netanyahu said to Mr. Obama, “as president, many things will cross your desk, but the most important, by far, will be stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.” » Read more

March 1st

Israel, democracy and the Arabs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Julian Memetaj, Stuart Reigeluth - (Opinion) March 1, 2012 - 1:00am The prolongation of the Arab-Israeli conflict is all about the illegal occupation, expropriation, colonisation, and annexation of Arab territory by Israel. And beneath the armour of the Israeli military machine is the systematic exclusion of the Other — the Arabs. Jewish Israelis are xenophobic towards Arabs not so much because they fear them as an existential military threat, as Likud and Labour are prone to repeat, but rather because of the intrinsic demographic threat they present to the national identity of a Jewish State. » Read more

Let us compare al-Assad to Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Tariq Alhomayed - (Opinion) March 1, 2012 - 1:00am When considering much of what is being repeated in our region, on all levels about Syria, one is struck by confusion, for one party justifies what is happening, whilst another casts doubt, and a third attempts to be clever. Therefore you feel as if you are looking at a situation that is impossible to understand, namely an Arab case par excellence, which is a problem with no solutions, or in the desperate manner of Nabih Berri, a case where there is ‘no winners and no losers”, which is what I term a case of political fluidity. » Read more

A boy's death exposes Israel's deliberate fiction ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) March 1, 2012 - 1:00am In 2000, as the second intifada raged, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, Mohammed Al Dura, was one of many children killed by the Israeli Defense Forces. Mohammed was shot as he and his father attempted to find cover and he died moments later in his father's lap. A Palestinian cameraman caught the incident on film, causing shock around the world. But not even that evidence was enough for some to condemn Israel's actions; 12 years later, there is still a debate in France about the authenticity of the report. » Read more

Rick Santorum and the Jewish Vote ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) March 1, 2012 - 1:00am Pennsylvania, it’s sometimes said, can best be understood as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh separated by Alabama. Geographically speaking it’s a big state in the heart of the liberal Northeast, home to great universities, Ben Franklin and the Liberty Bell, anchored by a great Eastern metropolis at one end and a once-booming Midwestern steel town at the other. Everything in between, though, is rural, gun-totin’, Bible-thumpin’ country. » Read more

Israeli, Palestinian leaders hastening the next intifada ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) March 1, 2012 - 1:00am At last Likud and the moderate right have found a formula to save the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. No longer will they talk about "conflict resolution" - the phrase now is "conflict management." The explanations are many and they sound convincing - the split between Hamas and Fatah, the large gap between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority on the core issues, and the most common excuse of all: There's no partner on the other side. » Read more

Arab justice's 'Hatikva' silence was a song of protest ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) March 1, 2012 - 1:00am It was so moving on Tuesday at the President's Residence and so stately; another celebration of Israeli democracy, which so loves to effusively praise itself. The honorable Supreme Court justices posing for a group photo; the retiring court president taking leave with tears in her eyes; the incoming court president making an emotional speech - everyone complimenting one another, praising one another and lauding our exalted democracy. » Read more

Iran’s last diplomatic chance? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yonah Alexander, Milton Hoenig - (Opinion) February 29, 2012 - 1:00am As an ancient Persian proverb wisely reflects, “Even with the strength of an elephant and the paws of a lion, peace is better than war.” It is time for Iran to heed this thousand-year-old lesson and relinquish its nuclear ambitions before a doomsday scenario occurs. » Read more