Tzipi Livni’s fall followed a meteoric political rise ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Matthew Wagner - April 3, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Tzipi Livni's resounding fall in the leadership vote for Kadima, Israel's largest political party, was as dramatic as her rise to political power. » Read more

A dark Easter for Palestinian Christians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Religion News Service by Richard Stearns - (Opinion) April 4, 2012 - 12:00am Each year during Holy week, Christians around the world anticipate what come call the “Old Faithful” of miracles. At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — built over the traditional site that encompasses Jesus’ tomb and the place of his crucifixion — the archbishop enters the tomb after being inspected by Jewish authorities to ensure he has no means of lighting a fire. After saying prayers and worshiping the risen Christ, the candles miraculously alight. » Read more

Challenges and opportunities ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yoram Meital - (Opinion) March 29, 2012 - 12:00am Developments in the Sinai Peninsula during the past year clearly reflect dramatic changes in Egypt and highlight the delicate situation at the Israeli-Gazan-Egyptian border junction. » Read more

A country of walls: an interview with Talal Okal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons (Interview) March 29, 2012 - 12:00am BI: What do the conditions in the Sinai peninsula have to do with you and others in the Gaza Strip? Okal: The border that separates Sinai in Egypt and the Gaza Strip is the only border that is open for our use. The town of Rafah [where the main crossing is located] is actually split across the border between the two sides and many of Egyptian Rafah's residents are relatives of those who live on the Gaza side of the town. The connections there are extensive. Moreover, the tunnel network operating out of Gaza opens onto the Sinai. » Read more

Chinese Divided Over Middle East ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Robert O. Freedman - (Opinion) April 9, 2012 - 12:00am In recent years, China’s foreign policy has turned more assertive than it has been in decades. When it comes to the Middle East, it has expressed this aggressiveness mostly through the veto power it wields in the United Nations Security Council, protecting Iran, for example, from tough sanctions over its nuclear program. With regard to the Syrian uprising, the Chinese, along with the Russians, have prevented the international body from sanctioning the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for its bloody repression of its own population. » Read more

Binyamin Netanyahu's support for settlers bodes ill for peace prospects ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Harriet Sherwood - (Opinion) April 9, 2012 - 12:00am On its own, it seemed like an encouraging omen to anyone alarmed by the increasing entrenchment of Jewish settlers on the West Bank. Israeli security forces last week forcibly evacuated hardliners from a Palestinian house in the volatile city of Hebron, to the fury of the settlers and their backers. Hours earlier, Binyamin Netanyahu had intervened to halt the eviction; now he said the rule of law must prevail. Had the prime minister had a change of heart? Did the Hebron drama signal a new tough approach against radical settlers and their supporters inside Netanyahu's cabinet? » Read more

Have Netanyahu and Obama agreed on the outcome of negotiations with Iran? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Anshel Pfeffer - (Opinion) April 8, 2012 - 12:00am In two of his Pesach interviews, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined in unprecedented detail the diplomatic outcome with Iran that Israel could live with. Maariv's interviewers asked him specifically what would satisfy him in next week's P5+1 talks with the Iranians to which he answered – » Read more

Letting Israeli expats vote is political manipulation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Salman Masalha - (Opinion) April 9, 2012 - 12:00am The Knesset elections are drawing near and associated issues are in the air. It is not only primaries, opinion polls and new parties that have sprung up like mushrooms after the summer social protests. Legislation is also being promoted about who has the right to vote. » Read more

Israel has reacted with hysteria over Gunter Grass ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) April 9, 2012 - 12:00am Author Gunter Grass sees the State of Israel as a threat to world peace. He believes Israel is armed with nuclear weapons, and is threatening Iran as the Islamic Republic looks to obtain a nuclear arsenal. After the poem he published to this effect in the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung last week drew extensive criticism, he asked to distinguish between the state and its government. It's not Israel that worries him, he said, but the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. » Read more

Muslim Brotherhood: We will not put Egypt-Israel peace treaty to referendum ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Zvi Barel - April 7, 2012 - 12:00am A member of parliament for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party said on Friday that the movement would not put Egypt's peace treaty with Israel to a national referendum vote. "We will not put the Camp David accords, or any other agreement Egypt has signed to a national referendum," said member of parliament Abd Al-Maujood Al-Dardiri. » Read more