April 19th

Game changer ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Michael Jansen - (Opinion) April 18, 2012 - 12:00am While Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas does not intend to dismantle the Palestinian Authority, he has, at long last, admitted that the body, created under the flawed and defunct 1993 Oslo accords, has no authority. Abbas rightly blamed Israel for the failure of the “Oslo process” and said Israel stripped the Palestinian Authority of any “meaningful jurisdiction in the political, economic, territorial and security spheres”. » Read more

Shadow of another war hangs over southern Lebanon border ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Michael Young - (Opinion) April 19, 2012 - 12:00am The negotiations in Turkey over Iran's nuclear programme last weekend were not particularly high in the attentions of the Lebanese living along their country's southern frontier with Israel. And yet if Iran is one day attacked militarily because the talks have failed, the Marjayoun-Hasbayya district will probably again become a front line in a destructive confrontation between Hizbollah and the Israelis. » Read more

Title VI should be used only on true hatemongers, not political opponents ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by David. A.M. Wilensky - (Opinion) April 18, 2012 - 12:00am NEW YORK (JTA) – In the eyes of the Zionist Organization of America, the most depraved enemies of the Jewish people are obnoxious college campus loudmouths. As the editor of New Voices, a national magazine by and for Jewish college students, I have a different perspective. The ZOA led the campaign to have discrimination against Jewish students recognized as a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, originally passed in 1964 to remedy racial discrimination in programs that receive federal funding. But in its charge to circle the Jewish communal wagons, the ZOA has overreached. » Read more

Foreign policy in shadow of Holocaust ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jonathan Rosen - (Opinion) April 18, 2012 - 12:00am Holocaust Remembrance Day presents Israelis with an opportunity to rise above their mundane pursuits and trivial concerns to honor the memory of the victims and survivors of the Nazi death machine. No less importantly, this day is an occasion for Israeli citizens, both as individuals and as members of broader communities, to reflect on the enduring mesh of personal, national and universal lessons that are to be drawn from the Holocaust. » Read more

Britain's duty to the Palestinian people ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Raed Salah - (Opinion) April 18, 2012 - 12:00am In June 2011 I came to Britain to begin a speaking tour to draw attention to the plight of my people, the Palestinian citizens of Israel. The tour was meant to last 10 days. Instead I had to stay for 10 months in order to resist an attempt by the home secretary, Theresa May, to deport me – itself the result of a smear campaign against me and what I represent. I fought not just for my own sake, but for all who are smeared because they support the Palestinian cause. » Read more

Raed Salah’s return ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post (Editorial) April 18, 2012 - 12:00am Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement’s Northern Branch and an Israeli Arab convicted Hamas collaborator, arrived back to a hero’s welcome Monday after 10 months under restrictive bail conditions in the UK, during which he fought and defeated a deportation order. Some 300 supporters hailed him at Ben-Gurion Airport with earsplitting chants of “Allahu Akhbar.” » Read more

Israeli Officer's Aggression Worsens 'Impossible Situation' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Yedioth Ahronoth by Ofer Shelah - (Opinion) April 17, 2012 - 12:00am The IDF's upper echelon first learned of the assault on the Danish peace activist by Shalom Eisner, the deputy commander of the Jordan Valley Brigade, when the video clip showing the IDF officer striking the Danish protester with his M16 rifle was uploaded to the Internet Saturday, April 15, around 7:30 pm. » Read more

Israel's army sacrificed IDF officer on the altar of PR ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Israel Harel - (Opinion) April 19, 2012 - 12:00am "You shouldn't join the chorus of rabbis and politicians who are trying to make Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner's case into one that divides the religious and the secular, and the left from the right," B. begged me. B.'s views are well considered and highly regarded. From his point of view, the media lynching of Eisner, after a recording surfaced on the Internet of a confrontation in which the officer hit a Danish activist in the face, has engendered precisely the opposite reaction - a natural sense of empathy with Eisner that cuts across various communities. » Read more

Israel has been taken over by a deep, horrifying apathy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) April 19, 2012 - 12:00am The incident Yaniv Kubovich reported in Monday's Haaretz is deeply troubling. At high noon, in front of dozens of people, a group of men had sexual intercourse with a half-naked young woman on a Tel Aviv beach for several hours. Not all the circumstances of the peculiar occurence are clear yet and the conduct of the Tel Aviv police - who were very late in arriving at the beach and claimed at first that "no event had taken place" - is inexplicable to say the least. » Read more

Grand Mufti of Egypt on controversial Jerusalem visit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Hugh Naylor - April 19, 2012 - 12:00am JERSUALEM // Egypt's top cleric visited Jerusalem yesterday, breaking decades of opposition by Muslim leaders to travelling to areas under Israeli control. The Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa described his visit on Twitter as a show of solidarity with the Palestinians. It was the first time an Egyptian grand mufti had visited Jerusalem since Israel captured the area in the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. Palestinian leaders hailed the visit as an important show of support for Palestinian claims to the eastern part of the city for their future state. » Read more