April 17th

Barak says Israel never ruled out attacking Iran ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Aron Heller - April 17, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM — Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday his country has never promised the United States it would hold off from attacking Iran while nuclear talks were taking place. The comments, in which Barak said that a diplomatic push to reach a compromise with Iran was a waste of "precious time," further exposed a rift between Israel and the U.S. over how to deal with the Islamic Republic and its nuclear program. » Read more

April 16th

Hussein Ibish Is Not a Zionist ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg - (Opinion) April 13, 2012 - 12:00am Hussein Ibish, of the American Task Force on Palestine, has written an extremely sensible piece about Middle East pragmatism, in which he takes on advocates of the so-called one-state solution, who argue, among other things, that any Arab who supports a two-state solution is an Uncle Tom, or worse, an actual Zionist: » Read more

The Press on Trial ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward (Editorial) April 16, 2012 - 12:00am As investigative stories go, it doesn’t read like a blockbuster, hardly in the league of a Watergate scandal or the groundbreaking constitutional challenge ignited by the publication of the Pentagon Papers. The January 30 story appeared in the Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad, written by Yousef al-Shayeb, and it described the kind of government corruption that, frankly, many have come to expect the world over. » Read more

Netanyahu’s offer for peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Musa Keilani - (Opinion) April 16, 2012 - 12:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to be drafting a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, detailing his offer of renewed peace negotiations in response to a Palestinian statement on their stand. Netanyahu’s letter, according to officials quoted in the Israeli news media, will contain nothing new except that it will not include a demand for Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Netanyahu will restate his demand that Israel maintain control over the Jordan Valley and that any future Palestinian state be demilitarised, according to the reports. » Read more

The three myths that distort every discussion of Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Barry Rubin - (Opinion) April 15, 2012 - 12:00am Whatever side you are, or aren’t, on, and whether you never think about these issues or are an impassioned activist, there are three fundamental issues about Israel, its enemies, and the Middle East that tie the narrative into knots. Each of these ideas, of course, has a strong basis in fact. Yet no matter how counter-intuitive you find the following points questioning the conventional wisdom, they are nonetheless accurate. You can’t understand events without grasping them. 1. Israel’s existence is jeopardized. » Read more

Much ado about flytilla ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jeff Barak - (Opinion) April 15, 2012 - 12:00am Making predictions in a newspaper column is a risky business, but anyway, here goes. At the time of writing over the weekend, Israel Police and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) are putting together the final pieces of their plan to block the planned “fly-in” of leftwing activists to Ben-Gurion Airport, from where the activists intend to travel to the West Bank to demonstrate their solidarity with the Palestinians. » Read more

Let's talk about refugees ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Dan Calic - (Opinion) April 15, 2012 - 12:00am This month a meeting took place with little fanfare, addressing a subject that has sat on the sidelines throughout the peace process, having received only the slightest media attention. The topic of the meeting was about refugees. No, not Palestinian refugees; Jewish refugees. For many years the world has heard about the "right of return." This refers to Arabs who became displaced during the defensive war Israel was forced to fight when the surrounding Arab countries attacked it the day after declaring independence in 1948. » Read more

From Yamit to the Jordan Valley, the IDF continues to force Arabs from their homes ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - (Analysis) April 16, 2012 - 12:00am Last week, evacuees of Yamit marked the 30th anniversary of the demolition of their illegal settlement in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula. Radio reports blithely skirted the fact that the construction of these Sinai settlements was preceded by mass destruction. Under orders from then-defense minister Moshe Dayan and Southern Command head Ariel Sharon, in 1972 the Israel Defense Forces secretly expelled 1,500 Bedouin families from the Al-Ramilat tribes, from a 140,000 dunam area. » Read more

Israel should never forget its Mideast atrocities ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Yitzhak Laor - (Opinion) April 16, 2012 - 12:00am The person who symbolized "the other Germany" more than anyone in West Germany, the person who was Germany's conscience throughout his literary career, has made the Israeli establishment and its clones crazy. These people have responded pettily and violently. Gunter Grass' service in the Wafen SS when he was 17 has nothing to do with his positions. You need lots of chutzpah and maybe even ignorance to think the Germans don't know how many despicable Nazis Israel catered to, as long as they supported its policies. » Read more

Netanyahu fears victory over Iran's nuclear program ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) April 16, 2012 - 12:00am A recent skit on the sketch comedy "Eretz Nehederet" featured a "debate" about the Iranian nuclear program between U.S. and Israeli leaders. After some discussion, U.S. President Barack Obama accedes to the position of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and he urges them to attack Iran. Netanyahu and Barak exchange frightened glances and plead with Obama to stop them. » Read more