State Dep’t Opposes Senate Bid to Determine How Many Palestinians Are Genuine Refugees ATFP World Press Roundup Article from CNS News by Patrick Goodenough - May 25, 2012 - 12:00am (CNSNews.com) – After intervention by the State Department, the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday reworked an amendment to a foreign operations appropriations bill, watering down language that sought to establish the actual number of Palestinians that could legitimately be called refugees. » Read more

How Obama Missed an Opportunity for Middle East Peace ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by PJ Dermer, Steve White - (Opinion) May 18, 2012 - 12:00am "We were fond together, because of the sweep of the open places, the taste of wide winds, the sunlight, and the hopes in which we worked. The moral freshness of the world-to-be intoxicated us. We were wrought up in ideas inexpressible and vaporous, but to be fought for. We lived many lives in those whirling campaigns, never sparing ourselves: Yet when we achieved and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to re-make in the likeness of the former world they knew." – T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom » Read more

Sleepless in Jerusalem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Oren Kessler - (Opinion) May 24, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM – Egypt's first round of presidential voting wrapped up on Thursday with the crop of viable candidates down to just a handful. Official results won't be ready until Tuesday, but next door in Israel, policymakers are already scrambling to sort the bad options from the worse. » Read more

Sporting pathways to coexistence ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Uri Savir - (Opinion) May 25, 2012 - 12:00am There is much talk in Israel these days, and it is quite justified, about violence and racism in sports. Yet I believe that while these ugly phenomena must be eradicated, sport is globally, and also here, an important pathway to coexistence, integration and social cohesion. In ancient Greece, it was decided that during the Olympic sporting events, there would be a total truce. Sport became then the symbol of peaceful coexistence and for a different type of human relations: competition according to agreed-upon rules and values. » Read more

Outsiders won’t decide Mideast realities ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Daniel Kurtzer - (Opinion) May 25, 2012 - 12:00am “Revolutions revolve 360 degrees,” wrote the late Middle East economic historian Charles Issawi. What we didn’t know yesterday about Middle East revolutions – and we didn’t know a great deal – becomes less relevant as the days fly by, for these revolutions, like all others that preceded them, are works in progress, changing constantly. » Read more

It’s time for Barak to go ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jay Bushinsky - (Opinion) May 25, 2012 - 12:00am Despite his frequent flights to Washington, D.C., Defense Minister Ehud Barak seems to be out of step politically with his American hosts. One day after he declared that Syrian President Bashar Assad (personally) will have to step down because of the ongoing revolt against his regime, but that his regime can remain in power, the US State Department said the incumbent Syrian regime would have to go too. » Read more

Palestinian Attitudes Toward Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post by Michael Sharnoff - (Blog) May 24, 2012 - 12:00am As the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East enter into their second year, how have these unprecedented events impacted Palestinian attitudes toward Israel? Will Palestinians be emboldened to mimic these revolts and collectively decide to embark on another intifada? Will they continue to pursue unilateral efforts to declare statehood in the United Nations? Or will they use a diplomatic approach and reach a negotiated settlement with Israel? » Read more

Deportation Now! ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Danny Danon - (Opinion) May 25, 2012 - 12:00am What would you think if I told you of a country that, in the middle of its financial and cultural center, allowed the existence of an autonomous district in which the laws of the state do not apply? What would you say if I informed you that more than 25,000 residents of this urban area – the same population size as an average city in this country – are illegal residents of the State of Israel? » Read more

Legislating the Refugee Problem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Lara Friedman - (Opinion) May 24, 2012 - 12:00am You have to laugh, or it would make you cry. That is, if you are someone who genuinely cares about Israel and believes that the two-state solution is the only thing that can save Israel as a democracy and a Jewish state, and that can end the occupation and permit the Palestinians to live, finally, as a free people with dignity and self-determination. » Read more

Prepare for nuclear Iran ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Eitan Haber - (Opinion) May 25, 2012 - 12:00am Benjamin Netanyahu was roughly five-years-old when he played in the sandbox at kindergarten, and Ehud Barak was roughly 12-years-old and run in the orchards when David Ben Gurion, Professor Ernst David Bergmann, Shimon Peres and Emman » Read more