May 9th

Confession of an incorrigible optimist ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) April 30, 2012 - 12:00am No ifs. No buts. No perhapses. Maybe it’s genetic. My father was an optimist. Even when, at the age of 45, he had to flee his native Germany to a primitive little country in the Middle East, his spirits remained high. Though he had to adapt to a new country, a hot climate, hard physical labor and grinding poverty, he was happy. At least he had saved his wife and four children, the youngest of whom was I. Now, on Israel’s 64th birthday (according to the Hebrew calendar), I am still an optimist. » Read more

Israel is no safe place for Christians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by Kamel S. Abu Jaber - (Opinion) April 30, 2012 - 12:00am It has been a long time since I have written anything about Israel or the Arab-Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I told myself I should distance myself a little and think in a cool, dispassionate manner about our Semitic cousins who obviously have made up their mind to play down their, perhaps in their mind, racial relationship with us Arabs. » Read more

1967 All Over Again? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Tablet Magazine by Benny Morris - (Opinion) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am One thing’s certain: Tuesday’s sudden and dramatic expansion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government—he now has the support of 94 Knesset members in the 120-seat house—considerably strengthens Netanyahu’s mandate to take what commentators insist on calling “historic steps.” But it is unclear whether the cooption of Shaul Mofaz and his Kadima faction makes an Israeli preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities more likely or more remote. » Read more

Netanyahu's Globalists ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Bernard Avishai - (Opinion) May 8, 2012 - 12:00am I know I should be appalled by Shaul Mofaz's opportunism and Benjamin Netanyahu's grin, but I confess to being just a little relieved. » Read more

Israel Faces Challenges From Boycott Campaign ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Barbara Slavin - (Opinion) May 7, 2012 - 12:00am As he consolidates his power with a new coalition, incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to continue his unremitting focus on Iran as an existential threat. However, a bigger challenge to Israel over the long run may be the international campaign to deny the country’s status as a Jewish-governed polity that rules a growing and disenfranchised Palestinian population in the West Bank. » Read more

Temporary deal ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times (Editorial) May 8, 2012 - 12:00am Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have succeeded in pulling a rabbit from his hat when he struck a deal, in the wee hours of Tuesday, with Shaul Mofaz, leader of the main opposition party Kadima, forging a national unity government and thus averting the need to hold snap elections. » Read more

Toward confederation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Ronald Tiersky - (Opinion) May 8, 2012 - 12:00am Israel’s strategic problem in historical terms is, ultimately, how to win a war well. The Palestinian problem is to avoid losing this war in the most drawn-out, worst possible way. Palestinians (including any realistic Hamas leaders), know approximately what they will have to accept. Finding the least bad solution consonant with defeat is their unenviable task. Yet neither is Israel completely free, because victory can be dangerous. Israel needs a strategy that isn’t in the end self-defeating. » Read more

National freedom demands a two-state solution ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Uriel Epshtein - (Opinion) May 8, 2012 - 12:00am The one-state solution has suddenly reappeared in the discourse surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Harvard recently hosted an entire conference promoting this solution and the former Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei, came out on Saturday in support of it. Though Qurei may have been pressed by political expediency, not only is this position completely unfeasible in practice, but it also represents a denial of the very purpose for Israel’s creation and a misunderstanding of the philosophy behind national movements. » Read more

Netanyahu’s and Abbas’ moments of truth ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am Yesterday’s political bombshell, for obvious reasons, has left both citizens and commentators dumbfounded. It has been pointed out that Netanyahu is now the undisputed king of Israeli politics: basically no single coalition party has any real power over him; each and every one of them now knows that Netanyahu can live without them. » Read more

Netanyahu-Mofaz unity deal provides a great opportunity for Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) May 9, 2012 - 12:00am Kadima's entry into the government puts Benjamin Netanyahu at the head of a broad coalition of 94 Knesset members. That gives him almost complete freedom of action over the remaining year and a half of the 18th Knesset's term. The parliamentary opposition has been dwarfed and neutralized, while coalition factions will have trouble threatening to topple the prime minister from power. » Read more