June 15th

Assimilating Awad ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Sahar Segal - (Opinion) June 14, 2012 - 12:00am Mira Anwar Awad, an Arab-Israeli, will be singing at a festival in Nazareth, a predominantly Arab-Israeli city on Saturday. The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), based in Ramallah, demanded the mayor cancel her appearance. Why? Because Awad represented Israel in the 2009 Eurovision song contest. » Read more

Palestinians See Positive Boost From Putin’s Upcoming Visit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Arieh O'Sullivan - June 14, 2012 - 12:00am The Palestinians are hoping for a boost to their diplomatic stature when they host Russian President Vladimir Putin later this month. At a time when the attempts to restart peace negotiations with the Israelis have floundered as each side accuses the other of intransigence, the Palestinians see Putin’s visit as a solid message of support. » Read more

PA advised against bid for Bethlehem church ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Tovah Lazaroff - June 15, 2012 - 12:00am The secretariat of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has come out against a bid by the Palestinian Authority to use an emergency procedure to register Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity under the country of “Palestine” as a World Heritage site. “At the UN, where the General Assembly each year adopts more resolutions criticizing Israel than on the rest of the world combined, this is a spectacle as rare as Halley’s Comet,” UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said. » Read more

A New Solution for Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National Interest by Rafael Frankel - (Opinion) June 15, 2012 - 12:00am An Israeli settlement in the West Bank.Seven years after Israel’s unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip, and twelve years after the same move from southern Lebanon, Israeli policy makers are once again debating the merits of another unilateral withdrawal—this time from parts of the West Bank east of the security barrier. » Read more

Most Israelis think Romney would be 'friendlier' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Herb Keinon - June 15, 2012 - 12:00am The fact that Israelis have conflicted attitudes toward US President Barack Obama came out loud and clear in a poll released on Thursday. The survey – commissioned by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, the Bar-Ilan University Center for International Communication and the Anti-Defamation League – found that while 51 percent of Israeli Jews believe Obama is “friendly” or “very friendly” toward Israel, more people think the expected Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, would better promote Israel’s interests. » Read more

Israel's Real Image Problem ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Emily L. Hauser - (Opinion) June 14, 2012 - 12:00am Israel’s State Comptroller released a remarkably harsh report yesterday regarding the government’s handling of the 2010 aid flotilla to Gaza, and I have one question: Is the issue the people who died – or the way Israel talked about the people who died? » Read more

MK Anastassia Michaeli: Most gay people commit suicide at 40 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Ilan Lior, Jonathan Lis - June 15, 2012 - 12:00am MK Anastassia Michaeli (Yisrael Beiteinu ) has angered gay groups and MKs alike by saying "most gay people commit suicide at 40." On Wednesday, speaking at a meeting of the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of Women, Michaeli accused Channel 10 of encouraging people to become homosexual. » Read more

Obama continues to dither ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) June 14, 2012 - 12:00am Barack Obama has raised great hopes in the Middle East when he was one of only four American presidents to be awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples”. But now, almost four years later, he has yet to show any sign of achievement in ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. » Read more

Chronicle of a West Bank murder: Transcripts of the reenactment of Itamar murder revealed for first time ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Chaim Levinson - June 15, 2012 - 12:00am A year and three months have passed since the murder of the Fogel family in the Itamar settlement near Nablus. Haaretz has obtained the transcripts of both the interrogation of those who were eventually convicted and their reenactment of the murder. On Friday night, March 11, 2011, at about 9 P.M., Amjad and Hakim Awad (the two are not related ) left their West Bank village of Awarta in the direction of nearby Itamar. They passed the settlement fence, broke into two empty houses, and afterward continued to the adjacent house, where the Fogels lived. » Read more

Life in British Mandate Palestine ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Jerome Chanes - (Book Review) June 15, 2012 - 12:00am Another book on “the making of Israel”? It was a scant few months ago that Gershom Gorenberg’s provocative and timely book, “The Unmaking of Israel,” was visited on the Jewish body politic. Now comes novelist Hadara Lazar’s book, “Out of Palestine,” whose subtitle, “The Making of Modern Israel,” may gull and lull many a reader, but this reader was coddled out of his sleep after only a few pages. » Read more