West Bank settlements threaten peace in the Middle East ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Chicago Tribune by Marilyn Katz - (Opinion) July 18, 2012 - 12:00am For most Americans, the word "settlement" conjures up images of the Old West, of a small outpost with a post office, general store and a saloon. A dot on the map. A threat to no one. » Read more

No Space ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Peter Beinart - (Opinion) July 17, 2012 - 12:00am The Washington Post just published a long story by Scott Wilson about Barack Obama’s failure to bring peace between Israel and the Palestinians. » Read more

Israel's old certainties crumble in Arab spring fallout ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Ian Black - (Opinion) July 17, 2012 - 12:00am On a ridge high above the Golan plateau, the telltale antennae and golfball radomes of an Israeli surveillance station point north-east towards Damascus. In the valley below, minefields, barbed wire fences and a blue UN flag mark the frontline between the two most powerful armies in the Middle East. Behind it is a country in the throes of civil war. » Read more

Bibi in a Corner ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Yossi Beilin - (Opinion) July 17, 2012 - 12:00am The short marriage between Israel's ruling Likud Party and Kadima, the largest party in the Knesset, is ending as these lines are written. The official reason for the coalition's collapse -- a disagreement over a bill that would ensure the conscription of ultra-Orthodox youth -- is not the main reason it has come apart. The Likud-Kadima split was primarily the result of fear: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's fear of losing his original coalition partners, and Kadima chairman Shaul Mofaz's fear of a looming political disaster. » Read more

Is There More Trouble Ahead for Benjamin Netanyahu? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) July 17, 2012 - 12:00am The next Israeli elections, which will take place no later than late October 2013, will determine whether the right-wing coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will keep running the government with hardly any parliamentary opposition, or if his Likud party and its potential right-wing and Orthodox partners will face a center-left bloc which either eliminates or, at least, decreases Netanyahu's political power. It will determine whether the peace process will remain in a deadlock, or will get a fair, if not a last chance.  » Read more

Analysis: The bigger they are, the softer they fall ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gil Hoffman - (Analysis) July 17, 2012 - 12:00am Since George Berkeley in 1710, philosophers have pondered whether a tree makes a sound when it falls in a forest in the middle of the night and no one is there to see it. And now modern day philosophers and political analysts can debate whether a sound was made when the largest Knesset faction entered the government in the middle of the night and left 71 days later. At least the tree made an imprint. Some branches inevitably fell down. It might even have injured an unperceptive animal. » Read more

The lie about rights and duties in Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Salman Masalha - (Analysis) July 18, 2012 - 12:00am We are not going to discuss how to get the desert to bloom here but rather how the public discourse in Israel is made devoid of content. Many people with bad intentions take part in the attempt to cover our eyes and block our ears. Because after all, there is no greater lie than that sold by populist politicians, the cynical and "engaged" media, and those who tell all kinds of stories. Anyone who draws a link between granting civil rights and fulfilling duties will no doubt be surprised to read what will follow here. » Read more

The anti-Semitism that goes unreported ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Amira Hass - (Opinion) July 18, 2012 - 12:00am Here's a statistic that you won't see in research on anti-Semitism, no matter how meticulous the study is. In the first six months of the year, 154 anti-Semitic assaults have been recorded, 45 of them around one village alone. Some fear that last year's record high of 411 attacks - significantly more than the 312 attacks in 2010 and 168 in 2009 - could be broken this year. » Read more

Ex-Israeli diplomat: Boycott my country ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor by Joshua Mitnick - (Opinion) July 17, 2012 - 12:00am Alon Liel is a former Israeli ambassador to South Africa and former director general of the Israeli foreign ministry. But when his former office harshly criticized South Africa for enabling a consumer boycott of exports from West Bank settlements in May, Mr. Liel's response sharply diverged from the party line. » Read more

Israeli Lawmaker Destroys New Testament ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Nathan Jeffay - July 17, 2012 - 12:00am He’s not exactly known for his sensitivity, but Israeli lawmaker Michael Ben-Ari has rarely made a statement that has the potential to offend quite so many people. » Read more