July 19th

Iran TV: Links to attack on Israelis 'ridiculous' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press July 19, 2012 - 12:00am Iran's state TV is rejecting accusations of Tehran's involvement in an apparent suicide attack against Israeli tourists in Bulgaria that killed at least eight people. A commentary Thursday on the TV website calls the claims by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others "ridiculous" and "sensational." The website described the Israeli charges as attempts to discredit Iran and its allies such as Syria. » Read more

Israel's Barak: We'll block Syrian refugees ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Amy Teibel - July 19, 2012 - 12:00am Defense Minister Ehud Barak, standing within earshot of fighting in Syria, said Thursday that Israel would stop Syrian refugees from entering the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights if they try to flee there. Barak was touring the Golan, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war, a day after three top officials in the regime of President Bashar Assad were killed in a suicide attack in Damascus. Israeli defense officials are closely monitoring the deteriorating situation in their neighbor to the north, worried it could spill across the frontier. » Read more

Though Bruised, Netanyahu Is Seen as Secure in Post After Coalition’s Demise ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times by Isabel Kershner - July 18, 2012 - 12:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s image of invincibility has taken a knock, Israeli analysts said on Wednesday, a day after the breakup of the large and broad coalition that had given him almost unprecedented power. But for now, they said, his political future seemed assured for one simple reason: he has no obvious rival for the premiership. » Read more

Interview: Israeli school books write out Palestinian, Arab story ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency by Brandon Davis - (Interview) July 19, 2012 - 12:00am JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- Professor of language and education at Hebrew University Nurit Peled-ElHanan recently released a book analyzing the portrayal of Palestinians in 16 history, civics and geography textbooks authorized by the Israeli Ministry of Education. 'Palestine in Israeli School Books' argues that the textbooks legitimate Israeli military policy in the eyes of young students, and prepares them for military service upon graduation. Ma'an spoke to Peled-ElHanan about the ideas behind her latest book. » Read more

July 18th

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