Romney Versus the World Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Hussein Ibish - (Opinion) July 30, 2012 - 12:00am Republican candidate Mitt Romney's visit to Israel was marked by a series of largely boilerplate comments about the special relationship between the United States and Israel. And, like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he almost entirely avoided the question of peace and the two-state solution, preferring to focus on the threat posed by Iran's nuclear weapons. In his speech in Jerusalem, the word “Palestinian” did not once cross his lips. » Read more

Romney’s visit ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post (Editorial) July 30, 2012 - 12:00am There is no doubt that Mitt Romney is a great friend and supporter of Israel. During his short but significant visit to the country this week, the former Massachusetts governor said all the right things. He backed, inter alia, “any and all measures” to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons, Israel’s right to defend itself (adding “it is right for America to stand by you”) and its claim to Jerusalem as its capital – much to the chagrin of the Palestinians. » Read more

Mr. Romney Stumps in Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times (Editorial) July 30, 2012 - 12:00am Mitt Romney made a point of insisting that he would adhere to an unwritten rule and often violated rule about candidates not criticizing each other or contradicting American foreign policy on foreign soil. About the only effort he made to keep that promise during his stop in Israel was to avoid mentioning President Obama by name. » Read more

July 30th

Key Pro-Israel Obama Ally Splits ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Eli Lake - July 28, 2012 - 12:00am As Republican donors are financing multimillion-dollar campaigns to bring Jewish voters over to Mitt Romney, one of President Obama’s most important liaisons to the pro-Israel community has opted to sit out the 2012 election cycle. » Read more

Tales from the West Bank: Palestinian Raja Shehadeh chronicles life during occupation ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Raja Shehadeh - (Book Review) July 28, 2012 - 12:00am 13 December 2009: I'm just back from a lovely day spent in Wadi Kelt, the ravine on the way between Jerusalem and Jericho. This is one of the few places in the West Bank where one can be sure of finding water even after the drought of the past eight months. Turned out we were not the only ones who had the idea of an outing there. Just after we put down our rucksacks and stretched out on the rock in the sun, a Palestinian family of nine arrived. They were disappointed to find us there but settled for the second best slab of rock on the opposite side of the pool. » Read more

‘Talk Zionism’ — a string of empty phrases ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) July 30, 2012 - 12:00am HE talks Zionism,” used to be a very derogatory comment when I was young. It meant that some elderly functionary had come to waste our time with a boring speech consisting largely of empty phrases. That was before the foundation of the State of Israel. Since then, the term Zionism has been elevated to the status of a state ideology, if not state religion. Everything the state does is justified by the use of this word. Some would say that Zionism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. » Read more

US sees Israel as spy threat ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press July 30, 2012 - 12:00am The CIA station chief opened the locked box containing the sensitive equipment he used from his home in Tel Aviv to communicate with CIA headquarters in Virginia, only to find that someone had tampered with it. He sent word to his superiors about the break-in. The incident, described by three former senior US intelligence officials, might have been dismissed as just another cloak-and-dagger incident in the world of international espionage, except that the same thing had happened to the previous station chief in Israel. » Read more

The 'opposite' of Obama: A primer for Democrats ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Abraham Katsman - (Opinion) July 29, 2012 - 12:00am In June, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told an audience of Christian conservatives that he would do the “opposite” of what US President Barack Obama has done in terms of Israel. “I think, by and large, you can just look at the things the president has done and do the opposite.” Romney explained that his “overarching” message was that “I would not want to show a dime’s worth of distance between ourselves and our allies like Israel. If we have disagreements, we can talk about them behind closed doors. » Read more

U.S. presented Netanyahu with contingency plan for Iran strike ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Barak Ravid - July 29, 2012 - 12:00am The U.S. national security adviser has shared with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the United States' contingency plans for a possible attack on Iran. According to a senior American official, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon briefed Netanyahu on the plans during Donilon's visit to Israel two weeks ago. According to the official, who requested anonymity, Netanyahu hosted Donilon at a three-hour dinner. For part of the time, Israel's national security adviser, Yaakov Amidror, was on hand. » Read more

EU slams Israel’s 'human rights violations' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews July 29, 2012 - 12:00am In a recent statement issued by the EU-Israel Association Council, the European Union (EU) sharply criticized Israel for what it referred to as a wide range of human rights violations in the Jewish state and the "occupied Palestinian territory (OPT)." » Read more