July 6th

Boxing connects young Israeli Arabs and Jews ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Blake Sobczak - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am The bell clangs, the fight starts and the boxers come at each other. On one side is a 13-year-old Arab boy from northern Israel. His opponent comes from a Jewish town. The Jewish fighter from the blue corner pushes his Arab adversary against the ropes before pummeling him with a barrage of punches. Jews and Arabs have been fighting each other for decades, so boxing may seem like a strange way to build peace between the two — but that's what the Israel Boxing Association aims for. » Read more

The prodigal son too good to be true ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Shayna Zamkanei - (Opinion) July 6, 2012 - 12:00am In mid-June, Israel's most trusted former collaborator, Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas co-founder Hassan Yousef, arrived at Ben-Gurion airport. Invited by Druze lawmaker Ayoob Kara (Likud ), Yousef, who now lives in the United States, has been speaking to various groups and committees. » Read more

Palestinian hunger striker in critical condition ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Blake Sobczak - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am A Palestinian prisoner convicted of transporting suicide bombers is in critical condition after a nearly three-month hunger strike, a rights group said Thursday. Akram Rikhawi started fasting on April 12, just before 1,200 other prisoners began refusing food to demand better conditions. Israeli authorities reached a deal with participants in the wider strike by mid-May, easing some restrictions. Rikhawi has continued to protest his detention by refusing to eat. » Read more

No, Israel Didn't Offer to Trade the West Bank for Peace in 1967 ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Gershom Gorenberg - (Opinion) July 5, 2012 - 12:00am It's a reassuring story, regularly repeated by defenders of Israeli policy: After the Six-Day War, Israel offered to give up the land it had just occupied in return for peace. But the Arabs said no, first quietly, then publicly at the Khartoum Summit. Alas, Israel was stuck with the occupied territories. In some versions of the story, Israel had virtually no choice but to start building settlements once the Arabs rejected diplomacy. » Read more

'Polonium found on Arafat's clothing was planted' ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Yaakov Lappin - July 5, 2012 - 12:00am The high levels of the radioactive poison polonium reportedly found on the belongings of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat indicate that the toxin was on them after his death, a senior counterterrorism analyst told The Jerusalem Post Thursday. Dr. Ely Karmon, of the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya’s Institute for Counterterrorism, is a specialist in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear terrorism. » Read more

Palestine: A hostage state ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News (Editorial) July 6, 2012 - 12:00am he tragedy of the Palestinians has hung like a black cloud over the Arab world for almost 65 years. It is inconceivable that a people should be corralled like animals in their own country by a dominant, nuclear-armed neighbor, backed, through thick and thin, by a superpower. Yet that is what Israelis have done to the Palestinians. Moreover, there has been systematic theft of Arab land in the Occupied Territories, as a way of imprisoning the luckless Palestinians still further. » Read more

In death, Yitzhak Shamir is triumphant ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Michael Young - (Opinion) July 5, 2012 - 12:00am Yitzhak Shamir was the kind of person whom you didn’t remember was alive until learning that he was dead. The strange thing about many of the comments that followed the demise last week of Israel’s onetime prime minister was that he was portrayed as a relic – someone out of touch with the political temper in Israel today. » Read more

Arafat's nephew: Body should be exhumed if necessary ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency July 6, 2012 - 12:00am The nephew of Yasser Arafat said Thursday that the late president's body must be exhumed if necessary to determine the true cause of his death. Nasser al-Qudwa, who heads the Yasser Arafat Foundation, met with President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Thursday and discussed new allegations that Arafat was poisoned with the radioactive element polonium-210 in 2004. » Read more

London 2012: one minute to remember 11 Munich athletes - too much to ask? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Jennifer Lipman - (Blog) July 6, 2012 - 12:00am Seriously, in between all the running, jumping, swimming and sprinting, the Olympic organisers can't spare one measly minute to remember 11 men murdered for daring to compete for their country? You mean to tell me that there's no room for a brief interlude during Danny Boyle's opening extravaganza – not even when the rain is coming down from his fluffy fake clouds? Or during one of the minor events, the ones the organisers are practically giving away tickets to? » Read more

Aide: Palestinian leader wants more on Arafat ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press by Karin Laub - July 6, 2012 - 12:00am Digging up Yasser Arafat's bones may offer the best shot at learning if the legendary Palestinian leader was poisoned, as many of his old comrades-in-arms claim, but Palestinian officials signaled Thursday they're not rushing into an autopsy. Arafat's 2004 death remains shrouded in mystery, and this week's findings by Switzerland's Institute of Radiation Physics — that belongings linked to Arafat contained an elevated level of a radioactive agent — have revived speculation about foul play. » Read more