Palestinian diplomat appointed as deputy special envoy for Syria ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua August 22, 2012 - 12:00am UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Former Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser Al-Kidwa on Tuesday was appointed as deputy joint special representative for Syria, according to a statement issued by the spokesperson's office of UN secretary-general. » Read more

Ethics matter, the world tells Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) August 22, 2012 - 12:00am We may be quietly witnessing these days an important change in Middle Eastern history. The calm, rational human emphasis on ethical behavior and the quest for peace and justice could be triumphing over the attempt to spread victimization and hysteria and to overlook violent and criminal behavior. » Read more

Alleged Hate Crime in Israel Part of Larger Trend ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Dan Ephron - (Opinion) August 22, 2012 - 12:00am An alleged hate crime against Palestinians in West Jerusalem this week, which left one young man unconscious and in the hospital, underscores a troubling reality: that Israeli teens are more militantly anti-Arab than their parents and increasingly more prone to rejecting democratic values. » Read more

Israeli attack goes to heart of society in crisis ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National (Editorial) August 23, 2012 - 12:00am When they were taken into court in handcuffs, the Israeli boys and girls who came close to committing murder tried to hide their faces, shielding themselves from the glare of the cameras. Yet the media coverage has been relentless and has starkly exposed the violence that pervades so much of Israeli society. » Read more

'Lynching' in Zion Square ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by Jill Jacobs - (Opinion) August 21, 2012 - 12:00am On August 17, a mob of several dozen Israeli Jewish teenagers — some reports say as many as 50 — assaulted four Palestinian youths in the center of Jerusalem in an attack that the Jerusalem police have labeled an attempted “lynching.” The young people shouted “death to Arabs” as they chased down and beat the Palestinians. One of the four victims remains in critical condition after being resuscitated. » Read more

Israel Skittish about Egyptian Tanks in Sinai ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Linda Gradstein - (Analysis) August 22, 2012 - 12:00am When considering the situation in the Sinai Peninsula, Israelis are caught between a sand dune and the Red Sea. On one hand, they want to encourage the new Egyptian government to re-impose its control over the Sinai, which has become a center for smuggling everything from prostitutes to weapons. On the other hand, they fear that allowing Egypt to violate the historic 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty is “a slippery slope,” as one senior Israeli official put it. » Read more

The fading Left and Israel’s flourishing democracy ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Efraim Inbar, Shmuel Sandler - (Opinion) August 22, 2012 - 12:00am The Israeli Left, frustrated following its failure to garner support in recent elections, has adopted a new strategy. Even before shrinking in the 2009 elections to only 16 MKs (represented by Labor and Meretz), several leftist figures decided to appeal to external forces “to save Israel from itself” rather than struggle for the hearts and minds of the Israeli people. They appeal to foreigners to pressure Israel into their desired direction by arguing that Israel is losing its democracy. » Read more

A good Jew hates Arabs ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) August 21, 2012 - 12:00am The young criminals who mercilessly beat Jamal Julani and his cousins simply because they're Arabs don't live in settlements, haven't occupied any cities and haven't taken control of any terraced hills in the territories. Perhaps they participated in one of those tours the Education Ministry has been sponsoring in Hebron to deepen kids' familiarity with their Jewish heritage and heard something there about an occupation. » Read more

Netanyahu and Barak V. Israel's Defense Community ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) August 22, 2012 - 12:00am One of the most astonishing features of Israel's current debate over the Iranian threat is the utter failure of the country's two top leaders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, to win significant support for an Israeli attack on Tehran's nuclear installations. » Read more

When Netanyahu and Barak keep silent, Lieberman starts to talk ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Avi Issacharoff - (Opinion) August 22, 2012 - 12:00am In an article published last Thursday in Haaretz I discussed the Egyptian deployment of military forces in the Sinai Peninsula, without prior coordination with Israel, as part of its campaign against Islamic terrorists. At the time, no Israeli was prepared to make an official response. The answers I got on the matter  – both from the security establishment and from the Prime Minister’s Office – were opaque. » Read more