Why we are closing ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Yossi Alpher - (Blog) August 27, 2012 - 12:00am We are closing bitterlemons' two weekly e-magazines. The publications that you, our readers, have known for the past 11 years will, with this special edition, cease to exist. You deserve an explanation as to why this is happening. It is not disconnected from what is transpiring around us in the Middle East and globally. » Read more

The arc of the pendulum ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons by Ghassan Khatib - (Blog) August 27, 2012 - 12:00am When Yossi Alpher and I sat in my Jerusalem office in the year 2000, discussing plans for the first bitterlemons web magazine, we never imagined that it would grow to encompass four different publications and two books, or that it would span 12 years of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. » Read more

What if a war broke out? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat by Emad El Din Adeeb - (Opinion) August 27, 2012 - 12:00am What would happen if a regional war broke out between Israel and Iran? I'm not here to talk about who would be the "devil" or the "angel" in this political context. I will not enter into the issue of who is right and who is wrong, nor will I touch upon the overwhelming state of hostility towards Israel or the hostility that the majority of Arabs currently display towards Iran. Rather, I will focus my attention on answering the big question. » Read more

Loose-Cannon or Bad Cop Lieberman? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line by Linda Gradstein - (Opinion) August 26, 2012 - 12:00am Give Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas a choice, Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said this weekend. Either he must abandon his campaign for unilateral United Nations recognition and return to the negotiating table with no preconditions, or Israel will no longer see him as a legitimate partner and will launch a campaign to delegitimize him. » Read more

Sinai: Shift in Egypt’s strategic doctrine? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by Mohammad Fadhel - (Opinion) August 26, 2012 - 12:00am As the army continues its campaign against terrorists in the Sinai peninsula, there are growing calls in Egypt for comprehensive development projects in Sinai. Opposition figures, politicians and former officials are seeing this goal as a strategic effort to enhance the country’s national security. It seems that this topic will become one of the priorities for President Mohammad Mursi and the entire Egyptian leadership. » Read more

Egypt and the treaty ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Liron A. Libman - (Opinion) August 26, 2012 - 12:00am Since the beginning of the regional turmoil and the regime change in Egypt, there were Egyptian voices speaking of cancelling or reviewing the peace treaty with Israel. Lately, after the terrorist attack in Sinai that killed 16 Egyptian border guards, Mr. Mohamed Gadallah, legal adviser to the president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsy, was quoted saying that the president is studying whether to amend the Camp David accords to ensure Egypt’s “full sovereignty” over Sinai. » Read more

There is no consensus regarding the Oslo Accords ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Susan Hattis Rolef - (Opinion) August 26, 2012 - 12:00am Since President Shimon Peres went public regarding his opinion that Israel should not attack Iran without fully coordinated with the US, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and others have started attacking the president for overstepping his legitimate role, and have reverted to attacking Peres for what they regard as his mistaken judgments over the years on major political issues. One of these “mistaken judgments” is the 1993 Oslo Accords. » Read more

An Israeli attack on Iran would help, not harm, Obama’s reelection ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Chemi Shalev - (Opinion) August 26, 2012 - 12:00am In many of the conspiracy theories that have been presented in recent weeks in the Israeli press concerning the possibility of an imminent Israeli attack on Iran, one theme has been constant: it would put President Barack Obama in a bind and possibly hurt his chances in the November elections as well. » Read more

Market stalls turn into prime real estate in fight between Jews, Palestinians over Hebron ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press by Mohammed Daraghmeh, Nasser Shiyoukhi - August 26, 2012 - 12:00am Four stalls in a trash-filled, abandoned outdoor market have turned into hotly contested real estate in the center of biblical Hebron where several hundred ultranationalist Jewish settlers are wrestling with Palestinian residents for control, house by house and storefront by storefront. The stalls’ Palestinian tenants want Israel’s Supreme Court to evict settlers who seized the properties a decade ago, but some in Israel’s pro-settler government believe the small shops should remain in Jewish hands. » Read more

Former Israeli soldiers disclose routine mistreatment of Palestinian children ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Harriet Sherwood - August 26, 2012 - 12:00am More than 30 former Israeli soldiers have disclosed their experiences of the treatment of Palestinian children during military operations and arrests, pointing to a pattern of abuse. A booklet of testimonies, published by Breaking the Silence, an organisation of former Israeli soldiers dedicated to publicising the day-to-day actions of the army in the occupied territories, contains descriptions of beatings, intimidation, humiliation, verbal abuse, night-time arrests and injury. Most of the children had been suspected of stone-throwing. » Read more