Three Reasons Israel Is Issuing More Permits for Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Ayyam by Hani al-Masri - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am The Israeli government has been growing more extremist and stubborn, to the point of sabotaging all efforts and initiatives aimed at resuming negotiations and reviving the so-called “peace process.” Furthermore, it is waging a continuous campaign — headed by Foreign Minister Lieberman — against President Abbas, demanding that he be replaced because of the diplomatic and legal campaign he has undertaken against Israel and his plan to resort to the United Natio » Read more

Palestine central to Israel-Turkey relations ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Common Ground News Service by Faik Tunay - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am Approximately two years have passed since a flotilla of six ships, including the Turkish Mavi Marmara, set sail carrying hundreds of activists protesting the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Before reaching their destination the ship was boarded by Israeli naval commandos and nine Turkish activists were killed in a confrontation on board. » Read more

Was Yasser Arafat murdered? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent by Donald MacIntyre - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am Barber Mohammed Hamad was in no doubt about the reasons for Yasser Arafat's death just under eight years ago. As he trimmed a customer's hair in his shop in the Amari refugee camp yesterday, he welcomed the news that French prosecutors have opened a murder investigation. » Read more

Realities about racism ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Jonathan Rosen - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am One adult and eight minors were indicted on Tuesday for their alleged role in the brutal attack two weeks ago on a 17- year-old Palestinian boy in downtown Jerusalem. That attack, which came on the heels of the firebombing of a Palestinian taxi in the southern West Bank the week before, which had injured six people, produced a debate in the Israeli media, public and political arena. To their credit, politicians from across the spectrum all but uniformly decried the attacks and called for the perpetrators to be prosecuted and punished. » Read more

Israeli colonialism in West Bank ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews by Oren Yiftachel - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am Netanyahu recently decided to shelve the report submitted by Justice Edmond Levy, and security forces are preparing for the imminent evacuation of the Migron outpost. But don't let this fool you – the Levy Report may have been officially dismissed and Migron may be moved to an alternate location a few meters away, but the report's conclusions continue to guide Jewish colonization in the territories. » Read more

Requiem for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Carlo Strenger - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am Nachum Barnea is considered to be one of Israel’s most influential journalists, independent in his judgment, fair and balanced in his reporting and analysis. A few days ago he wrote an outspoken column in which he comes to the conclusion that the settlement project has reached its goal: the situation on the ground is irreversible, and the two-state solution is no longer possible. » Read more

Behold, Rachel, behold ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am The spring of 2003 was an atrocious spring. An intifada was raging in the streets of Israel; explosives were going off next to the Gaza-Egyptian border, along the Philadelphi Route, and in Rafah, bulldozers mowed down hundreds of Palestinian homes, many of them belonging to innocent people. A few months earlier, a young American woman had arrived in Rafah from Olympia, Washington. » Read more

Israeli settlers have only themselves to blame for Migron outpost ruling ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Yossi Verter - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am No one was surprised by the High Court of Justice ruling ordering all residents of the settlement outpost of Migron to be out by next Tuesday - except, of course, for the settlers themselves. Television news shows reported that "shock" reigned in the illegal outpost last night. Its residents claimed the court had "raped" them. Once again, the robbed Cossacks are crying foul, a moment before they relocate to the shiny new settlement that the state built for them nearby at a cost of NIS 30 million. » Read more

Iran, Israel and the birth of new alliances ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency by Mahdi Abdul Hadi - (Opinion) August 30, 2012 - 12:00am The Non-Aligned Movement of 120 nations are at a crossroads in their 16th Summit in Tehran this week where the longer term impacts of the Second Arab Awakening (the Arab Spring) are likely to reveal themselves. The NAM was established in Ban Dong in 1955 by Nasser (Egypt), Nihro (India), and Sukarno (Indonesia), and joined later by Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia in 1961 to create an alternative political narrative to those offered by Western capitalist nations and Soviet-style socialism during the Cold War. » Read more

Two years after her father wished him dead, Abbas hosts Ovadia Yosef’s daughter ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Times of Israel by Philip Podolsky - August 30, 2012 - 12:00am Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas received on Monday in Ramallah a group of Israeli rabbis including Adina Bar-Shalom, the eldest daughter of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, in a rare meeting at a time when negotiations between Israel and the PA are at a virtual standstill. » Read more