August 17th

Dennis Ross: Israel's Iran Threats Aimed at Spurring Global Action
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Laura Rozen - (Opinion) August 15, 2012 - 12:00am


Israel’s intentions on Iran are ambiguous, veteran United States-Middle East trouble shooter Dennis Ross says. “Part of the motivation for being as public as they have been is to motivate the rest of world," Ross, who served as the top Obama White House Iran strategist from 2009 to the end of 2011, told Al-Monitor in an interview Tuesday. “The second reason is to condition the rest of the world not to be surprised if or when they are going to act militarily,” Ross said. “And to get the Israeli public ready as well.”


Israeli Leaders Could Be Dissuaded From Striking Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Jodi Rudoren - August 15, 2012 - 12:00am


A former Israeli national security adviser said Wednesday that the prime minister and the defense minister told him this week they had not yet decided to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and could be dissuaded from a strike if President Obama approved stricter sanctions and publicly confirmed his willingness to use military force.


In suspected Jerusalem lynch, dozens of Jewish youths attack 3 Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Nir Hasson - (Analysis) August 17, 2012 - 12:00am


Dozens of Jewish youths attacked three young Palestinians in Jerusalem's Zion Square early on Friday morning, in what one witness described as "a lynch" on Facebook. One of the Palestinians was seriously wounded and hospitalized in intensive care in Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem. Acting Jerusalem police chief, General Menachem Yitzhaki, gas set up a special team to investigate the incident and detain the suspects.


Israel’s President Criticizes Talk of Unilateral Strike on Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - August 16, 2012 - 12:00am


Shimon Peres, Israel’s president and elder statesman, spoke out Thursday against the prospect of a lone Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, a message that contradicts the hawkish, go-it-alone line emanating from the offices of Israel’s prime minister and defense minister.


Self-inflicted information war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yoel Marcus - (Opinion) August 16, 2012 - 12:00am


These days, with the country’s leaders straining our nerves, it’s hard not to recall the immortal words of Eli Wallach in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”: “If you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk.”


Why the world can't tolerate a preemptive Israeli attack on Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by L. Michael Hager - (Opinion) August 16, 2012 - 12:00am


Now that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program are at an impasse, we are once again hearing that Israel, with or without US participation, is about to bomb Iran.


Israel's Iran Itch
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) August 16, 2012 - 12:00am


Hmm, it’s August, things are quiet, time for another wave of hysteria over an imminent Israeli attack on Iran. We’ve seen this movie for a decade — Israel’s “red line” on the Iranian nuclear program has proved of spandex-like elasticity. (I sometimes imagine the size of the explosion if all the words devoted to the Iranian nuclear program since 2000 were placed in a large container and detonated.)


August 16th

Canada's United Church affirms settlements boycott
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
August 15, 2012 - 12:00am


Members of the United Church of Canada, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, voted on Wednesday to affirm a controversial motion supporting a boycott of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The boycott has has outraged many Jewish groups, including the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which expressed it's anger by "the decision to single out Israeli communities for boycott."


Palestinian envoy raised alarm about missing asylum boat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from National Times
by Natalie O'Brien - August 16, 2012 - 12:00am


The federal government has known for weeks that another asylum seeker boat, this one with dozens of Palestinians on board, had disappeared yet it kept silent about the details. The boat carrying 67 passengers, including 28 Palestinians, was last heard from 48 days ago after setting sail from Indonesia.


Secular Israelis Gentrify West Bank Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Yedioth Ahronoth
by Ofer Petersburg - August 16, 2012 - 12:00am


It's rather in doubt whether this is the solution that the leaders of the social justice protest [that swept Israel in the summer of 2011] wished for when they took to the streets to demonstrate against the exorbitant cost of housing in Israel.



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