Giving Up ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast by Peter Beinart - (Opinion) September 4, 2012 - 12:00am When it comes to Israel, the American Jewish right won’t take yes for an answer. Today the Democrats released their party platform, and almost instantly, neoconservatives became apoplectic, with the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin dubbing it the “most radically unsupportive statement of policy on Israel by a major U.S. party since the founding of the state of Israel.” » Read more

Platform Change on Status of Jerusalem Sparks Debate ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Wall Street Journal by Naftali Bendavid, Jared Favole - September 5, 2012 - 12:00am The Democratic Party released a 2012 platform Tuesday that omits previous language describing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, sparking an unexpected dust-up just as President Barack Obama is preparing to accept his party's nomination for a second term. » Read more

Israeli Talk of Attacking Iran Damages Relationship with US ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor by Avner Cohen - (Opinion) September 4, 2012 - 12:00am “When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk,” goes a famous line from the old Clint Eastwood movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly » Read more

Plans To Attack Iran Unravel In the Clear Light of Reason ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National by Tony Karon - (Opinion) September 5, 2012 - 12:00am With bellicose theatrics between Israel and Iran nearing fever pitch, US President Barack Obama recently received some sage advice from the Bush administration's point man on dealings with the Islamic Republic. Former ambassador Nicholas Burns warned that the European-led negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme were going nowhere, and that the United States urgently needs protracted, direct negotiations with Tehran's leadership, putting all issues of conflict on the table. » Read more

Palestinian bedouins return to threatened school ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press September 5, 2012 - 12:00am Dozens of children returned to school this week, taking part in an annual ritual that has taken on a special meaning in this Bedouin tent camp. The makeshift school buildings, cobbled together from mud and old tyres, were built over the objections of the Israeli authorities, who are now threatening to demolish the structures. Israel says it will not tear them down until alternative facilities are available. » Read more

Push for recognition of Jewish refugees from Arab lands seeks to counterbalance Palestinian claims ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) by Ben Sales - September 4, 2012 - 12:00am Naim Reuven was only 8 when he left Baghdad more than 50 years ago, but he still remembers going with his father to catch fish in the Tigris River. His dad worked in a laundromat, a middle-class father of six and one of Iraq’s more than 100,000 Jews. Baghdad’s Jewish community suffered a pogrom in 1941, but Reuven, born a year later, has only fond memories of his childhood there -- until Israel declared independence in 1948. » Read more

Too Many Secrets ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Forward (Editorial) September 5, 2012 - 12:00am Back in April, Stephen Colbert told his television audience about a new tax-exempt group he had created, one which “never has to disclose its donors, because it is a quasi-charitable organization called a 501(c)4.” As his own lawyer explained on the show, it’s a social welfare organization that is supposed to further public policy goals and is not supposed to engage too much in politics. » Read more

Liberman praises Obama, talks tough on Iran ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Gil Hoffman - September 4, 2012 - 12:00am Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman issued praise for the policies of United States President Barack Obama’s administration Tuesday at a pre-Rosh Hashana toast for activists of his Yisrael Beytenu party at Jerusalem’s Shalom Hotel. Liberman’s comments come at a time when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been issuing veiled public criticism of Obama’s Iran policies. While the foreign minister did not mention the US president by name, his comments could aid Democratic efforts to market Obama as pro-Israel. » Read more

Rivlin says Obama doesn't understand Middle East ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Lahav Harkov - September 5, 2012 - 12:00am US President Barack Obama's administration does not understand the realities of the Middle East, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Wednesday, amid ongoing speculation of a rift in US-Israel relations. "The fact that the Democrats removed a united Jerusalem as Israel's capital from their platform is more worrying than the argument over Iran," Rivlin told The Jerusalem Post. "The change may have far-reaching consequences." » Read more

Israel, Palestinians may lose chance for two-state solution, Norway FM says ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Akiva Eldar - September 5, 2012 - 12:00am The international community must consider how to relate to the import of goods that are produced in the settlements, "which we consider illegal according to international law," the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Jonas Gahr Store told Haaretz on the eve of his visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah. Store, head of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee - a donor support group to the Palestinian Authority - said that Norway would "consider various options to demonstrate its policy in regard to the expansion of the settlements." » Read more