March 22nd

Six Big Lies about How Jerusalem Runs Washington ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy by Aaron David Miller - (Opinion) March 21, 2012 - 12:00am Several years after leaving government, I wrote a piece in the Washington Post titled "Israel's Lawyer." The article was an honest effort to explain how several senior officials in U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration (myself included) had a strong inclination to see the Arab-Israeli negotiations through a pro-Israel lens. That filter played a role -- though hardly the primary one -- in the failure of endgame diplomacy, particularly at the ill-fated Camp David summit in July 2000. » Read more

Hijacked cause ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star (Editorial) March 22, 2012 - 12:00am The Toulouse killer’s claim that the Palestinian struggle was the motive behind his recent murdering spree is just the latest example of terrorists’ misappropriation of the cause for their own selfish reasons. After shooting dead three soldiers, three Jewish children and one teacher over the last 10 days, Mohamed Merah was Wednesday cornered in his apartment by police. The Frenchman, of Algerian descent, has allegedly declared allegiance to Al-Qaeda, and said that the killings were designed to avenge the deaths of Palestinian children. » Read more

Calling Israel's bluff ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) March 22, 2012 - 12:00am Benjamin Netanyahu, the arrogant Israeli prime minister, is always tempted to repeat — erroneously — to foreign audiences that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. All he has to do is look around his country and see how some Israeli citizens, Jews and non-Jews, including women face discrimination in their communities. » Read more

Ashton's False Equivalency That Wasn't ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) March 22, 2012 - 12:00am What could possibly explain the logic of the European Union foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, who stunned the Jewish world on March 19 by lumping together the murdered Jewish children of Toulouse in the same sentence with Arab civilian war victims in Gaza? What conceivable morality could combine them in one thought? As near as I can figure, there are three ways of understanding her comment. Let’s take them one at a time. » Read more

Does America and Iran's mutual mistrust mean war is inevitable? ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News by Edward Stourton - (Opinion) March 19, 2012 - 12:00am n late 2004, in an atmosphere of frenzied speculation about war with Iran, Jack Straw - then Britain's Foreign Secretary - told the BBC that military action was "inconceivable." "If I'd not done so, in my view we would have been involved in a firestorm inside the Labour government." For the United States and Britain had recently invaded Iraq. "It was impossible for any British government, but particularly a Labour government given what had happened in Iraq, to contemplate or have any dalliance with the idea of military action in Iran," he now recalls. » Read more

Setting back the war clock ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post by Douglas Bloomfield - (Opinion) March 21, 2012 - 12:00am The question of whether US or Israeli forces will attack Iran’s nuclear facilities in this volatile election year became murkier in the wake of this month’s AIPAC policy conference and some serious saber rattling coming from the Washington Convention Center, as well as from Jerusalem. Some factors on the international game board suggest the likelihood of a US attack has diminished, but political factors may be driving the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to ratchet up Israeli plans for possible military action. » Read more

Washington and Jerusalem differ on Iran ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Ari Shavit - (Opinion) March 22, 2012 - 12:00am A week ago, a senior Israeli official had an American guest over for a late-night chat. Because the guest is intelligent and influential, the official, after offering whiskey and serving coffee, cut straight to the chase. » Read more

Guilt-tripping the world is dangerous for Israel ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) March 22, 2012 - 12:00am As if the horror in Toulouse wasn't enough, as if the suspicion that Al-Qaida was involved in the attack wasn't enough, and as if the constant criticism of Israel wasn't enough, we've invented another imaginary enemy: Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief. » Read more

Settlement policy will cause Israel to self-destruct ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz (Editorial) March 22, 2012 - 12:00am Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has devoted a great deal of effort to moving the Iranian nuclear program to the top of the international agenda. His emphasis on Tehran's threat to destroy the "Zionist entity" has contributed to increased pressure on Iran by the United States and Europe and the tightening of economic sanctions against it. » Read more

Israel 'turning blind eye' to West Bank settlers' attacks on Palestinians ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian by Ian Traynor - March 21, 2012 - 12:00am Jewish settlers in the West Bank are conducting a systematic and expanding campaign of violence against Palestinian farmers, families and children with the Israeli authorities turning a blind eye, according to confidential reports from senior European Union officials. In two reports to Brussels from EU heads of mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah, obtained by the Guardian, the officials found that settler violence against Palestinians has more than tripled in three years to total hundreds of incidents. » Read more