Lawyer: Israeli officers tortured Jaradat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
February 24, 2013 - 1:00am

Israeli officers tortured Arafat Jaradat, a 30-year-old who died Saturday in Israeli custody, his lawyer and the Ministry of Detainee Affairs said Sunday. Kameel Sabbagh, a lawyer at the ministry, said he was present at Jaradat's last hearing on Thursday. The Israeli judge postponed the hearing for 12 days. "When I entered the courtroom I saw Jaradat sitting on a wooden chair in front of the judge. His back was hunched and he looked sick and fragile.

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Palestinians Dispute Israel’s Findings on a Prisoner’s Death
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Khaled Abu Aker - February 24, 2013 - 1:00am

The Israeli Health Ministry said Sunday night that preliminary autopsy findings could not determine the cause of death of a 30-year-old Palestinian prisoner, which Israeli officials had at first attributed to a heart attack. But Palestinian officials said the lack of heart damage coupled with bruising on the man’s chest, back and neck suggested that he was tortured during interrogation.

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Ayalon: Liberman portrayed Israel as belligerent
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - (Opinion) February 22, 2013 - 1:00am

Four more years of Avigdor Liberman in the foreign ministry would harm the country’s interest because he is irrelevant abroad and viewed as unnecessarily belligerent, Liberman’s former deputy, Danny Ayalon told The Jerusalem Post this week.

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Palestinians Protest Route of Marathon to Sponsors
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Jodi Rudoren - February 22, 2013 - 1:00am

A lawyer representing Palestinian government agencies sent letters this week to an American sneaker company and an international hotel chain threatening a boycott and legal action if they did not withdraw their sponsorship of the Jerusalem Marathon, which the Palestinians say violates international law.

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Editor's Notes: What about a mini-region?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Steve Linde - (Editorial) February 21, 2013 - 1:00am

Uriel Halbreich, an internationally respected professor of psychiatry, has devoted much of his long career to finding ways to combat depression. This year, after being awarded a Fulbright grant, he decided to spend some time away from his work at the State University of New York at Buffalo and return to Jerusalem, where he was born in 1943, to pursue a research program on resilience and stress-related disorders.

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Savir's Corner: Raising expectations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Uri Savir - (Opinion) February 21, 2013 - 1:00am

On March 20, Air Force One will land on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion Airport. US President Barack Obama will be received with pomp and circumstance by President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his new government. All of Israel, the region and indeed the world will be watching.

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Israel gives OK for oil drilling in Golan Heights
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
February 21, 2013 - 1:00am

Israel says it has given the go-ahead for a gas exploration project in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau it captured from Syria in the 1967 war. Israel's Energy and Water Resources Ministry said Wednesday it has issued a permit for the American-Israeli company Genie Energy to drill for oil on the plateau. The company is headed by Effi Eitam, a hawkish former Israeli Cabinet minister.

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The Peril of Mutual Delegitimization
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from
by Alon Ben-Meir - (Opinion) February 20, 2013 - 1:00am

Brief synopsis: The most puzzling aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict may be that after 65 years of violence, enmity and suffering, it remains unresolved when coexistence is inevitable and a two-state solution remains the only viable option. Although there are many contentious issues that must be specifically addressed, directly impacting every conflicting issue is the broader psychological dimension of the conflict making it increasingly intractable.

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Center Field: Stop calling critics anti-Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gil Troy - (Opinion) February 20, 2013 - 1:00am

As preparations for President Barack Obama’s first presidential visit to Israel proceed, we need some conceptual and linguistic groundwork, not just the usual itinerary generating, security planning and soporific statement-drafting. For too long, the debate about American-Israeli relations has been too polarizing. Let’s silence the sky-is-falling cries proclaiming crisis and predicting disaster.

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Obama and Kerry should listen very hard
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) February 20, 2013 - 1:00am

It was inevitable that the announcement of U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to the Middle East in mid-March would trigger expectations of new proposals for restarting Palestinian-Israeli peace talks. This visit, coupled with John Kerry’s appointment as secretary of state and the start of Obama’s second term, heightens speculation about what, if anything, the United States might do to prod the parties toward fresh negotiations.

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