Is Netanyahu pretending?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Eitan Haber - (Opinion) February 8, 2012 - 1:00am

Benjamin Netanyahu was the big winner of the recent Likud primaries. However, he too realizes that the party that sent him to the Prime Minister’s Office is slipping through his fingers. Likud is distancing from him. However, some politicians will respond to the above with a chuckle. For years they have been saying that Netanyahu has not changed at all, and that Likud is not distancing from him at all. Bibi is just like Moshe Feiglin, with a softer veneer, they say. The primaries’ results will force Netanyahu to rip the mask off his face.

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MK Tibi disciplined yet again
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Moran Azulay - February 7, 2012 - 1:00am

The Knesset's Ethics Committee has on Tuesday banned MK Ahmad Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) from delivering one-minute speeches in the Knesset plenum for a period of one month. The decision came after MK Tibi delivered a speech three weeks ago during which he verbally confronted MK Yitzhak Vaknin (Shas) who was heading the Knesset discussion. Tibi had already been suspended from the plenum and from participating in committee meetings for a period of one week last month over a limerick he read out during a plenum sitting called "Anasstasia's plumbing was damaged."

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Why Israel is faced with 200,000 rockets
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Sefi Rachlevsky - (Opinion) February 7, 2012 - 1:00am

There are currently 200,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel, according to Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi. Thousands carrying heavy explosive warheads, and some chemical and biological ones, are aimed at Tel Aviv. And they are in the possession of people who are not exactly Israel's friends. In fact, most are religious extremists bordering on messianic. So why aren't these missiles falling on our heads?

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World democracies are warming up to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Moshe Arens - (Opinion) February 7, 2012 - 1:00am

No Israeli could have failed to notice the radical change in weather over the past two months. Forecasters predicted another dry winter, and fortunately they turned out to be wrong. And while Israel is still suffering from a water shortage, for the moment the situation is not as dire as we had thought.

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Israel’s Silent March to War With Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) February 7, 2012 - 1:00am

The atmosphere in Israel is pretty surreal these days. The whole world seems to be asking whether we’re going to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities this year — the whole world except this Israeli part of it.

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“Death to Christians” sprayed on Jerusalem monastery
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
February 7, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- A Jerusalem monastery, built on the spot where tradition holds the tree from which Jesus's cross was made, was defaced with graffiti bearing the hallmarks of Jewish extremists, police said on Tuesday. "Death to Christians" was daubed in Hebrew on the outer walls of the Monastery of the Cross, an 11th-century fortress-like holy site situated in a valley overlooked by Israel's parliament.

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Israel fears Hezbollah could get arms from Syria
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Amy Teibel - February 7, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — Israeli defense officials say they are increasingly concerned that Lebanese militants could get their hands on weapons from violence-wracked Syria. The officials say their main worry is that with the chaos in Syria mounting, Hezbollah guerrillas could acquire Syrian military S-125 anti-aircraft missiles, which could hinder operations by the Israeli air force. The officials say they are also worried Hezbollah may acquire Syrian chemical weapons and an array of Syrian missiles able to strike deep into Israel.

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Netanyahu to Cabinet: Stop “chitchat” about Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Aron Heller - February 6, 2012 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM — An Israeli official says the country's prime minister has told his Cabinet to quit the "chitchat" about Iran. Israeli political and military leaders have been increasingly candid recently on the subject of Israeli action against the Iranian nuclear program. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has concluded that an Israeli attack on Iran is likely in the coming months. Israel considers Iran to be its most dangerous enemy and has vowed to prevent it from going nuclear.

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David Ben-Gurion's legacy, through Shimon Peres' eyes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Azriel Bermant - (Book Review) February 6, 2012 - 1:00am

Ben-Gurion: A Political Life by Shimon Peres, with David Landau Schocken Books, 224 pages, $25.95

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Pro-Peace Group Barred From Leading Hebron Tours
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Jeffay - February 5, 2012 - 1:00am

Tel Aviv — A year ago, Israel’s Education Ministry launched a program to encourage schools to visit Jewish sites in the occupied West Bank town of Hebron, drawing fire from doves who charged the ministry with bringing politics into school trips. The doves’ effort to stop the program failed. Having failed to beat them, a dovish group of army veterans sought recently to join them. But on January 28, the police informed the Hebrew University High School that members of the dovish organization Breaking the Silence would be barred from joining its students on their Hebron tour the next day.

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