Draconian arrests of Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) February 20, 2013 - 1:00am

Fourteen Palestinians freed in the Gilad Shalit deal were arrested by the IDF and Shin Bet security service. Amira Hass reported on Sunday in Haaretz that five of them might serve from 16 to 28 years in prison due to secret or negligible offenses they are accused of committing after their release. This revolving door system is not only inhuman in itself, it also undermines the agreements Israel signed and will make future deals much harder to achieve.

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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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Israel's Livni faces rough road in peace push with Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Jeffrey Heller - (Analysis) February 20, 2013 - 1:00am

Tzipi Livni's coalition pact with right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu speaks volumes about the obstacles ahead for the moderate former Israeli foreign minister in her new task of pursuing peace with the Palestinians. Expectations of a new peacemaking initiative have been raised by a planned visit to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan next month by U.S. President Barack Obama, who has clashed with Netanyahu over the prime minister's policy of expanding settlements on occupied land Palestinians want for a state.

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Tzipi Livni 'won't be fig leaf' for Netanyahu if he doesn't want peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Ian Black - (Opinion) February 20, 2013 - 1:00am

Tzipi Livni's appointment as Israel's justice minister is a significant first step in Binyamin "Bibi" Netanyahu's laborious construction of a new coalition government. Giving her the additional role of chief negotiator with the Palestinians appears designed to indicate a readiness to re-engage in the moribund peace process.

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Israel's Dan Meridor on the future of the Likud Party
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - (Opinion) February 20, 2013 - 1:00am

Israel's conservative Likud Party may have dominated last month's national elections, but it faces a historic identity crisis that could affect its survival and ability to govern, says longtime Likud member Dan Meridor.

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The Case for Israeli Censorship
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Ben Caspit - (Opinion) February 19, 2013 - 1:00am

The affair of “Prisoner X,” otherwise known as Israeli Mossad agent Ben Zygier, raises anew the issue of censorship, freedom of speech and media coverage in Israel. Well, I am not the bearer of glad tidings.

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Outcry over Israel soldier's photo of boy in crosshairs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
February 19, 2013 - 1:00am

An Israeli soldier has provoked an outcry by publishing a photograph that appeared to show the back of a Palestinian boy's head seen through the crosshairs of a rifle. Israel's army said on Tuesday it would hold an investigation into the conduct of the soldier, who posted the picture on the online photo-sharing website Instagram. Israeli media identified the soldier as a 20-year-old conscript serving in the occupied West Bank.

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Israeli leader brings dovish rival into coalition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Associated Press
by Josef Federman - February 19, 2013 - 1:00am

 

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Israel Releases Part of Report on Prisoner X’s Death
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Jodi Rudoren - February 19, 2013 - 1:00am

 

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Vain hope springs eternal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Moshe Arens - (Opinion) February 19, 2013 - 1:00am

"Hope springs eternal," wrote Alexander Pope, in "An Essay on Man." And so it is with Israel's hope for peace with the Palestinians. After every disappointment, hope rises again. When Yasser Arafat seemingly renounced terrorism at a press conference in Geneva in December 1988, we wanted to believe him. We signed the Oslo Accords in 1993, brought him and his minions from Tunis to Gaza and Ramallah - only to find that he had by no means abandoned terrorism.

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