Mordechai Vanunu deserves freedom from Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Duncan Campbell - (Opinion) November 9, 2011 - 1:00am

Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli whistleblower who served 18 years in prison for revealing details of Israel's nuclear weapons programme, should find out whether or not he has been – as he hopes – stripped of his citizenship. As part of his bid to be allowed to leave Israel, he has applied to have his citizenship revoked as should, by law, happen to anyone convicted of treason, as he has been. He would then seek to be allowed finally to leave the country.

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How to Save Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Slate
by Gershom Gorenberg - (Opinion) November 9, 2011 - 1:00am

I write from an Israel with a divided soul. It is not only defined by its contradictions; it is at risk of being torn apart by them. It is a country with uncertain borders and a government that ignores its own laws. Its democratic ideals, much as they have helped shape its history, or on the verge of being remembered among the false political promises of 20th-century ideologies.

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Israeli lawmakers to debate "Jewish national homeland" bill
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Mu Xuequan - (Analysis) November 6, 2011 - 12:00am

A bill proposing defining Israel as the national homeland of Jewish people sparked heavy debate at the country's Knesset parliament on Sunday, drawing criticism from both left-of-center and Arab parties. The bill, if approved, would legally define Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, as well as bolstering current legislation that makes Hebrew the country's official language, while giving Arabic a "special status," the Yediot Aharonoth daily reported. Currently, both Hebrew and Arabic are official languages in Israel.

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An evening in New York with the enemies of the state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Chemi Shalev - (Opinion) November 6, 2011 - 12:00am

A few days before the start of the GA, I went down to a place called Times Center in midtown Manhattan, looking for people with horns. Not French horns, mind you, or bicycle horns, but more like rhinoceros’ horns, of the kind that is usually found attached to Naomi Chazan’s forehead.

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The state of Israel: Internal influence driving change
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Tim Franks - (Analysis) November 5, 2011 - 12:00am

The view, as our plane banked, was familiar: the sea, the sand, the skyscrapers of the Tel Aviv coastline. It was my first return to Israel since the end of my posting as Middle East correspondent, 18 months before. What I wanted to discover was how far that familiar picture had changed. After all, there was the same right-leaning government, the same absence of peace talks with the Palestinians. But all around, the region had transformed, as the winds of the Arab Spring had blown. Was Israel's apparent quiescence all that it seemed?

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Liberal, but still pro-Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Steven Cohen - (Opinion) November 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Ask yourself the following: 1 ) What group of American Jews lobbied for a UN resolution calling for a Palestinian state? 2 ) Shortly after the Six-Day War, which Israeli leader advised his country to relinquish control of the territories? 3 ) Which American president called for establishing a Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 boundaries? The answers: 1 ) U.S. Zionist leadership in 1947; 2 ) David Ben-Gurion; 3 ) every president since Lyndon Johnson.

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Israel: positive and negative ramifications
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Itamar Rabinovich - (Opinion) November 4, 2011 - 12:00am

The impact of the "Arab spring" on Israel has so far been mixed. Like other actors observing this series of events and being affected by it, Israel understands that this is just the beginning of a lengthy process whose repercussions for its interests will keep changing over time.

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Mideast Conflict as Zero-Sum Game
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by J.J. Goldberg - (Opinion) November 3, 2011 - 12:00am

Several readers have written in to protest my last column, which dissected conservative responses to the recent summons to Jewish unity issued by the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee. Reader complaints are nothing unusual, but this time some good points were raised that forced me to rethink. In the process I’ve come across some new information, which I’d like to share.

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Israel – Jewish state or state of the Jewish people?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Susan Hattis Rolef - (Opinion) November 1, 2011 - 12:00am

The winter session of the Knesset opened Monday. One of the items on the agenda is a bill initiated by MK Avi Dichter (Kadima) and cosigned by another 39 MKs, entitled “Basic Law: Israel – The National State of the Jewish People.”

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In Israel, Press Freedom Is Under Attack
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Dimi Reider - (Opinion) October 31, 2011 - 12:00am

ON Sunday, the Tel Aviv District Court sentenced Anat Kamm, a 24-year-old journalist and former soldier, to four and a half years in prison for leaking documents containing evidence of what she suspected might be war crimes committed by her commanders. Uri Blau, a prominent Israeli investigative reporter at Haaretz who received the documents from Ms. Kamm, is now waiting to hear whether the attorney general will indict him.

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