Israel protests show nation's beating heart
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Amos Oz - (Editorial) August 9, 2011 - 12:00am

Israel has never been an egalitarian state. But in its heyday, it was more egalitarian than most states in the world. The poverty wasn't acute and the wealth wasn't ostentatious, and social responsibility toward the poor and needy was shown not only on the economic level but on the emotional level too.

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Former Israeli diplomat sees waning image
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Edmund Sanders - August 8, 2011 - 12:00am

When Gabriela Shalev arrived at the United Nations in 2008 as Israel's first female ambassador, she was determined to launch a diplomatic offensive to improve her country's international standing. But the respected contract-law scholar says she ended up spending most of her tenure on the defense, coping with reactions to Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip, the subsequent Goldstone Commission's inquiry into allegations of war crimes and the high-seas raid of the protest ship Mavi Marmara, in which Israeli commandos killed nine pro-Palestinian activists.

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Israel's Arab citizens must join the social struggle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Oudeh Basharat - (Opinion) August 8, 2011 - 12:00am

In days gone by there were long lines of cars at the gas stations on the eve of a rise in prices. The late comedian Dudu Topaz ridiculed the Israeli citizen who "puts one over" on the state by stocking up before the price increase, opportunistic individualism was at its zenith, and people used elbows energetically to obtain yet one more cheap liter of fuel.

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Where do Palestnians figure in the Israeli cry for 'social justice'?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Mira Sucharov - (Blog) August 8, 2011 - 12:00am

With the four-week old Israeli cost-of-living tent protests swelling in intensity -- capped by 300,000 demonstrators taking to the streets on Saturday night - I am fascinated by the fact that the term “social justice” has become a household word. The official slogan of the demonstrations -- “The nation demands social justice!” (Ha’Am doresh tzedek chevrati!) - involves the headiest and most ethereal of concepts. But commentators have been rightly asking whether the use of the term “social justice” is deserved.

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'Knesset unlikely to see term's end'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
August 7, 2011 - 12:00am

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Sunday that it was highly unlikely the current Knesset would see the end of its term. "I believe that 2012 will be a year when a decision on the next elections is made," he told Knesset TV. "I don't think the (current) Knesset will see November 2013, because politics has a way of mandating crises, so that they can be reflected in the ballots."

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Israel puts pressure on human-rights organisations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Vita Bekker - August 7, 2011 - 12:00am

TEL AVIV // Just months after Israel ended its invasion of the Gaza Strip more than two years ago, life became more challenging for Sari Bashi and her human-rights group Gisha. Right-wing government officials, legislators and pressure groups, angered at charges by rights organisations that Israel had committed war crimes during the attack, launched a campaign to discredit groups such as Gisha, which uses legal aid to help loosen Israeli restrictions on Gaza Strip residents.

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In Israel, raft of new laws shows rise of the right
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - August 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Critics say Israel is forsaking its democratic ideals with a right-wing agenda. Avishai Amir, a former spokesman in the left-wing Labor government of the 1990s, begs to differ. Take the recent nakba law, for example, which bans public funding for groups that mark Israel's independence day as Palestinians do: by declaring the creation of the Jewish state to be a nakba, Arabic for "catastrophe."

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Boycott Ban
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from In These Times
by Cole Stangler - (Opinion) August 4, 2011 - 12:00am

On July 11, the Israeli Knesset passed a widely condemned law that bars public support for boycotting Israel and the occupied territories — in effect, making free speech a civil crime. Under the legislation, individuals and organizations that call for or engage in an economic, cultural, or academic boycott of individuals or groups because of their ties with Israel or the occupied territories can be sued in civil court and forced to pay damages.

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Israel’s guns, butter and colonies
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Michael Jansen - (Opinion) August 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Ongoing demonstrations in Israel are said to be the largest protests ever over social and economic issues. Criticism of the government began over the rising price of cottage cheese, a product on many Israelis’ breakfast table. Youths broadened their protest to encompass rising rents and the skyrocketing prices of food and set up Tahrir Square style camp-ins in Tel Aviv and other cities.

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In Israel, the Rent Is Too Damn High
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Dimi Reider and Aziz Abu Sarah - (Opinion) August 3, 2011 - 12:00am

THERE are profound and institutionalized economic disparities between Arabs and Jews in Israel. But when it comes to housing prices, an Israeli Arab who makes $1,000 a month and pays $500 in rent can still find common ground with an Israeli Jew making $2,000 and giving $1,000 to the landlord.

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