Israeli Luminaries Press for a Palestinian State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - April 19, 2011 - 12:00am

Dozens of Israel’s most honored intellectuals and artists have signed a declaration endorsing a Palestinian state on the basis of the 1967 borders and asserting that an end to Israel’s occupation “will liberate the two peoples and open the way to a lasting peace.”

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Israeli politicians should think before they speak
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) April 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Isaac Herzog has rich intelligence experience. He was an officer in the intelligence-gathering department of Military Intelligence, and his father, Chaim Herzog, was in British intelligence and twice headed the Intelligence Corps in the Israel Defense Forces. Who more than Isaac Herzog could be expected to have internalized the hoary axiom of field security that once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be called back?

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The voice of Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - April 18, 2011 - 12:00am

On January 11, at Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s annual new year press conference with the foreign media in Jerusalem, Oren Helman was introduced to the foreign press corps as the Government Press Office’s new head, taking over from Danny Seaman, who had a rather torrid 10-year relationship with the foreign press. In what seemed an effort to turn over a whole new leaf with the reporters, Helman told the journalists gathered that the GPO was there to serve them. The journalists, he said, were the GPO’s clients.

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Netanyahu choice: Cabinet stability or Israel's interests
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amir Oren - (Opinion) April 18, 2011 - 12:00am

Who was chiefly responsible for the fact that Israel was surprised by the Egyptian and Syrian attacks on Yom Kippur in 1973? Many say that it was the Intelligence branch of the Israel Defense Forces - and in particular, the head of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Eli Zeira. The chief of staff during that war, David Elazar, also pointed an accusatory finger upward, to then defense minister Moshe Dayan, while Dayan placed almost all the blame on the lower echelon, leaving it with Zeira. Dayan deflected a little of the excess criticism in the direction of the prime minister, Golda Meir.

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No one is really interested
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Alpher - (Opinion) April 18, 2011 - 12:00am

The question why there is no peace progress offers a good opportunity to review the obstacles to peace that have emerged in the course of the past two and a half years. During that time, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama took office, and the Olmert-Abbas peace talks ended in failure.

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Thoughts on academic freedom at Pessah
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Newman - (Opinion) April 17, 2011 - 12:00am

Our festivals can be treated in many ways. Some ignore them altogether. Others are content with the rituals, the food and the family gatherings. And for others, it is a time for contemplation, trying to insert contemporary significance into events that happened thousands of years ago. Pessah is when we contemplate the meaning of freedom. All too often it is physical freedom we think about. We read the story of the Jewish people’s liberation from Egyptian slavery and the transformation into an independent and free nation.

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Likud's right gears up to fight 'Bar Ilan 2' speech
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Rebecca Anna Stoil - April 17, 2011 - 12:00am

The Likud’s right wing geared up for a fight before the Pessah holiday, with MK Danny Danon requesting a special faction meeting before Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s anticipated trip to the US next month. Danon expressed concern Sunday that “instead of hearing from the prime minister what he intends to tell the Americans from him, we’ll end up hearing it first on C-Span, the congressional television channel.” Netanyahu is expected to address Congress on May 24, in what some are already dubbing “Bar-Ilan II.”

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Hamas Says It Found Body of Italian Activist
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Fares Akram - April 15, 2011 - 12:00am

An Italian activist found dead here early Friday was strangled with a plastic cord, apparently by abductors from a radical Islamic organization inspired by Al Qaeda that said it had kidnapped him a day earlier, according to a physician who performed an autopsy. Vittorio Arrigoni taking part in March in a protest against gainst an Israeli decision to tighten the border area in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza strip.

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Lieberman must not wait to resign
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) April 15, 2011 - 12:00am

Yehuda Weinstein was chosen as attorney general thanks to his varied experience, including some as a prosecutor in the 1970s and much as a defense attorney for public figures. Weinstein indeed brought to his lofty position, and few are loftier, the viewpoint of the defense attorney. He may not be expected to sign indictments lightly.

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Goldstone’s regrets are too little, too late
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Ehud Olmert - (Opinion) April 15, 2011 - 12:00am

The judge cannot be released from his personal responsibility for a totally wrong and vicious description of what really happened in Gaza. His vague statement is a poor attempt to cleanse his conscience. Recent events in Gaza, where dozens of long-range missiles have been launched at our cities, hit innocent civilians and prevented our citizens from continuing with their routine activities, cannot be tolerated. The State of Israel cannot but take the necessary measures in order to bring this to an immediate end.

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