One law, for Palestinian and Jewish terrorists alike
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
October 26, 2010 - 12:00am

The start of the annual olive harvest has been the signal for an onslaught of violence against Palestinian farmers by groups of settler thugs in recent years. Over the last few days, human rights activists - who, as they do every year, have mobilized to protect the harvesters and deter the criminals - have reported countless incidents: torched groves, chopped-down trees, stolen olives, vandalized tools and even physical attacks on farmers.

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Israel's proposed loyalty oath raises new question: What, exactly, is a Jewish state?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
October 26, 2010 - 12:00am

If Israel had Words of the Month, October’s would be “Jewish,” as in “a Jewish and democratic state,” or medina yehudit ve’demokratit, in Hebrew. This is what — if a controversial cabinet decision is adopted as law by the Knesset — anyone becoming an Israeli citizen will have to swear loyalty to.

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A 'Jewish and democratic' state
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Gwynne Dyer - (Opinion) October 25, 2010 - 12:00am

"With this law Israel buys an exit ticket from the family of nations," wrote Israeli journalist Nahum Barnea last week in the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. “The proposed loyalty law... is really racist. It obliges non-Jews to declare that they would be loyal to the Jewish state but exempts Jews from this obligation.” But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed new law is not racist, just shortsighted and nasty.

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Talking Peace and the Diaspora, do Jews outside of Israel have a role?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Dina Kraft - October 25, 2010 - 12:00am

Cloistered away in a snug meeting room with stone-faced walls and arched doorways across from Jerusalem's Old City, some of the most important Jewish communal leaders in the world came together recently to wrestle with a question: Is there a role for the Diaspora in Israel's decision making on peace? The answer: Yes and no.

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Some Question Insistence on Israel as Jewish State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - (Analysis) October 24, 2010 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — The more stridently Israel insists on Palestinian recognition of it as the nation-state of the Jewish people, the more adamantly the Palestinian leadership seems to refuse. As a result, some senior Israeli officials are beginning to question the wisdom of the policy of their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has made recognition of the legitimacy of the Jewish nation-state a prerequisite for any final agreement with the Palestinians.

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Halt to Palestinian peace talks could become permanent
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Glenn Kessler, Janine Zacharia - October 23, 2010 - 12:00am

In perhaps the shortest round of peace negotiations in the history of their conflict, talks between the Israelis and Palestinians have ground to a halt and show little sign of resuming.

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Netanyahu: Kadima isn't joining the coalition
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
October 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he does not have plans to widen the coalition, in a statement released overnight Thursday, Army Radio reported. The prime minister met with opposition leader Tzipi Livni last week, and phoned her days later, fueling rumors that the two are negotiating terms for Kadima's addition to the coalition. However, Netanyahu has reportedly denied this assertion. According to Army Radio, Netanyahu said he called Livni because their meeting was cut short by an urgent situation. He added that he meets with Livni every three weeks.

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'If Rabin were alive, we would have peace'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Yitzhak Benhorin - October 22, 2010 - 12:00am

Aaron David Miller, who served as an advisor on Mideast peace to six US secretaries of state in the 1990s, worked extensively with slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Now, on the 15th anniversary of his assassination, Miller says he believes Rabin could have changed history if he had been allowed to live.

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Moves to free convicted spy Pollard pick up in U.S. and Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Vita Bekker - October 21, 2010 - 12:00am

As convicted spy Jonathan Pollard approaches 25 years behind bars, Israelis and others are renewing efforts to secure freedom for the former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst, who is serving a life sentence for relaying military documents to Israel. Pollard's case has been a source of constant friction between Israel and the United States, its staunchest ally. Israeli leaders have failed to persuade Washington to release the 56-year-old American Jew, whom Israelis and some U.S. officials say was given an unduly long sentence for spying for a friendly government.

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The Other Citizens of Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ahmad Tibi - (Opinion) October 21, 2010 - 12:00am

Is there no limit to what the American government will accept from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his hard-line foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman? With Netanyahu’s backing, the Israeli cabinet voted in support of Lieberman’s loyalty oath for non-Jewish immigrants, which requires allegiance to a “Jewish and democratic state” of Israel. It was as if Mexican immigrants to the United States would have to swear allegiance to a United States that is white and Protestant, while immigrants from Europe would face no such oath.

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