U.S. Presses Israelis on Renewal of Freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Helene Cooper, Mark Landler - September 30, 2010 - 12:00am

The Obama administration is trying to cajole the Israeli government into a 60-day renewal of the freeze on Jewish settlement building by offering it security guarantees, ranging from military hardware to support for a long-term Israeli presence in the strategically sensitive Jordan Valley, according to lawmakers and other officials briefed on the proposals.

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Rachel Corrie, an Israeli bulldozer, and our shared global fate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Courtney E. Martin - (Opinion) September 30, 2010 - 12:00am

Last month, several state witnesses took the stand in a Haifa District Court to testify in the civil law suit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the state of Israel. Many may still recall the disturbing photographs that wallpapered the world’s media outlets of Ms. Corrie, a 23-year-old activist from Walla, Walla, Washington, being crushed under a military bulldozer while trying to defend a Palestinian home in Rafah, Gaza under threat of demolition.

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David Grossman, a Man Who Owns Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

In his remarkable recent New Yorker profile of the Israeli writer David Grossman, George Packer observes that the heroine of Grossman’s new novel “embraces the breadth of Israel’s tragedy, a country that can take nothing for granted, not even its own existence.” (The novel, “To the End of the Land,” is newly available in English.) Yet Packer’s lengthy article, though tinged with tragedy to be sure, is colored as well by resolve, even triumph. For the Grossman he portrays is a steadfast Israeli patriot, a man who owns Israel.

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Lieberman is making a liar out of Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Aluf Benn - (Opinion) September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel showed the international community on Tuesday that the country is ruled by a circus, not a responsible government with a policy. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the representatives of the world's nations from the UN podium that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is spreading illusions and silly talk about peace. There is no chance for a permanent settlement for a generation, Lieberman said, and it is necessary to "exchange" populated areas and adjust the state to its correct size.

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Confessions of an Israeli anti-settler bigot
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Bradley Burston - (Blog) September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

I needed to hear it. Even though I knew that when I did, I'd be livid. The freeze still had eight hours to run, but in a small settlement outside the shinbone-in-the-throat settler city of Ariel, it was time to humiliate the president of the United States. I needed to hear it. I turned up the car radio. A drainage ditch of a voice. "From this stage I turn to Hussein Obama and tell him, 'The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel.'"

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Ministers: Lieberman causing Israel damage
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's speech before the UN, which was in stark contradiction with the official position of Israel's government, has set Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on edge, prompting them to shake all connection with his statements. They were not the only ones. Minister Isaac Herzog went so far as to say that the peace process may even alter the coalition's makeup, adding that he hopes "this happens as soon as possible."

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Lieberman's speech / Petty politics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yossi Verter - (Opinion) September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama told the UN General Assembly that "petty politics" must not be allowed to get in the way of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Five days later, Israel's foreign minister addressed the same forum and showed everyone whom Obama was talking about. Petty politics is Israel's specialty.

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The unorthodox Israeli settlement leader - who isn't even a settler
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

It's no surprise that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision not to extend the Israeli settlement freeze this week was due in large part to pressure from settlers. But the man some credit as the driving force behind Mr. Netanyahu's controversial move is not the stereotypical settler. In fact, Naftali Bennett – director general of the umbrella settler leadership group, the Yesha Council – is not even a settler at all.

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Israeli principal summoned over history textbook that adds Palestinian view
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Catrina Stewart - September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel’s Education Ministry is locked in a row with a liberal high school over its use of a history textbook that gives both the Israeli and Palestinian versions of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The ministry has summoned the principal of Shaar Hanegev high school in southern Israel for “consultations” over the decision to continue using the textbook, which has been banned from the national school curriculum. Critics denounced the move as a regressive step by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-leaning government to assert the Israeli narrative over the Palestinian one.

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U.S. Jews outraged by Lieberman's UN speech on population exchange
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid, Shlomo Shamir - (Analysis) September 29, 2010 - 12:00am

Many American Jewish leaders fumed Wednesday when Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman proposed "an exchange of populated territory" as part of a Mideast peace deal in a speech before the UN General Assembly in New York. Lieberman suggested ceding parts of Israel with large Arab populations to a future Palestinian state in exchange for Israel keeping large settlement blocs in the West Bank, a proposal which has been part of his party's platform.

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