Coalition rhetoric heats up as W. Bank freeze nears end
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Rebecca Anna Stoil - August 24, 2010 - 12:00am

A month before the end of the West Bank new-construction moratorium and on the eve of direct peace talks in Washington, tensions rose Monday among government ministers regarding building in settlements on the day that the freeze expires. “Building will continue as usual, as normal,” promised National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau (Israel Beiteinu) during a midday interview on Radio Kol Chai. “Everyone will build as he wants to and needs to.”

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Israel diplomats' strike threatens PM's Washington trip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - August 24, 2010 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks set to face serious obstacles as he travels to Washington for a high-profile peace summit – but this time it is his own diplomats, not the Palestinians, who are causing him strife. On Tuesday the foreign ministry's workers' committee sent a telegram to Israel's Washington embassy, instructing staff there not to assist the prime minister during his visit. At a meeting early Tuesday, the committee decided to ramp up labor sanctions it imposed a few weeks ago to demand more pay.

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Likud hawks convene against freeze
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Atilla Somfalvi - August 24, 2010 - 12:00am

With the Washington peace summit a mere week away, Likud members who are right off the party's political line are gearing for several protests meant to ensure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows his party will not abide the continuous suspension of settlement activity. Members of the Likud's "right wing" have decided to hold a protest rally while Netanyahu is in Washington. Several senior Likud and Knesset members are expected to take part in it.

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Ex-soldier in Facebook scandal would 'gladly kill Arabs'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
August 20, 2010 - 12:00am

The ex-soldier criticized for uploading photos of herself on Facebook posing with Palestinian detainees wrote that she would "gladly kill Arabs – even butcher them" the Israeli press said Thursday. Eden Abergil attracted attention when photographs depicting her smiling in front of blindfolded, handcuffed Palestinians, in an album titled "IDF - Best years of my life" were publicized on a blog, and later in international media.

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New Israel Fund Considering Red Lines
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

The New Israel Fund, the target of attacks by right-wing organizations accusing it of supporting anti-Zionist groups, is discussing the possibility of specifying in its guidelines that grants will be given only to groups that accept the idea of Israel as a Jewish homeland. The discussions have been taking place in recent months in Israel and in the United States, where NIF’s headquarters are located and most of the group’s donors reside.

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Israel, muscular and a perpetual victim
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

The capacity of Zionism and the leaders of Israel to be both heroic to the Jewish people and compulsive liars to the rest of the world is one of the great tragedies of our time – and it is on display again these days in the ongoing media campaign to prepare American public opinion for a possible Israeli military strike against Iran.

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One Solution: Two States
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Lara Friedman - August 18, 2010 - 12:00am

The steady march of settlements, the rightward shift in Israeli politics, the growing sense that a conflict-ending peace agreement is impossible — all these things are feeding some pundits’ impulse to declare the death of the two-state solution as a means of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But what are the alternatives?

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Mass support rally planned for defiant rabbis
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Akiva Novick - August 15, 2010 - 12:00am

The summoning of Rabbis Dov Lior and Yaakov Yosef for police questioning stirred outrage among the religious and haredi public, and now the Religious Zionist Movement plans to hold a large gathering in support of the two, with the attendance of hundreds of rabbis. Last week the two rabbis were summoned for questioning – but refused to appear – after endorsing Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira's controversial book, "Torat Hamelech", in which he presented a halachic perspective on the killing of gentiles, including women and children.

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Accountability unclear in Israeli probe of deadly Gaza flotilla raid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Joel Greenberg - August 11, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel's inquiry into a naval raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May has raised the question of who bears responsibility for the deadly outcome, which drew international condemnation and compelled Israel to ease its embargo of the Palestinian enclave. In the first two days of testimony before a government-appointed commission, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak made statements that appeared to shift a good part of the burden off their shoulders.

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Barak contradicts Netanyahu's testimony on flotilla
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Atilla Somfalvi - August 10, 2010 - 12:00am

Speaking before the Turkel Commission probing the raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla in May, Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Tuesday contradicted statement's made by the prime minister on Monday, who told the committee the seven-minister forum only discussed the media aspects of stopping the flotilla and did not address the operational aspects.

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