Jerusalem honors convicted spy Pollard on 9,000th day of incarceration
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
July 14, 2010 - 12:00am

The Jerusalem municipality will dim lights that illuminate the walls surrounding the old city on Tuesday evening, as a gesture of solidarity with convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, who has been incarcerated in the United States for almost a quarter-century. Pollard was arrested in 1986 as he tried to seek asylum in the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He was convicted of espionage for Israel and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Aspart of Tuesday's event, a special message calling upon U.S. President Barack Obama to release Pollard will be projected onto the darkened city walls.

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Israel considers restricting citizenship for some who convert to Judaism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Janine Zacharia - July 13, 2010 - 12:00am

An Israeli parliamentary committee on Monday advanced a bill that could lead to lack of recognition for conversions to Judaism performed by rabbis from the Reform and Conservative movements. The bill could give the chief rabbinate, the religious authority in Israel run by ultra-Orthodox Jews, the power to decide which conversions are accepted, overturning an Israeli Supreme Court decision that ensures eligibility for Israeli citizenship for Jews converted by rabbis from all branches of Judaism.

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The other Israeli conflict: with itself
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - July 12, 2010 - 12:00am

With side curls tucked under wire-rimmed glasses, Mordechai Kry­bus has become an ultra-Orthodox celebrity virtually overnight. Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the Emmanuel elementary school, which his daughter attends, practices de facto ethnic segregation by separating students along religious lines. Mr. Kyrbus and 35 other parents went to jail rather than comply with what they considered religious coercion by the secular court.

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What about Palestinian residents of Israel?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Ahmad Tibi - July 12, 2010 - 12:00am

In the 11 years that I have served in the Knesset, I have received numerous death threats. Pulsa Denura (the term for a rabbinical death curse) has evidently taken exception to my consistent call for equal rights for the country’s Palestinian minority. Recently I received a letter – the second in as many days – that warned: “You have 180 days to live. Your death will be sudden and cruel, accompanied by great pain...”

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The Palestinians' chance to win a moral victory
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Salman Masalha - July 12, 2010 - 12:00am

In an era of political correctness, there are those who think it appropriate to adjust the message to the audience to which it is directed. I don't agree. In my view, political correctness is a defilement - sweet talk that obscures blatant racism. There is a universal morality that transcends religions, peoples and nations, and is binding on anyone who belongs to the community of humankind.

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A society falling apart
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zeev Sternhell - (Opinion) July 9, 2010 - 12:00am

Among the regimes in the Western world, Israel stands out with certain characteristics that generally do not indicate a strong democratic system. Its parliament is paralyzed, the opposition is nonexistent, and contempt for the law is becoming more pronounced. This not only refers to the unrest caused by the ultra-Orthodox, but also to something much more dangerous, the unrest caused by the settlers.

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In Israel, the Noble vs. The Ugly
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Nicholas D. Kristof - (Opinion) July 8, 2010 - 12:00am

Israel goes out of its way to display its ugliest side to the world by tearing down Palestinian homes or allowing rapacious settlers to steal Palestinian land. Yet there’s also another Israel as well, one that I mightily admire. This is the democracy that tolerates a far greater range of opinions than America. It’s a citadel of civil society. And, crazily, it’s the place where some of the most courageous and effective voices on behalf of oppressed Palestinians belong to Israeli rabbis — like Arik Ascherman, the executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights.

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IDF probe into Gaza flotilla likely to be more critical than expected
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel - July 2, 2010 - 12:00am

The internal military probe into the Israel Defense Forces raid on the Turkish aid flotilla to Gaza headed by Gen. (res. ) Giora Eiland is expected to request more time than it was originally allotted to reach its conclusions. It appears that members of Eiland's staff are of the belief that the scope of the army's mishaps is more extensive than originally thought. The committee's findings are certainly expected to be more critical than the statements made by senior IDF officers immediately after the May 31 incident on the Mavi Marmara.

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Decision time for the PM
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
(Editorial) July 2, 2010 - 12:00am

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s three-hour-long meeting with reporters from the Hebrew press this week in Ramallah can be seen as an attempt – quite possibly with heavy US encouragement – to reach out to the Israeli public. There was nothing particularly new in what Abbas had to say.

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Israel willing to release 1,000 Palestinians in exchange for Shalit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
July 1, 2010 - 12:00am

Israeli government agrees to free some 1,000 Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons for the release of Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday evening. "That's the price I am willing to face to bring Shalit home," local news service Ynet quoted Netanyahu as saying in a speech, by which the premier presented domestic public the government's stance on the prisoners exchange negotiation with the Palestinian Hamas movement.

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