Will Yair Lapid divide Jerusalem?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - (Opinion) January 28, 2013 - 1:00am

Throughout his election campaign Yair Lapid insisted on his adamant opposition to the partition of Jerusalem under any future peace agreement with the Palestinians. Back in February 2012, when he first began communicating with potential voters, he declared that Jerusalem "belongs to the people of Israel and no one else." Months later, giving a campaign speech in the West Bank city of Ariel in October 2012, he underlined the message:

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Yair Lapid Should Call Abu Mazen
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Shlomi Eldar - (Opinion) January 28, 2013 - 1:00am

Below is the transcript of a phone call that has not yet taken place: “Hello?” “Hello Mr. Lapid, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas speaking.” “Who?” “Mahmoud Abbas, Abu Mazen.” “Ah-ha, shalom.” “Apropos of peace, do you feel like dropping by me for coffee? I am here in Ramallah, a 50-minute ride from Tel Aviv.” “Give me a minute to check …”

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Encountering Peace: Good governments make peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) January 28, 2013 - 1:00am

The most important thing any government can provide for its people is peace. Peace is the precondition for everything else. Economic growth, welfare for those in need, good education for all, culture, infrastructure, opportunity and hope are all attainable, if there is peace. Israel is the land of promise, the land of great potential. Amazing things have been achieved here over the past 65 years under very difficult circumstances. The major promise that has not been fulfilled is peace.

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Jerusalem soccer fans' racism is a microcosm of Israel 2013
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Elad Lipshitz - (Opinion) January 28, 2013 - 1:00am

The logic of Beitar Jerusalem is a reflection on Israel 2013. If Yair Lapid doesn’t count Balad MK Hanin Zuabi, then a Muslim cannot play on the capital’s soccer team. Some people in the eastern stands at Teddy Stadium are convinced that Muslims are born different and even develop differently in their mothers’ wombs. And we’re not talking about a few people - there are many of them, apparently thousands.

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Israeli soccer club's fans object to adding Muslim players
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ori Lewis - January 27, 2013 - 1:00am

JERUSALEM, Jan 27 (Reuters) - An Israeli soccer club notorious for the anti-Arab chants of its fans plans to recruit two Muslim players, fuelling protests in the stands that a senior cabinet minister condemned as shocking and racist. At a Premier League game on Saturday, Beitar Jerusalem supporters held a banner reading "Beitar will always remain pure". Other signs hoisted by fans also protested against its owner's intention to have two Muslim Chechen players join.

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Israel gave birth control to Ethiopian Jews without their consent
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Faisal J. Abbas - January 27, 2013 - 1:00am

Israel has admitted for the first time that it has been giving Ethiopian Jewish immigrants birth-control injections, often without their knowledge or consent.

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Abbas waiting for Yair
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Smadar Peri - (Opinion) January 27, 2013 - 1:00am

The easiest thing to do is to recite "Abbas is not a partner" and talk about his interview over the weekend with a restless Lebanese interviewer who did all he could to get an anti-Israel headline out of the Palestinian leader.

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A shift to Israel’s center? Think again
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Rami Khouri - (Opinion) January 26, 2013 - 1:00am

All that can be said with certainty now about the Israeli election results is that the deck of political cards in the Knesset has been dramatically reshuffled: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition with Avigdor Lieberman won 31 seats (much less than expected, and down from the 41 seats it held before) and remains the single largest group; the extreme right Bayit Yehudi party of Naftali Bennett took 11 seats; and Yair Lapid’s new Yesh Atid party made the biggest splash with its 19 seats (m

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Israel Closes Its Eyes
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Hayat
by Elias Harfoush - (Opinion) January 25, 2013 - 1:00am

"Live in Israel as if you are living in Europe or the United States." This was the slogan that Yair Lapid used to lure Israeli voters, leading him to second place in the country's recent elections, becoming the kingmaker who will determine the rules of the game in Israel in the coming future.

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Hezbollah Satisfied With Israeli Election Results
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Nasser Chararah - (Opinion) January 25, 2013 - 1:00am

Hezbollah has several departments that specialize in monitoring events in Israel. They monitor everything that happens in Israel, then analyze that information by cross-checking it with privately-collected information. Inside these departments is a unit whose roots in monitoring Israeli events go back the 1975-1981 era, when the Palestinian Fatah movement was a state within a state and had its various institutions stationed in Lebanon.

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