Knesset to hold reading of outpost bill
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Tovah Lazaroff - May 23, 2012 - 12:00am

The Knesset is poised to hold a preliminary reading of an outpost bill which would legalize many unauthorized West Bank Jewish homes in both outposts and settlements. Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, National Union Party leader Ya’acov Katz, who proposed the bill, and MK Zevulun Orlev (Habayit Hayehudi) met Tuesday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has opposed efforts to legislate the issue of unauthorized Jewish building in the West Bank.

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High Court: Arabs deserve tax breaks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Aviad Glickman - May 23, 2012 - 12:00am

Three Arab communities in northern Israel will be granted tax breaks by the State, similarly to Jewish communities in the same regions that are already entitled to the benefits, the High Court of Justice ruled Tuesday.

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Israeli physicians: African infiltrators "ticking illness bomb"
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
May 22, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, May 22 (Xinhua) -- African migrants residing in south Tel Aviv pose a severe health risk, warn senior Israeli physicians. Dozens of illegal migrants arrive each day at hospital emergency rooms in the greater Tel Aviv area, where they are diagnosed with tuberculosis, measles, chicken pox and other viral infections common in developing countries, the Yediot Aharonot daily reported on Tuesday.

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Power With Purpose
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Thomas L. Friedman - (Opinion) May 22, 2012 - 12:00am

Political power is always a double-edged sword. The more of it you amass, the more people expect you to use it to do big things, and, when you don’t, the more ineffectual you look. That’s the dilemma in which Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel finds himself. He avoided early elections by adding a new centrist coalition partner to his right-wing cabinet, giving him control of 96 of the 120 seats in Parliament. There are Arab dictators who didn’t have majorities that big after rigged elections.

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New Israeli unity government faces test on settlement issues
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Xinhua
by Adam Gonn, Yang Zhiwang - (Analysis) May 21, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Time is ticking down for the Israeli government to decide how it will deal with two court orders demanding that an outpost and a settlement neighborhood be demolished. The Supreme Court has ruled that the Migron outpost is to be cleared by Aug. 1 and that the Ulpana neighborhood of the Beit-El settlement is to be evacuated, since both were deemed illegal by the court.

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King Bibi the First
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
(Opinion) May 21, 2012 - 12:00am

Kings, an American journalist who recently returned from a tour of several Middle Eastern states told me. Kings, this is what survives in the Arab world. The republican regimes fall, one after another. Look at what happened in Tunisia, in Egypt, in Libya. Look at what’s happening in Syria. At the oil emirates. On the other hand, the royal regimes are hanging in there. In Saudi Arabia too. In Morocco, the king adapted himself to the new winds and is surviving. Even in Jordan. The present belongs to the kings.

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Court to announce Rachel Corrie verdict on Aug. 28
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
May 21, 2012 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- An Israeli court on August 28 will announce the verdict of a civil lawsuit against the State of Israel for the killing of Rachel Corrie, a foundation in her name said this week. The 23-year-old peace activist was killed on March 16, 2003 while nonviolently protesting the demolition of a Palestinian home in Gaza.

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Netanyahu: Israel could be overrun by African infiltrators
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Talia Nesher - May 21, 2012 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the "phenomenon of illegal infiltrators from Africa is extremely serious and threatens Israel's social fabric and national security. He made the comments at a cabinet meeting, adding that "if we don't stop the problem, 60,000 infiltrators are liable to become 600,000, and cause the negation of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state."

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Little change for Palestinians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) May 21, 2012 - 12:00am

The formation of a new Israeli government coalition that includes the Kadima party was a dramatic development in Israeli politics and took many politicians and observers by surprise. It was not, however, very exciting for Palestinians. Despite their increasingly difficult conditions, and despite their interest in any change that might revive the comatose peace process with Israel, Palestinians could not find any reason to feel hope after this shift.

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Israel’s Identity Still European
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'ariv
by Rubik Rosenthal - (Opinion) May 21, 2012 - 12:00am

Europe is in one of its most painful periods of turmoil since the end of the Cold War. The crisis is mostly economic and financial, but it also unearths complex questions about nationalism and identity, and about the intersection between Europe on one hand, and Asia and Africa on the other, under threat by the latter’s waves of migrants who will change its identity.

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