Knesset passes bill granting tax benefits to settlement donations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Moran Azulay - May 21, 2012 - 12:00am

The Knesset plenum on Monday passed in second and third reading a bill to amend the Income Tax Act, by which those who donate to settlements will enjoy tax benefits.

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A PALESTINIAN VIEW: Israel's 'bunker government' 2012
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Mahdi Abdul Hadi - (Opinion) May 21, 2012 - 12:00am

Most recently, we have witnessed Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in four different spheres. Simultaneously, he was architect of the coalition deal with Israeli opposition party Kadima; negotiations (with Egypt) and the subsequent compromise ending the Palestinian prisoners' hunger strike; the response of "words and not deeds" to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' letter; and the continuation of military operations against Palestinians in Gaza and settlement expansion in the West Bank, including Jerusalem.

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AN ISRAELI VIEW: Prisoner of the unity government
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Yossi Beilin - (Opinion) May 21, 2012 - 12:00am

The recent expansion of the ruling coalition in Israel to 94 members of Knesset did not reflect an intention either to lead or to thwart a peace process. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu needed no reinforcements in order to maintain a policy that has succeeded very nicely thus far from his standpoint: refuse to freeze settlement construction, make frequent declarations regarding a vague readiness to contemplate "painful compromises" and a Palestinian state somewhere in the West Bank, and place the blame for the non-existence of a peace process on the Palestinian side.

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Stopping Them From ‘Tuning Out Israel’
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) May 20, 2012 - 12:00am

Just about wherever I go these days, or so it seems, I encounter 20-somethings who have tuned out of Israel. I know that there’s a difference between anecdotes and evidence, but when a series of uninvited anecdotes all point in the same direction — well, that’s a lot of smoke, and it makes sense to look for the fire.

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Chilling effect of the Nakba Law on Israel's human rights
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Roni Schocken - (Opinion) May 17, 2012 - 12:00am

By rejecting the petition calling for the repeal of the Nakba Law in January of this year, the High Court of Justice ignored the violation of human rights inherent in the danger that institutions may now preemptively refuse to fund activities that involve the exercise of free speech, for fear of financial sanctions.

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Israel Must Recognize Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Bernard Avishai - (Opinion) May 17, 2012 - 12:00am

The Israeli judiciary today reaffirmed that Israel is the only country on earth that does not recognize itself. 

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Israel's right-wing wants to maintain the occupation status-quo
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by David Landau - (Opinion) May 17, 2012 - 12:00am

A civilized, serious debate about Israel held on New York's Upper West Side this week understandably aroused correspondent Chemi Shalev's wistful jealousy.

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Coalition of the Unwilling
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Shmuel Rosner - (Blog) May 17, 2012 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON — Hopes for the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians rekindled last week with the creation of a broad and more centrist governing coalition in Israel. The leaders of the Likud and Kadima parties declared that they would work to “advance a responsible peace process.” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel that she welcomed the commitment.

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Israel's Interior Minister: All African migrants should be jailed
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
May 16, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel's Interior Minister Eli Yishai said on Wednesday that most of the migrants from Africa are engaged in criminal actions and should be placed in detention facilities. Yishai said that Israel is willing to provide financial assistance for migrants to leave. In an interview with Army Radio, Yishai differentiated between refugees and asylum seekers, saying that "whoever is considered a refugee, and there are few, can stay. One cannot forsake the security of Israelis."

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A tale of two Zionists: Ze'ev Jabotinsky, David Ben Gurion and the dramatic origins of Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Donald MacIntyre - (Opinion) May 16, 2012 - 12:00am

Two charismatic men born in Eastern Europe meet in 1934, first in a London hotel room and then in a Golders Green flat, to resolve their political differences in the shadow of the rise of Nazism. Within 15 years, one of them, who more than once interrupts the argument by reciting his own Hebrew translation of Edgar Allen Poe's darkly mysterious poem The Raven, will have died in exile.

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