Israel's strategy to seize Jerusalem on display for all to see
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Joseph Dana - (Opinion) April 25, 2012 - 12:00am

By now, news of Palestinian being evicted from their homes in East Jerusalem is routine. Last week, two more Palestinian families were thrown into the street to make way for Jewish settlers in the neighbourhood of Beit Hanina. The mechanism of land confiscation in East Jerusalem and the West Bank has become a near science for Israeli authorities, ensuring that the exact borders of Israel remain unclear and constantly shifting.

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Was Egypt’s Decision to Shut Down Gas Pipe to Israel Politics or Business?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Bradley Hope, Hugh Naylor - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

CAIRO / JERUSALEM // The Egyptian government's abrupt announcement on Sunday that it was ending its natural gas supply to Israel has left many analysts and businessmen wondering whether the decision was politics or business. Government officials on both sides tried to play down the decision yesterday, pointing to violations of contracts on either side of East Mediterranean Gas Company, the intermediary that manages the Egypt-Israel pipeline.

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Israel legalizes West Bank settler outposts
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Amy Teibel - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel legalized three unsanctioned West Bank settler outposts and was trying to save another on Tuesday, infuriating the Palestinians as the chief American Mideast envoy was in the region laboring to revive peace efforts. The decision fueled suspicions that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hardline coalition would try to legalize as many rogue settlement sites as possible to cement Israel's hold on occupied land the Palestinians claim for a state.

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Netayahu Iran Policies Rejected By Increasing Numbers in Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Al-Monitor
by Meir Javendanfar - (Opinion) April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

After winning the Kadima primaries on March 27, Shaul Mofaz gave his first television interview as head of the party. He immediately started attacking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, especially his policies and statements regarding Iran. “[Netanyahu] wants to create an image that he is the protector of Israel,” stated the Iranian-born Mofaz. He then went on to describe Netanyahu’s Iran policy as not just "spin," but worse. Mofaz warned against an early attack on Iran, which he said could be “disastrous” and bring “limited results” in terms of curbing Iran’s nuclear program.

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Israel must keep gas dispute with Egypt apolitical
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

The suspension (or cancellation) of Egypt's natural gas agreement with Israel has prompted extensive fear about bilateral relations, to the point that some see it as the first step toward scrapping the Camp David Accords.

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Bill seeking to bypass Supreme Court aims to end democracy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Sefi Rachlevsky - (Opinion) April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

If you spent time as a child in a crowded chicken coop, you will have had difficulty forgetting the scene. When one of the hens is injured, her "sister" hens immediately begin forming a cloud overhead. The entire coop is engulfed in a whirlwind of dust. Within half a minute, all that is left of the injured hen is the dust of its bones. A few seconds later, it is business as usual in the coop. (In nature, where chickens are not locked up, there are no scenes like that.)

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The Crisis of Zionism
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Paul Krugman - (Blog) April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

Something I’ve been meaning to do — and still don’t have the time to do properly — is say something about Peter Beinart’s brave book The Crisis of Zionism.

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Israeli Opposition Chief Fears Binational State
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Dan Perry - April 24, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel's new parliamentary opposition leader said Tuesday that the Jewish state faces the danger of being replaced by a binational Jewish-Arab entity if it fails to separate itself from the Palestinians. Former military chief Shaul Mofaz won leadership of the centrist Kadima Party last month. "The threat of us losing the Jewish majority and Israel becoming a binational state is the biggest threat to Israel, and time is working against us," he told Israel Radio. "The threat of a binational state that we are bequeathing to our children really keeps me awake at night."

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Termination of Israeli-Egyptian natural gas agreement serves dangerous precedent
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

Mohamed Shoeb, head of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company, announced Sunday evening that the company will terminate its agreement to provide natural gas to Israel, after a decision had been made on Thursday due to what he termed “Israel’s repeated breaching of the agreement.” Shoeb, in interview on Al-Hayat television, stressed that the termination of the deal was due to failure on the part of the Israeli side to transfer the payments owed by Israel for some months and “had nothing to do with the repeated attacks on the pipeline.”

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The failings of Israel's mainstream
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bitterlemons
by Ghassan Khatib - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

The election of Shaul Mofaz, former Israeli minister of defense, as head of Israel's Kadima party is not surprising news, at least for Palestinians. Polls continue to show right-wing trends in Israeli public opinion, and despite differences between Mofaz and the Israeli mainstream, there remains a rift between his politics and the international consensus over the basic requirements of a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

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