When Michael Oren irked Bob Simon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Natasha Mozgovaya - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli Knesset members and diplomats have a long-term grudge against the CBS flagship program, "60 Minutes", over several critical reports that deal with the issues of Jewish settlements, the City of David and the Stuxnet computer worm. But Suday's segment of the program, dedicated to the exodus of the Palestinian Christians from cities like Bethlehem and Jerusalem, seemed to bring about record tensions.

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OutFront exclusive: Erin Burnett interviews Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Erin Burnett - (Interview) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

In an exclusive interview Tuesday night on CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront, Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu sat down with Erin Burnett to talk about Israel, the United States and the threat of terror around the world. Netanyahu insisted on Monday that Egypt's decision to cancel a natural gas deal with Israel did not indicate any sort of diplomatic tensions between the two countries, but rather a business disagreement between companies.

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Israel to seek deferral of settler evictions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday he would ask Israel's Supreme Court to defer next week's deadline for demolishing five apartment buildings erected illegally for settlers in the West Bank. The court has ruled that the buildings, which house 30 families in the unauthorized Ulpana outpost on the fringes of the Beit El settlement, must be razed by May 1 because they were built on privately owned Palestinian land. Netanyahu said his government is looking for "legal" ways to prevent the buildings from being demolished.

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Israel has options to overcome loss of Egyptian gas
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Ari Rabinovitch - April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM, April 23 (Reuters) - Israel's energy sector will be hurt in the short term by Egypt's decision to stop selling it natural gas, but the country has been weaning itself off the once-crucial supplies and has a number of contingency plans that will lessen the impact. Sunday's announcement that Egyptian state-owned oil and gas companies would stop the gas sales, which were part of a 20-year deal, was the dramatic conclusion to a year of sabotage and pipeline attacks that had already disrupted supplies.

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Israel punishes Palestinian hunger-strikers
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Jihan Abdalla - April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 23 (Reuters) - Israel has taken measures against some 1,200 Palestinian prisoners on a hunger strike, denying them family visits and separating them from inmates not taking part in the protest, prison authorities said on Monday. The open-ended strike, dubbed the "battle of empty stomachs" by organisers, began last Tuesday. The prisoners are demanding better jail conditions and for Israel to end detention without trial for Palestinians suspected of security offences.

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Israel bans a textbook promoting Arab rights as 'unbalanced'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ben Lynfield - April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

The right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has banned a high school civics textbook as "unbalanced," a move critics say is part of a broader bid to shift Israel's values in a direction that is more nationalistic and less democratic. Officials cited factual errors in the book as the main factor in the decision. But liberal educators say the errors could easily be corrected and that the larger issue is a national struggle to define Israel's identity.

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The sunshine over the horizon
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Gershon Baskin - (Opinion) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

The unilateral Egyptian decision to cancel the gas deal with Israel is another sad benchmark in the deterioration of relations between Israel and its neighbors. This cancelation is a clear violation of the agreement between the two countries, which beyond its economic importance to both sides is a blow to status of the peace between Israel and Egypt.

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Netanyahu downplays Egyptian natural gas cutoff
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in his first comments about the cutoff of Egyptian gas to Israel, played it down Monday, saying it was the result of a commercial dispute. "We don't see this gas cutoff as something that is born out of political developments," he told a group of Israel Bonds leaders on Monday. "This is actually a business dispute between the Israeli company and the Egyptian company."

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Israeli Foreign Minister: I Worry More About Egypt Than Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'ariv
by Ben Caspit - (Analysis) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel is worried that the Egyptian revolution may turn against Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman sent a warning document to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, recommending that three or four special divisions be designated to protect the southern border with Egypt. In his view, the situation in Egypt is worsening and may create pressure on the leadership to unite the nation around an external enemy — Israel.

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The Israeli government's badge of shame
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) April 23, 2012 - 12:00am

The behavior of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and most of his ministers with regard to Beit El's Givat Ha'ulpana neighborhood recalls that of a career criminal who is undaunted by condemnation or punishment.

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