'State, Liberman likely moving on to plea bargain'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
April 22, 2012 - 12:00am

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and the prosecution are likely to formally open plea bargain negotiations in the near future, Israeli media sources indicated on Monday. Liberman is under investigation for charges of fraud, breach of trust, obtaining certain items or benefits through deceit, money-laundering and witness harassment. According to an earlier draft indictment, Liberman is suspected of receiving millions of dollars from private business people, through straw companies, between the years 2001 and 2008, while he was a member of Knesset and a cabinet minister.

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For Israel, Assad's Regime Lesser of Two Evils
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from An-Nahar
by Randa Haidar - (Opinion) April 20, 2012 - 12:00am

It seems that Israel would prefer that Bashar al-Assad’s regime survive rather than see Syria turn into another “failed state” like its neighbors Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. These states suffer from a weak central authority and the collapse of state institutions as a result of internal fighting, chaos and competition among armed groups over control of political life.

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Israel fights anarchy on all fronts, except in West Bank
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) April 20, 2012 - 12:00am

The prime minister, several cabinet members and senior IDF officers boasted this week of their victory over "anarchists" who wanted to disrupt law and order in the territories. Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner's proponents argued that the deputy commander of the Jordan Valley brigade, who smashed his rifle in the face of a Danish peace activist, was protecting his soldiers from a group of anarchists.

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Yair Lapid: Unlike Tzipi Livni, I'll join cabinet and fight for my beliefs
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Ophir Bar-Zohar - April 19, 2012 - 12:00am

Would-be politician and former news anchor Yair Lapid criticized Kadima for failing to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, saying on Wednesday that he his party would join a future cabinet in a bid to "fight for what he believes in." Lapid's comments, coming during a speech to students in Sapir College, came after on Sunday he announced that his new political party will be called Atid, which means "future," adding that he has yet to tell the public whose faces - other than his own – will man the party.

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Israel has been taken over by a deep, horrifying apathy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) April 19, 2012 - 12:00am

The incident Yaniv Kubovich reported in Monday's Haaretz is deeply troubling. At high noon, in front of dozens of people, a group of men had sexual intercourse with a half-naked young woman on a Tel Aviv beach for several hours. Not all the circumstances of the peculiar occurence are clear yet and the conduct of the Tel Aviv police - who were very late in arriving at the beach and claimed at first that "no event had taken place" - is inexplicable to say the least.

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Neeman’s Own
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from International Herald Tribune
by Shmuel Rosner - (Blog) April 19, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — About two weeks ago, on the eve of Passover, Israel’s Justice Minister, Yaakov Neeman, dropped a policy bomb. He proposed a bill that would allow a small majority of legislators in the Knesset to reinstate laws struck down by the Supreme Court.

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Postscript: A shroud of shame
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Hirsh Goodman - (Opinion) April 19, 2012 - 12:00am

Lt.-Col. Shalom Eisner, a senior officer in the Central Command, takes his rifle butt and bashes it into the face of a young Danish pro-Palestinian protester on a bicycle near Jericho. Instead of flatly condemning the officer, this paper, among others, has tried to justify his actions both editorially and by publishing op-ed pieces and letters in his defense.

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Iraqi Kurds Cool Ties to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - April 18, 2012 - 12:00am

Washington — A decades-long relationship between Israel and Iraq’s Kurds, maintained mainly in the shadows, faces new challenges as the two sides are split over the growing nuclear threat posed by Iran. Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish Region Government, visited Washington recently. Notably, he did not meet with Jewish officials, nor did he touch on issues relating to Israel. Ties between the Iraqi Kurds and Israel have cooled as Israel pushes for support in its fight against Iran over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.

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World nations should issue a travel warning to Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) April 18, 2012 - 12:00am

The skilled attack by Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner on a blond Danish peace activist in a kaffiyeh was spectacular. The senior officer's two agitated arms grasped the M-16 rifle as if it was an indivisible part of his body, and with an instinctive movement that might be expected from someone whose life was being threatened, landed it in the face of the person who dared to look him in the eye.

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Israeli Officer Who Struck Protester Is Dismissed
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - April 18, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — The Israeli military announced on Wednesday that a senior officer caught on videotape striking a Danish pro-Palestinian activist in the face with an M-16 rifle during a standoff in the West Bank was to be dismissed from his post “on moral grounds.” In addition, the officer, Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner, will not receive a planned promotion to serve as the deputy commander of the military’s prestigious officer school, and will not be eligible to serve in a commanding position for the next two years, the military said in a statement.

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