New man on Israeli scene
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Patrick Seale - (Opinion) April 13, 2012 - 12:00am

The emergence this month of Shaul Mofaz on the Israeli political scene as the new head of the centre-left Kadima party is a welcome development. It carries with it the promise — still only a faint one, however — that a reinvigorated and politically-successful Kadima could bring about a softening, even a reversal, of the expansionist, war-mongering policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nationalist, ultra-orthodox and right-wing Labour coalition partners.

»

The real Ben Gurion
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by George S. Hishmeh - (Opinion) April 12, 2012 - 12:00am

There is no doubt that David Ben Gurion, who was born in 1886 in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, has correctly been recognised everywhere as the founder of Israel, created in 1948 by a UN resolution. But the issue that has recently been uncovered, touching off a damaging charge, emanates from the just revealed hard-line advocacy of Ben Gurion more than 10 years earlier on how to establish a firm Zionist foothold in Palestine where the majority of the population were then Arabs.

»

With West Focused on Iran, Netanyahu Moves to Expand Israeli Settlements
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ben Lynfield - April 12, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is moving to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank at a time when international attention is focused elsewhere, with President Obama gearing up for reelection and the West targeting Iran's nuclear program. Last week, the Netanyahu government took a variety of steps that, taken together, amount to a significant strengthening of Israel's hold in the West Bank, the biblically resonant territory occupied in 1967, which Palestinians claim as the heartland for their future state.

»

Israel is paranoid about pro-Palestinian activists
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gideon Levy - (Opinion) April 12, 2012 - 12:00am

And with what shall we frighten the Israeli public in advance of the seventh day of Passover? How will we provide the dose of fear to which it has long since become addicted? After a week of a quiet and safe vacation, we have to find something, after all. The Iranian threat has entered a negotiations freeze, terror is quiet, even the Grad missiles have diminished in number, there is no mass plague on the horizon and even the circumstances of the attack against the Jew in Kiev have not become sufficiently clear.

»

Will Israel and Lebanon's new naval partnership last?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Allison Good - (Blog) April 12, 2012 - 12:00am

Although the Arab Spring hasn't won Israel many friends in the Middle East, Haaretz reported yesterday that its navy "recently strengthened its cooperation with the Lebanese Navy in the Mediterranean." The partnership, Israel hopes, will prevent provocations in the form of possible pro-Palestinian flotillas to Gaza on May 15, or Nakba Day, which commemorates "the displacement of Palestinians following the establishment of Israel in 1948, and on Naksa Day, which takes place in June and commemorates the displacement of Palestinians after the 1967 war."

»

Bethlehem Mayor to Israel: Allow our Friends to Visit
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The mayor of Bethlehem on Tuesday urged Israel not to humiliate hundreds of tourists invited to a week-long tour of Palestine. Some 25 Palestinian organizations have invited internationals to visit Palestine from April 15 - 21 and Mayor Victor Batarseh urged Israel to let them enter and not to humiliate them, at a news conference in Bethlehem. "We demand our international friends have access to Bethlehem," the mayor said. "It is our right to welcome visitors."

»

Daniel Pipes' attack on Israeli Arabs is baseless and inflammatory
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Carl Perkal - (Opinion) April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

Middle East expert Daniel Pipes was in Israel recently and subsequently published an article entitled “Israel’s Arabs, living a paradox” in the Washington Times. I don’t know Dr. Pipes personally, but I feel compelled to call him to task for his baseless and inflammatory attack on the Arab citizens of Israel. Pipes has written an aggressive and confused jumble of half-truths and misunderstandings about the Arabs citizens of Israel.

»

Israeli democracy without the High Court and B'Tselem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Zvi Barel - (Opinion) April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

This is how a democracy should look: If the people's elected representatives pass laws that contradict the country's constitution or its Basic Laws that they themselves legislated, the court has the authority to invalidate them. This is a power that the lawmakers themselves granted the High Court of Justice here, in order to protect citizens - in case the legislature fails to carry out its task properly, and decides to grab more power for itself than the public agreed to grant it.

»

Israel’s Defense Establishment: Overmanned?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Arieh O'Sullivan - (Analysis) April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel is one of just a few countries that subjects its women to mandatory draft and has a female major-general sitting on the army’s general staff. Until recently, the chief justice of the Supreme Court and the head of the parliamentary opposition were both women. From appearances, it would seem that women have a respectable role in Israeli establishment. But appearances can be misleading.

»

Israel expels 'Palestinian collaborator' back to Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Catrina Stewart - April 11, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel deported a Palestinian man to Gaza even though he faced almost certain execution there if caught by Hamas, which has charged him with spying for Israel, the man's lawyer said. Details of the case emerged just days after Hamas, the Islamist rulers of Gaza, hanged three Palestinian men, one of whom had been convicted of the identical charge – collaboration with Israel.

»


American Task Force on Palestine - 1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 725, Washington DC 20006 - Telephone: 202-262-0017