Internal Israeli Politics | The American Task Force on Palestine

Letting Israeli expats vote is political manipulation
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Salman Masalha - (Opinion) April 9, 2012 - 12:00am

The Knesset elections are drawing near and associated issues are in the air. It is not only primaries, opinion polls and new parties that have sprung up like mushrooms after the summer social protests. Legislation is also being promoted about who has the right to vote.

Bill to sidestep Israeli high court criticized
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
April 9, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israeli lawmakers are criticizing a bill proposed by the justice minister that would allow parliament to strike down Supreme Court decisions with a narrow majority. It's the latest in a string of legislation by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government that critics say stifle dissent. The new bill, proposed late last week, stipulates that if parliament passes a law which the Supreme Court rejects, parliament members can vote to keep the law and renew it indefinitely.

Balancing power
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
(Editorial) April 9, 2012 - 12:00am

Judging from the reactions of opposition lawmakers one would think that a new legislative initiative called Basic Law: Legislation is downright undemocratic. Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On quipped that Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, the driving force behind the bill, misread the Passover Haggada, and “does not understand the meaning of the Festival of Freedom,” because the bill claims to protect freedoms, but actually violates them and called for “all parties who fear for democracy” to form a united front against the bill.

Israel Bars German Laureate Grass Over Poem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner, Nicholas Kulish - April 8, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM — Israel’s interior minister declared Günter Grass, one of Germany’s best-known authors, unwelcome in Israel on Sunday, barring him from entering the country for a poem that accused Israel of being a threat to world peace.

The important message of Peter Beinart
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Don Futterman - (Opinion) April 6, 2012 - 12:00am

Peter Beinart has been pilloried because of his call in a recent New York Times op-ed and in his newly published book, "The Crisis of Zionism," for a Zionist boycott of West Bank settlements. Beinart, former editor of the New Republic and founder of the new online forum "Open Zion," is tackling the concealed heart of our government's strategy: its campaign to erase any distinction between the occupied territories and Israel. Beinart has staked out a brave position, particularly in today's Zionist landscape.

Iran has saved Bashar Assad (for now)
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Anshel Pfeffer - (Blog) April 6, 2012 - 12:00am

The ongoing debate for and against international intervention in Syria has been rendered obsolete by the mounting evidence that at least one nation has already very much intervened. The details emerging over the last few days can leave little doubt that the active campaign of support by the Iranian regime has ensured that President Bashar Assad will remain the absolute ruler of Syria for the foreseeable future.

Netanyahu in Political Balancing Act
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
by Vita Bekker - April 6, 2012 - 12:00am

TEL AVIV // With early elections likely this year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attempting a political high-wire act. On the one hand, the right-wing premier must show his pro-settler credentials. On the other hand, in the face of widespread illegal Jewish construction in the occupied West Bank, Mr Netanyahu needs to prove at home and abroad that he is committed to law and order. Late on Wednesday, Mr Netanyahu said he would provide the needed approvals to legalise three unauthorised Jewish outposts in the West Bank and save another outpost from a demolition order.

Defying an Image With a Tilt to the Left
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - April 6, 2012 - 12:00am

WHEN Shaul Mofaz took over as head of the opposition in Israel this week — having defeated Tzipi Livni to lead the Kadima Party — it was seen as further evidence of the country’s rightward shift. A former military chief of staff and defense minister, Mr. Mofaz was dismissed by many as a pale shadow of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a hawk who would try to join the governing Likud coalition.

The fallacy of the 'pinkwashing' argument
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by James Kirchick - (Opinion) April 6, 2012 - 12:00am

On March 16, a group of gay Israeli teenagers was set to meet with the Seattle LGBT Commission, a body representing the interests of the gay community before the city government. The students were touring the United States under the auspices of the Alliance of Israeli LGBT Educational Organizations, a network of groups that support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. The purpose of the visit was to exchange ideas about best practices for combating homophobia, share personal experiences and, like any cultural exchange, generally learn from one other.

Israel's Resilient Democracy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Michael B. Oren - (Opinion) April 5, 2012 - 12:00am

At 64, Israel is older than more than half of the democracies in the world. The Jewish state, moreover, belongs to a tiny group of countries -- the United States, Britain, and Canada among them -- never to have suffered intervals of non-democratic governance. Since its inception, Israel has been threatened ceaselessly with destruction. Yet it never once succumbed to the wartime pressures that often crush democracies.

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