Internal Israeli Politics | The American Task Force on Palestine

Israelis Divided Over Changing Anthem
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Jeffay - (Opinion) April 3, 2012 - 12:00am

TEL AVIV — When an Arab Supreme Court justice stood silent instead of singing the national anthem at a public ceremony in late February, it sparked a furor on Israel’s nationalist right. Some lawmakers said that the judge, Salim Joubran, should be dismissed, and Yisrael Beiteinu’s David Rotem went so far as to claim that he “spat in the face of the State of Israel.”

Tzipi Livni’s fall followed a meteoric political rise
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Matthew Wagner - April 3, 2012 - 12:00am

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Tzipi Livni's resounding fall in the leadership vote for Kadima, Israel's largest political party, was as dramatic as her rise to political power.

How Israeli Big Brother became a hotbed of thoughtful debate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Mia de Graaf - April 2, 2012 - 12:00am

In the UK, Big Brother is known for turning fame-hungry contestants – the Nadias, Chantelles and Jade Goodys of this world – into instant celebrities. Though normally no more high-brow, Israel's equivalent has this year achieved a surprising twist, by making a superstar out of "Palestine sympathiser" Saar Szekely.

Mofaz's Kadima win signals end of the land for peace era
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Moshe Arens - (Opinion) April 2, 2012 - 12:00am

Of course Shaul Mofaz won, and Tzipi Livni lost. But there was much more to the Kadima primary race than that. It was the "two-state solution," at the forefront of Israeli political discourse for a number of years, that lost. It was the offer of more concessions to the Palestinians, whose most prominent advocate was former Kadima chairwoman, MK Tzipi Livni, that went down in defeat.

Putting peace before liberalism is crucial
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Alick Isaacs - (Opinion) April 2, 2012 - 12:00am

My interest in peace work began to grow after I returned from the war in Southern Lebanon in the summer of 2006. I was drafted as a military reservist in the IDF and was, at the grand age of 38, one of the older people to participate in the combat.

Real Life, not “Counterlife”
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Bernard Avishai - (Opinion) April 2, 2012 - 12:00am

In 1985, I published a book called The Tragedy of Zionism. It argued that the Zionist movement had been a good, largely secular and cultural revolution that had run its course, that is, with the founding of Israel and the consolidation of the national Hebrew culture; but that the residual institutions and theories of that revolution—rashly kept alive by Israel’s leaders, who feared the fight with the orthodox Jewish parties over a constitution—had grown to be a burden on, even a threat to, Israel’s democratic life.

Peter Beinart Responds
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Tablet Magazine
by Peter Beinart - (Opinion) March 30, 2012 - 12:00am

When someone calls you “an angry ex” and an “angry scold” and says your book is an “act of moral solipsism” written in “a spirit of icy contempt and patent insincerity,” it is tough to know where to begin.

Who Speaks for Israel?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
(Editorial) March 30, 2012 - 12:00am

The back-to-back national policy conferences of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and J Street — the Jewish version of March Madness for Israel advocates — have now concluded. The subtext of these gatherings is a desire to represent American Jewish opinion in the halls of Congress, the inner sanctum of the White House and the broader public square. Are you pro-Israel à la AIPAC? Or in the J Street mold?

Israel's High Court is halting the momentum of the Zionist enterprise
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Israel Harel - (Opinion) March 29, 2012 - 12:00am

Beyond the pale. That was how Justice Miriam Naor described the government's request to postpone the verdict in the case of the Migron outpost, in order to prevent suffering and quarreling between brethren in Israel. But that is not so. [The High Court this week ordered the evacuation of the settlement by August 1.] A court that falls into the trap laid for it by anti-Zionist elements among the Jews, and hostile elements among the Arabs, is the one beyond the pale.

Terrified of Each Other
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Beast
by Joel Braunold - (Opinion) March 29, 2012 - 12:00am

With a new month comes a new poll of Israelis and Palestinians on a variety of issues. All the usual suspects dominate the executive summary: whether Israelis believe in the viability of two states, what they think about an attack Iran or a settlement freeze. The poll tells the story that many of us expect from the populations caught in the depression and pessimism of the present. But the really frightening statistics come in the penultimate questions.

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