Palestinian envoy raised alarm about missing asylum boat
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from National Times
by Natalie O'Brien - August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

The federal government has known for weeks that another asylum seeker boat, this one with dozens of Palestinians on board, had disappeared yet it kept silent about the details. The boat carrying 67 passengers, including 28 Palestinians, was last heard from 48 days ago after setting sail from Indonesia.

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Israel blasts EU listing
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from United Press International (UPI)
August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Israel criticized a European Union listing that stated an Israeli city was a settlement and said its products will not be allowed duty-free entrance into Europe. "For anyone who deals in reality, there is not the slightest doubt that the Modi'in, Maccabim and Re'ut localities are an integral part of Israel, and their future is not in question," a Foreign Ministry statement published by The Jerusalem Post said. "The EU ignores reality when it extends the domain of conflict to places and issues that do not belong there. "

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BDS campaign remains dangerous, despite failures
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Kenneth Stern - (Opinion) August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

For more than a decade, anti-Israel activists have sought to shoehorn Israel into the nomenclature of apartheid-era South Africa through the use of a tactic named BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions). Apartheid was a universally decried racist system. BDS activists argue that Israel is the second coming of apartheid South Africa and must be treated the same.

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Canada's United Church affirms settlements boycott
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Members of the United Church of Canada, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, voted on Wednesday to affirm a controversial motion supporting a boycott of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The boycott has has outraged many Jewish groups, including the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which expressed it's anger by "the decision to single out Israeli communities for boycott."

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Israel and Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
(Editorial) August 13, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli leaders are again talking about possible military action against Iran. This is, at best, mischievous and, at worst, irresponsible, especially when diplomacy has time to run.

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Driving Hezbollah Off Social Media
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - August 13, 2012 - 12:00am

A campaign to drive designated terror organizations off social media platforms is proving effective on some fronts in preventing Hezbollah from reaching out to members and supporters through the Web. Several key social media sites, including Facebook, agreed recently to delete accounts and applications belonging to the Lebanon-based group and its TV station, Al-Manar, which have both been designated by the United States as terror groups.

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Plots Are Tied to Shadow War of Israel and Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Nicholas Kulish, Jodi Rudoren - August 9, 2012 - 12:00am

These were just a few of what some Israeli and American intelligence officials say were nearly a dozen plots that form the backbone of a continuing offensive by Iran and Hezbollah against Israel and its allies abroad. But the links seem tenuous at times, the tactics variable, the targets scattered across the globe, from the Caucasus to Southeast Asia to the Mediterranean.

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Imprisoned Palestinian Children Must Be Treated Justly
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Huffington Post
by Gerard Horton - (Opinion) August 9, 2012 - 12:00am

"UK ready to take on Israel over fate of children clapped in irons," read the headline in a leading UK newspaper the morning after the latest report on the treatment of Palestinian children held in military detention was released in London in June. The Foreign Office-funded report -- Children in Military Custody -- was written by a delegation of UK lawyers that included a former Attorney General and a judge of the Court of Appeal, following their visit to Israel and the West Bank last September.

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Israel losing international support, says British ambassador
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Harriet Sherwood - August 3, 2012 - 12:00am

The British ambassador to Israel has said international support for the Jewish state among those in the political mainstream is eroding, driven by settlement expansion in the West Bank and continued restrictions on Gaza. There is "growing concern" in the UK over lack of progress towards peace with the Palestinians, and Israel was now being seen as Goliath against the Palestinians as David, said Matthew Gould, in reference to the biblical story.

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Palestinians brace for repercussions over UN bid
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Associated Press
by Mohammed Daraghmeh - August 2, 2012 - 12:00am

The Palestinians are bracing for possible punitive reactions by the U.S. and Israel if they go ahead with plans to seek U.N. General Assembly recognition of "Palestine" as a non-member observer state, according to an internal document obtained Thursday. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, backed by the Arab League, is ready in principle to take this step, but hasn't decided whether to submit the request when the General Assembly convenes in September or to wait until after the U.S. presidential election in November.

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