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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Israel Moves to Block Activists From Entering
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - April 15, 2012 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Hundreds of police officers fanned out at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Sunday as Israel moved to block scores of pro-Palestinian campaigners from entering the country.

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Israel dismisses 'flytilla' protest, pointing to human rights abuses in Syria, Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Joshua Mitnick - April 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Tel Aviv Israel denied entry and deported several dozen pro-Palestinian activists who arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Sunday, as fears of a mass confrontation at the country’s main international gateway prompted a deployment of hundreds of police and security personnel.

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Much ado about flytilla
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Jeff Barak - (Opinion) April 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Making predictions in a newspaper column is a risky business, but anyway, here goes. At the time of writing over the weekend, Israel Police and the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) are putting together the final pieces of their plan to block the planned “fly-in” of leftwing activists to Ben-Gurion Airport, from where the activists intend to travel to the West Bank to demonstrate their solidarity with the Palestinians.

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The three myths that distort every discussion of Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Barry Rubin - (Opinion) April 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Whatever side you are, or aren’t, on, and whether you never think about these issues or are an impassioned activist, there are three fundamental issues about Israel, its enemies, and the Middle East that tie the narrative into knots. Each of these ideas, of course, has a strong basis in fact. Yet no matter how counter-intuitive you find the following points questioning the conventional wisdom, they are nonetheless accurate. You can’t understand events without grasping them. 1. Israel’s existence is jeopardized.

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Once Taboo, Germans’ Anti-Israel Whispers Grow Louder
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Nicholas Kulish - April 13, 2012 - 12:00am

BERLIN — To judge by the outpouring of comments from politicians and writers and from the newspaper and magazine articles in response to the Nobel laureate Günter Grass’s poem criticizing Israel’s aggressive posture toward Iran, it would appear that the public had resoundingly rejected his work. But even a quick dip into the comments left by readers on various Web sites reveals quite another reality.

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Abbas Arrives in Japan on First Leg of International Tour
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
April 13, 2012 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Japan on Thursday for the first leg of an international tour. Abbas discussed the latest developments concerning Palestine with several Japanese officials, including Japan's special Middle East peace envoy Yutaka Iimura. Abbas is due to arrive in Sri Lanka on Sunday, before heading to the Maldives for two days on Tuesday.


Israel's poetry critics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
(Editorial) April 10, 2012 - 12:00am

The people in Israel and Germany who are most outraged by Nobel Prize-winning author Gunter Grass' latest work have one thing in common: They think it's ridiculous, and possibly anti-Semitic, for Grass to assert a moral equivalency between Israel and Iran. Yet by overreacting to Grass' criticism, Israeli officials are acting like, well, Iranians.

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Israel has reacted with hysteria over Gunter Grass
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) April 9, 2012 - 12:00am

Author Gunter Grass sees the State of Israel as a threat to world peace. He believes Israel is armed with nuclear weapons, and is threatening Iran as the Islamic Republic looks to obtain a nuclear arsenal. After the poem he published to this effect in the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung last week drew extensive criticism, he asked to distinguish between the state and its government. It's not Israel that worries him, he said, but the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Tribalism and the Zionist BDS Debate
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Harris-Gershon - April 5, 2012 - 12:00am

In January, Andrew Adler, the owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, wrote that Israel should “give the go-ahead for US-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel.” He saw the tactic as a way to resolve divergent opinions between the two countries on how to deal with Iran.

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