US chides Israel over new east Jerusalem project
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
August 10, 2011 - 12:00am

The United States is "deeply concerned" by Israel's plan to build a new housing project in the southeast Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa, the State Department said on Tuesday. The State Department warned that such "unilateral actions" were detrimental to the peace process. Last week, the Jerusalem Zoning Commission approved 930 new housing units in Har Homa. Actual building on the site is at least two years off. Alongside its rare rebuke of a close ally, the State Department said Israelis and Palestinians should settle their differences on Jerusalem through negotiation.

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Israel's Beef With Honduras: Who Stabbed Who?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Honduras Weekly
by Roberto Quesada - (Opinion) August 4, 2011 - 12:00am

Palestine will undoubtedly again be the center of attention at the United Nations' upcoming General Assembly, as in the days when Yasser Arafat would arrive in New York City to make the case for the Palestinian struggle before that international body. Already, you can start to feel a climate of "arm twisting" taking hold, especially against the poorer and weaker member nations.

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Americans for Peace Now: We’ll boycott the anti-boycott law by boycotting settlement products
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ami Eden - (Blog) July 19, 2011 - 12:00am

If the goal of the new Israeli law banning boycotts was actually to prevent boycotts... things aren't exactly going according to plan. The board of Americans for Peace Now has unanimously endorsed a boycott of products made in the settlements. Why? Well, it has nothing to do with the settlements. The group says it's boycotting settlement products in order to protest the anti-boycott law. Here's the statement from APN's president and CEO Debra DeLee:

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Netanyahu does not seek peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
by Patrick Seale - (Opinion) July 15, 2011 - 12:00am

Yigal Amir has good reason for quiet satisfaction. Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin knows that the three shots he fired on the night of November 4, 1995, slammed shut the door on peace and changed the course of Israeli history.

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Maybe It's Time for American Jews to Boycott Netanyahu (UPDATED)
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Atlantic
by Jeffrey Goldberg - (Opinion) July 14, 2011 - 12:00am

This is what the prime minister of the "Middle East's only democracy," Benjamin Netanyahu, said about the free-speech suppression bill that passed in the Knesset earlier this week: He said, unbelievably, that the new law doesn't taint Israeli democracy. "What stains (Israel's) image are those savage and irresponsible attacks on a democracy's attempt to draw a line between what is acceptable and what is not." Yikes.

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A Self-Defeating Boycott Bill
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Atlantic
by Jeffrey Goldberg - (Opinion) July 13, 2011 - 12:00am

Supporters of Israel's settlement movement want to criminalize calls for boycotts, not only of Israel, but of products made in the settlements. The way to fight calls to boycott Israel itself is through argument; the way to fight calls to boycott settlements is to bring about the creation of a Palestinian state, and let the settlers become part of Palestine, or encourage them to come home to Israel proper. About the boycott-Israel movement I have no mixed feelings at all; it is a type of anti-Jewish discrimination campaign (as are these awful flotillas).

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Israel gives go-ahead to museum opposed by Muslims
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Amy Teibel - July 13, 2011 - 12:00am

The Israeli government has approved a Jewish group's plan to build a museum over a centuries-old Muslim graveyard in Jerusalem, an official confirmed Wednesday, in the final go-ahead for a project delayed for years by Muslim opposition. The bitter wrangle over construction of the Museum of Tolerance reflects the explosive potential of religion-based disputes in Jerusalem, where Jews and Muslims often play down the other side's historical ties to the city. The museum, which is meant to promote coexistence, is a project of a U.S.-based Jewish group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

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Testimony ends in Israel case over killed American
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Statesman
by Associated Press - July 10, 2011 - 12:00am

An Israeli court heard its final witness Sunday in a trial surrounding the death of American activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer in the Gaza Strip in 2003. Israel's commanding officer in Gaza at the time, Col. Pinhas Zuaretz, testified Sunday. Corrie, a pro-Palestinian activist from Olympia, Washington, who was 23 at the time, was killed when she stood before the bulldozer on the Gaza-Egypt border. She and other activists believed the military was about to demolish nearby Palestinian homes.

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Israel Scores Rare Victory in Media, Diplomatic War
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by David Rosenberg - July 10, 2011 - 12:00am

Pro-Palestinians activists fail in efforts to break Gaza blockade, reach Ben-Gurion Israel has scored a rare victory over the past several days in its media battle with pro-Palestinian activists, but experts said it was less the result of a savvy media strategy and more a function of a changing Middle East.

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Israel Blocks Air Travelers to Palestinian Conference
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Isabel Kershner - July 8, 2011 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Israel prevented a gathering of foreigners here on Friday by blocking, deterring or deporting hundreds of air travelers who had been invited by Palestinian activists to fly into Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport and then travel to the West Bank for a week of “fellowship and actions.”

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