Israel to World: Don’t Be So Fast to Push Democracy on Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by Arieh O'Sullivan - February 17, 2011 - 1:00am

While touting its own democratic credentials, Israel has been warning the world not to let experiments in democracy spread across the Middle East, lest Islamic fundamentalists are voted in. “We don’t want to stay the only democracy in the Middle East. We would love to live in a neighborhood where all countries are democratic. But is it feasible now?” Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said in an interview with The Media Line.

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Editorial: Israel fears change in Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) February 17, 2011 - 1:00am

Indeed, everything about winds of change sweeping through the Arab world is seen by the Israelis in terms of what will the consequences be for Israel.

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Netanyahu faces international isolation as peace process stalls
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Barak Ravid - February 17, 2011 - 1:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under increasing pressure and international isolation as a result of the breakdown in the peace process. European leaders do not believe he is serious about achieving peace, the Chinese are still furious with him for canceling his trip at the last minute in November, and India has been diplomatically sidestepping his request to visit.

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Crusades redux: Will Jerusalem soon be surrounded by hostile Islamists?
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Walter Rodgers - February 17, 2011 - 1:00am

The other night I found myself dreaming, drifting simultaneously through two parallel worlds, 800 years apart. In the first vision, I was on the ramparts of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in July 1187. News came in from Galilee that the Crusader Armies had been decimated by the overwhelming Muslim forces of the great Sultan Saladin at the Battle of Hattin. Jerusalem, already an island in an angry, surging Muslim sea, was about to be totally engulfed.

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'Jordanian-Israeli ties solid despite inflammatory words'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Media Line
by David Miller - February 17, 2011 - 1:00am

A call by Jordan’s justice minister to free the jailed killer of seven Israeli girls has soured the Hashemite Kingdom’s relations with Israel, but experts said they expect the ties to weather the diplomatic storm. The minister, Hussein Mjali, a well known oppositionist, was appointed to the post just last week and immediately began making inflammatory remarks. On Wednesday he called Israel a “terrorist state” and an “enemy of the kingdom.”

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Jewish Groups Scramble To Adjust to New Mideast Reality
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - February 16, 2011 - 1:00am

The Egyptian revolution has kicked open the door to a vast Arab population that, for the first time, is poised to influence the course of its country’s policies directly. For Israel’s supporters, this could mean a new frontier for public diplomacy and a chance to reach out to Arab masses.

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Israel should join the new reality of world diplomacy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) February 16, 2011 - 1:00am

The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, the demonstrations in Iran and Bahrain and the general feeling of an earthquake rumbling across the Middle East have thus far conferred a sense of deliverance on Israel, as it has managed to escape the spotlight. After all, who wants to deal with the peace process, dismantling settlements, marking the border between Israel and Palestine or defining security arrangements when the entire world is holding its head, uncertain how to act in the face of these budding democracies?

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Palestinians seek global recognition through South America
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Juan Forero, Janine Zacharia - February 16, 2011 - 1:00am

Before a slew of South American countries recently recognized an independent Palestinian state in quick succession, a seasoned Palestinian diplomat had quietly begun lobbying the government of one critical country on the continent: Argentina. Home to the region's largest Jewish community, Argentina posed a special challenge. But Walid Muaqqat, who has the status of Palestinian ambassador here, made sure things ran smoothly when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived for a 2009 tour.

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Rattling the Cage: We must turn Israel inside out
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Larry Derfner - (Opinion) February 16, 2011 - 1:00am

This is an extraordinary time for the Middle East, an unprecedented one, a glorious one – and it’s passing Israel by.

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A wrongheaded prosecution of UC-Irvine student protesters
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
(Editorial) February 15, 2011 - 1:00am

ONE BY ONE the students rose in the auditorium, shouting and drowning out a lecture by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren last year at the University of California at Irvine. "Michael Oren, you are a war criminal!" yelled one student, as a group of others cheered him on. "Michael Oren, propagating murder is not an expression of free speech!" shouted another minutes later.

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