No such thing as a free lunch
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
(Editorial) April 27, 2009 - 12:00am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is busy developing his policy proposals before his upcoming White House meeting with United States President Barack Obama. From statements that the Israeli premier has made, it is apparent that he is seeking to bring to a halt the peace process that his predecessors pursued, which aimed at the establishment of a Palestinian state in the territories and reaching a peace agreement with Syria.

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Clinton’s Mideast Pirouette
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - April 26, 2009 - 12:00am

The sparring between the United States and Israel has begun, and that’s a good thing. Israel’s interests are not served by an uncritical American administration. The Jewish state emerged less secure and less loved from Washington’s post-9/11 Israel-can-do-no-wrong policy.

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Hezbollah cell worries Egypt
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Times
by Jumana Al Tamimi - April 23, 2009 - 12:00am

Egypt's arrest of purported Hezbollah operatives marks a dangerous escalation of tension between Iran and the Arab world, analysts say. Egypt's public prosecutor is investigating 49 people it claims planned to carry out "hostile operations" on orders from Hezbollah, the militant Islamist group in Southern Lebanon that bested Israel in a monthlong war in the summer of 2006. The case against the purported Hezbollah cell in Egypt "sums up all the region's issues together," Egyptian analyst Nabeel Sharaf al-Deen told The Washington Times.

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Israel defies US and destroys Palestinian home
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Independent
by Ben Lynfield - April 23, 2009 - 12:00am

Brushing aside international criticism, Israel demolished a Palestinian house in East Jerusalem in the latest in a series of actions that critics say is racheting up tensions in the city, harming chances for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ammar Hudidon, a resident of the Jebel Mukaber neighbourhood and a father of seven children, said a bulldozer flattened his home yesterday after the Jerusalem municipality said he lacked building permits. Palestinians complain that the permits are virtually impossible to obtain.

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Rights Group Challenges Israel's Gaza War Probe
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
April 23, 2009 - 12:00am

Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that the Israeli army's investigation of troop conduct during its war on Gaza appeared to be an attempt to cover up "violations of the laws of war." The army defended its conduct during the massive 22-day offensive against the Hamas rulers of Gaza in December and January, saying five military probes found its forces "operated in accordance with international law." But Joe Stork, a deputy director of Human Rights Watch, said: "The conclusions are an apparent attempt to mask violations of the laws of war by Israeli forces in Gaza."

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China vows strong support for Mideast peace process
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
April 23, 2009 - 12:00am

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Wednesday pledged strong support for an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement based on a two-state solution. China "will pursue its efforts to advance the Middle East peace process and strongly supports a settlement based on two states," he said after talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

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Jordan King: Arabs must do more on Mideast peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
April 23, 2009 - 12:00am

Jordan's King Abdullah II said Wednesday it was time for Arab and Muslim countries to help the United States do "the heavy lifting" needed to forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians. "Too many times in the past, America has been asked to do all the heavy-lifting," the king said as he met with Democratic US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi one day after delivering the same message at the White House.

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Netanyahu's Mideast policy damaging EU ties
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - April 23, 2009 - 12:00am

The foreign policy of the Netanyahu government, which deems unacceptable the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict as an outline for negotiations with the Palestinians, has damaged Israel's relations with the European Union.

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Wiretap reveals reach of US pro-Israel lobby
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Barbara Ferguson - April 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Rep. Jane Harman, the California Democrat with longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on a National Security Agency (NSA) wiretap telling “a suspected Israeli agent” that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington, according to a report released Sunday night in Congressional Quarterly (CQ).

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More Hatred From Mr. Ahmadinejad
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
April 20, 2009 - 12:00am

The fear all along has been that the United Nations conference on racism would be manipulated into yet another forum for demonizing Israel. All too predictably, Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — who has called the Holocaust a myth and has advocated Israel’s destruction — did just that.

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