Bibi's Blunder
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by David Rothkopf - (Opinion) September 18, 2012 - 12:00am

Starting Sunday evening, we marked the beginning of the Jewish New Year. Numerologists with too much time on their hands noted that the digits of the year 5773 add up to the same numerical value as the word tovah, meaning good. That is supposed to be an omen, I suppose. But ever since Madonna embraced Kabala, I've been dubious about it. I like my omens more concrete and, where possible, drenched in irony.

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Gaza govt: Inquiry cleared Palestinians in Sinai attack
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 17, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- The government in the Gaza Strip has conducted an investigation with Egyptian coordination into the deadly border attack last month, and found no Palestinians were involved, a Palestinian official said on Monday. Neither residents of the Gaza Strip nor other Palestinians played a part in the killing of 16 Egyptian security officials on Aug. 5, spokesman of Gaza's interior ministry, Ehab al-Ghasein, said in a statement.

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Gaza-based poet remembers Sabra and Shatila massacre
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 16, 2012 - 12:00am

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Rihab Kanaan bursts into tears while talking to Ma'an's reporter in Gaza about the trauma she suffered after losing her son and dozens of family members in the notorious Tel al-Zaatar and Sabra and Shatila massacres during Lebanon's civil war. The Gaza-based poet says the Palestinian leadership has forgotten about the Sabra and Shatila massacre in which an estimated 800-3,000 Palestinian civilians were killed by Lebanese Christian militias over a three day period on September 16, 1982.

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Slain US envoy 'understood Palestinian situation'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
by George Hale - September 14, 2012 - 12:00am

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian negotiators on Thursday remembered US ambassador Christopher Stevens as fair-minded and described his death in Libya as a major loss for American foreign policy. Stevens, who was killed with three colleagues late Tuesday in an attack on US institutions in Benghazi, served years earlier as a political officer at the US consulate in Jerusalem.

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EU pledges extra 100 million euros for PA
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 14, 2012 - 12:00am

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- The European Union will double its aid for Palestinian development and the Palestinian Authority to 200 million euros in 2012, the EU executive said on Friday. The development aid will be focused on water, sanitation and support for refugees. A further 100 million euros aid credits unspent last year will be also spent in 2012, the European Commission said in a statement.

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Middle East crisis in spotlight at Toronto film fest
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
by Julie Gordon - September 12, 2012 - 12:00am

TORONTO, Sept 12 (Reuters) - The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has taken a backseat in recent days to the Arab Spring, but at the Toronto International Film Festival an unusually high number of films shine fresh light on the decades-long conflict. Dramas like "The Attack" and "Out in the Dark" explore the human side of the strife, while documentaries such as "State 194" and "The Gatekeepers" offer insight into the politics behind the conflict through interviews with top political and security players.

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PA Official: Israel to confiscate Nablus land for bypass road
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ma'an News Agency
September 11, 2012 - 12:00am

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities will confiscate 800 acres of land west of Nablus to build a bypass road, a PA official said Tuesday. Ghassan Doughlas, who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that Israeli forces handed confiscation orders to several farmers in the villages of Beit Iba, al-Naqura, Zawatta and Ijnisinya on Tuesday.

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Academic boycotts, science and hypocrisy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Steve Caplan - (Opinion) September 11, 2012 - 12:00am

I am a scientist and a citizen of the world. Born in the US, raised in Canada, trained in Israel and back again in the US. Now this is not a particularly unusual story. Even in Israel, as a graduate student, I encountered other graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and principal investigators from around the globe. In my own graduate lab in Israel, there was a Chinese-born woman who trained in the US and had been living and working as a senior investigator in Israel since the mid-1970s. Science is an international affair.

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U.S.-Israel tensions on Iran are boiling over
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Ron Kampeas - (Opinion) September 11, 2012 - 12:00am

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Between the red lines, the deadlines, the diplomacy and the dress downs, the vaunted cooperation between Israel and the United States on whether and when to strike Iran seems to be in a free fall.

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U.N. hits at Israel and Palestinian authorities
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
September 10, 2012 - 12:00am

GENEVA, Sept 10 (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned Israel on Monday that keeping its long-standing blockade of Gaza would only condemn the area's people to lasting poverty and play into the hands of extremists in the Middle East. In a speech to the world body's Human Rights Council, Ban also blamed what he called "indiscriminate rocket fire" into Israel from Hamas-controlled Gaza and serious rights violations there for "the immense human suffering" of its population.

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