Israel's hawks push a war for personal gain
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The National
(Editorial) August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

Bluster on Iran is not just dangerous, it is also deceptive. There is growing evidence that a military strike would fail to achieve its strategic goals. That, however, has done little to deter Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak from their campaign of threats. For these two men, it seems, a regional war is an acceptable risk to promote their own political careers.

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Israel's Iran Itch
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Roger Cohen - (Opinion) August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

Hmm, it’s August, things are quiet, time for another wave of hysteria over an imminent Israeli attack on Iran. We’ve seen this movie for a decade — Israel’s “red line” on the Iranian nuclear program has proved of spandex-like elasticity. (I sometimes imagine the size of the explosion if all the words devoted to the Iranian nuclear program since 2000 were placed in a large container and detonated.)

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Why the world can't tolerate a preemptive Israeli attack on Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by L. Michael Hager - (Opinion) August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

Now that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program are at an impasse, we are once again hearing that Israel, with or without US participation, is about to bomb Iran.

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Self-inflicted information war
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Yoel Marcus - (Opinion) August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

These days, with the country’s leaders straining our nerves, it’s hard not to recall the immortal words of Eli Wallach in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”: “If you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk.”

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No Palestinians involved in Sinai attack
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
August 16, 2012 - 12:00am

Asharq Al-Awsat has learned that security agencies operating in the Gaza Strip are currently in the process of providing their Egyptian counterparts with information highlighting their past experiences in confronting Salafist jihadist groups. This is in order to help Cairo confront the militant groups operating on the Sinai Peninsula following the killing of 16 Egyptian soldiers close to the Rafah Border Crossing.

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What Edward Really Said
In Print by Hussein Ibish - NOW Lebanon (Opinion) - August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Few contemporary thinkers have been more revered and reviled than the late Palestinian-American professor Edward Said. But even his most ardent critics can hardly deny that Said was one of the most significant public intellectuals of our time. And while he is probably best remembered for his political activism, it was as a major literary theorist that he produced his most important work. 

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BDS campaign remains dangerous, despite failures
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
by Kenneth Stern - (Opinion) August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

For more than a decade, anti-Israel activists have sought to shoehorn Israel into the nomenclature of apartheid-era South Africa through the use of a tactic named BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions). Apartheid was a universally decried racist system. BDS activists argue that Israel is the second coming of apartheid South Africa and must be treated the same.

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Canada's United Church affirms settlements boycott
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

Members of the United Church of Canada, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, voted on Wednesday to affirm a controversial motion supporting a boycott of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The boycott has has outraged many Jewish groups, including the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which expressed it's anger by "the decision to single out Israeli communities for boycott."

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Panetta: No Israeli decision yet on attacking Iran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Tuesday that he did not believe that Israel had made a decision on whether to attack Iran over its nuclear program, and added that he thought there was still time for a stronger sanctions push. Panetta’s comments came at a Pentagon briefing against the background of the very loud and public debate in Israel about whether to attack Iran. Panetta held a round of talks in Israel two weeks ago, and met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

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Lebanese Army relocating in Nahr al-Bared
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
August 15, 2012 - 12:00am

The Lebanese Army is relocating in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp to give residents space, and the government has reiterated its commitment to releasing detainees from recent clashes and removing the camps’ restrictive permit system. The head of the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee Khaldoun al-Sharif announced the state-backed steps Monday night at a committee iftar held in the camp, according to a statement from the organization.

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