Reach Out to Morsy
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Yossi Beilin - (Opinion) July 2, 2012 - 12:00am

Egypt's new president, the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsy, is not a man after my own heart. He represents a movement that seeks to apply religious norms to a secular state -- even as he vows to represent all people, including Coptic Christians and liberals. Clearly, at some point in the near future, he will face the necessary conflicts between liberty and human rights on the one hand and his religious precepts on the other, and we cannot know how he will resolve them.

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Palestinian dispute hits UN global arms treaty talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
July 2, 2012 - 12:00am

Talks on the $70 billion a year global arms trade talks hit deadlock before starting Monday amid a diplomatic battle over Palestinian representation. Arab demands that Palestinians be allowed to take part led to a threat of an Israeli walkout and a block on European Union presence at the conference, diplomats said. Even the Vatican has been drawn into the dispute. "This chaotic start is a tragedy for this event, which is so important," said a minister from a western nation who went to the UN headquarters for the start of the negotiations.

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Hamas leader gets royal welcome from Jordan's king
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff - (Analysis) July 2, 2012 - 12:00am

Last week's visit to Jordan by Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshal, which was under-reported in the Israeli media, reflects the shifting alliances taking place in the Middle East. Meshal received a royal welcome in the palace in Amman, where he dined with King Abdullah.

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Israel Confronts Strangers In Its Midst
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Leonard Fein - (Opinion) July 1, 2012 - 12:00am

What shall be done about the large number of non-citizens that dwell in Israel? This question is no longer merely vexing, it is urgent, inflammatory, sometimes violent, often vulgar. The ger has a long and detailed history in Jewish texts and thought. Its conventional translation is “stranger,” but you don’t have to search hard to find alternatives: sojourner, foreigner, alien.

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Israelis and Jordanians: Ammunition for peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Assaf David - (Opinion) July 1, 2012 - 12:00am

Israeli-Arab relations witnessed a historic event last week. Modest and hidden from the limelight of the media, it touched everyone who attended it, moving some to tears: Israeli and Jordanian war veterans who fought each other 45 years ago visited together their shared combat zones in Jerusalem, honoring each other and paying tribute to their fallen comrades.

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Sporting chance for Palestinian Olympians
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from BBC News
by Lana Asfour, Randa Swift - July 1, 2012 - 12:00am

After struggling to pursue sport for years because of the impact of the conflict with Israel, Palestinians now have a rare chance to celebrate success. Maher Abu Rmelleh, a judoist, is the first ever Palestinian sportsman to qualify on points to participate in the Olympic Games.

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PA envoy: Holocaust was ‘greatest crime in history'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Herb Keinon - July 1, 2012 - 12:00am

Sitting in this city, where the echoes of the Holocaust are everywhere, Palestinian Authority envoy Salah Abdel Shafi told a group of Israeli journalists last week that in his mind “the Holocaust is the biggest crime in human history.” “This was a human tragedy that hit humanity,” said Abdel Shafi, who has headed the PA mission in Germany for the past two years.

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Carter compares conflict to U.S. civil rights movement, not apartheid, says former adviser
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Mordechai Twersky - (Opinion) June 29, 2012 - 12:00am

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter views Israel's treatment of the Palestinians as similar to that of the "African Americans of the 1950s and '60s," a former Carter adviser told Haaretz during a recent trip to Israel. According to Stuart E. Eizenstat, who served as Carter's chief White House domestic policy adviser from 1977 to 1981, Carter "looks at the conflict through the lens of the Civil Rights movement, as a Southerner who witnessed discrimination against African Americans, who he equates with the Palestinians."

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The naivety of Israeli television
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Diana Mukkaled - (Opinion) June 28, 2012 - 12:00am

Those loyal to the Syrian regime will have snapped up the free gift recently given to them by Israeli television. An Israeli channel has aired a short film featuring individuals described as “activists” engaging in a risky venture by entering “hostile” land to provide assistance to Syrian refugees. The film begins with the following words: “al-Assad slaughters the Syrians. While the world remains silent, there are those who do something…the Israelis”.

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Containing the Islamist Revolution
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Foreign Policy
by Ephraim Sneh - (Opinion) June 28, 2012 - 12:00am

When politicians are in election mode, they can see nothing but victory. All decisions, all considerations, are subservient to one question: how they can convince voters to check their name at the ballot box. As someone who ran for office nine times, I know what I am talking about. But for the candidate who wins the election, and for the voters, there is always the day after.

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