ISRAEL: Specter of Meir Kahane continues to haunt politics
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Batsheva Sobelman - November 16, 2009 - 1:00am

Two decades after his party was banned from running for seats in the parliament, Rabbi Meir Kahane and his ideas are once more on its agenda.

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As Netanyahu meets Obama, Israel ex-general offers Hamas talks
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - November 9, 2009 - 1:00am

Shaul Mofaz, a leading opposition politician in Israel whose former posts include both army chief of staff and defense minister, said Sunday he has a plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace – and he's willing to talk to Hamas to secure it. "I will also speak with the devil, if it will bring peace to the state of Israel," Mofaz reiterated Monday during a visit to Sderot, which has often been the target of rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. "And if Hamas is chosen in elections to head the Palestinian Authority ... I am ready to speak with them."

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Hidden in Olmert Indictment Are Charges That He Swindled U.S. Jews
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - September 2, 2009 - 12:00am

Washington — The indictment against former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has riveted Israelis with its allegations that the ex-prime minister took envelopes of cash from supporters for his personal use. But another aspect of the August 30 indictment, one directly relevant to American Jews, has been all but lost amid the fallout: The Israeli leader, prosecutors charge, bilked 17 prominent North American Jewish charities and pro-Israel advocacy groups for his own benefit.

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Poll: More Israelis would prefer Livni as prime minister
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
August 7, 2009 - 12:00am

For the first time since taking office, the public considers Benjamin Netanyahu less suitable to serve as prime minister than opposition leader MK Tzipi Livni, a new Channel 10 poll said Thursday. According to the poll, when asked, "Who would you rather see as the next prime minister?" Tzipi Livni was named most qualified, with 36 percent of respondents. Only 23 percent of those polled said Netanyahu was fit to serve as prime minister.

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Why Lieberman, Israel's anti-Arab leader, could resign
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
by Ilene Prusher - August 4, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday he will resign from his position if he's indicted, a day after Israeli police recommended that he be tried for charges including bribery, money laundering, and obstruction of justice. Mr. Lieberman's legal woes add to the possibility of a shakeup in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government, as the parliament paved the way Monday for members of the opposition Kadima party to split with leader Tzipi Livni and join the government.

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Police Urge Indictment Of Israel's Lieberman
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Linda Gradstein - August 3, 2009 - 12:00am

Israeli police recommended Sunday that the state indict Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on charges of bribery, fraud, money laundering, witness harassment and obstruction of justice. A spokesman for the Justice Ministry said the file now moves to the state prosecutor's office and then to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, who would have to approve the recommendation before Lieberman could be formally indicted. That process could take weeks or even months. If the foreign minister is indicted, he will have to resign, according to Israeli law.

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Lieberman affair / Human error sank Israel's most careful politician
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Gidi Weitz - August 3, 2009 - 12:00am

How did this happen to Avigdor Lieberman, perhaps the most careful man in the history of Israeli politics - to reach the point where the police are recommending that serious charges be brought against him? Human error is to blame. A group of documents that Lieberman forgot at a certain office reached the attorney general and eventually led to the unequivocal police recommendation.

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Israel's war with itself
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Richard Cohen - (Opinion) July 21, 2009 - 12:00am

Afew years ago, while walking through Mea Shearim, the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem, I came across a strange poster. It pictured the Second Temple, the center of the world before the world was smashed in AD 70 by Rome, over a Hebrew phrase that means something like, "Jews! Watch what you say! For The Holy of Holies was destroyed not by Roman soldiers, nor by the Divine will, but by the gossip of the people."

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The Same old Netanyahu
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
July 20, 2009 - 12:00am

In one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s first television appearances as prime minister in the years 1996-1999, he was interviewed at his office by Ehud Yaari and Dan Scemama from Channel 1. Before the broadcast, Netanyahu asked the production staff to tell him which of the two cameras they brought with them provides a frontal view of him. The purpose of his question became clear during the interview: Netanyahu ignored the interviewers and turned directly to the viewers at home. Ever since then, Channel 1 has made sure to refrain from posting such camera in interviews with the PM.

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A disaster for Jews and Israel
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Guardian
by Antony Lerman - (Opinion) July 15, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel's current disastrous policy direction and the responsibility for it shared by American Jewish leaders are exemplified in the recent appointment of Natan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident and western human rights icon, as chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel (Jafi), the quasi-governmental, $640m-a-year body that promotes Zionism and encourages Jewish migration to Israel.

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